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Final Phase of Technical Alpha To Come "Sometime" After Sept 29th

Warlords of Draenor - Blackrock Foundry: The Blast Furnace
Today we are taking a look at The Blast Furnace, one of the more interesting bosses in Blackrock Foundry.

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
The Blackrock clan's unique ability to smelt the black ore, a substance so dense that ordinary flame does not even soften it, has always been their most closely-guarded secret. Deep within the Foundry, their furnace contains a primal force as old as Draenor itself, raging within the confines of its prison as it emanates a preternatural heat.

  • Overview - The objective of this encounter is to destroy the Foundry's massive furnace. Players must first disable the Blast Furnace's Heat Regulators, which will release the Heart of the Mountain, a blazing fire Fury that powers the furnace. Primal Elementalists then join the fight and channel beams to control the raging Fury. Once the Primal Elementalists have fallen, the Heart of the Mountain is unleashed and must be dealt with directly.
    • Damage Dealers -
      • Furnace Engineers attach bombs to random targets. Detonate these bombs near a Heat Regulator to damage them.
      • Defeat Slag Elementals near Primal Elementalists to temporarily disrupt their protective shield.
      • Interrupt Firecallers' Cauterize Wounds.
    • Healers -
      • Players in the vicinity of Foreman Feldspar suffer Fire damage as long as they are close to him.
      • Foreman Feldspar targets random players with his Pyroclasm ability.
      • Every time the Heart of the Mountain reaches 100 Energy, he will cast Blast.
      • Slag Elementals pick targets at random to fixate on and attack.
    • Tanks -
      • Position Security Guards so they cannot protect nearby allies with their Defense ability.
      • Slag Elementals fixate on random players, and cannot be taunted.
      • Firecallers will heal their allies for a significant amount.
      • When facing the Heart of the Mountain, take turns tanking in order to manage your stacks of Tempered and Heat.
  • Phase 1 - Sabotage - Players must disable the Heat Regulators located on each side of the Blast Furnace to disable it.
    • The Blast Furnace -
      • Blast - The Blast Furnace periodically unleashes a burst of heat upon the whole room. All players suffer 112,676 Fire damage.
    • Furnace Engineer -
      • Electrocution - The caster fires a bolt of electricity at a random enemy that inflicts 33,802 Nature damage. The electricity will jump to up to 2 other targets within 5 yards of the initial target.
      • Repair - The caster attempts to repair a nearby Heat Regulator for 3% of its maximum health.
      • Bomb - The caster attaches bombs to random enemies. After 15 sec the bombs will detonate.
      • Drop Lit Bombs - The caster drops their sack of bombs. The force of dropping to the ground causes them all to arm; they will explode shortly after being picked up. If all the bombs are taken out of the sack, the sack will dissappear. Otherwise the sack will explode after 15 sec.
    • Bellows Operator -
      • Loading - Periodically increases the heat level of the Blast Furnace by 2.
      • Get in the Fight! - In Mythic Difficulty, the Bellows Operators will stop operating the bellows of the furnace and engage players in melee combat after reaching 50% health remaining.
    • Security Guard -
      • Defense - The caster provides protection for their nearby allies, preventing nearly all damage.
      • Slay Elemental - The caster strikes the target, disabling any protection their elemental nature would normally provide and causing the target to take an additional 50% more damage for 20 sec.
        Only works on Slag Elementals.
    • Foreman Feldspar -
      • Pyroclasm - The caster hurls a massive glob of pyroclastic sludge at a random target for 70,422 Fire damage.
      • Rupture - The ground beneath the target's feet rips open, revealing pyroclastic flows that inflict 56,338 Fire damage to all players in the vicinity every second.
      • Hot Blooded - Foreman Feldspar's very presence burns his enemies with Fire damage.
      • Melt Armor - The caster lashes forward with their molten gauntlets, inflicting 43,000 Fire damage and melting the victim's armor.
        Further instances of this attack received within 30 sec inflict 30% more damage.
  • Phase 2 - The Heart Exposed - The Heart of the Mountain escapes from the Blast Furnace! Primal Elementalists join the fight in an effort to keep the Heart of the Mountain from destroying everything.
    • The Blast Furnace -
      • Blast - The Blast Furnace periodically unleashes a burst of heat upon the whole room. All players suffer 112,676 Fire damage.
      • Slag Pool - The Slag Pool continues to heat up the Heart of the Mountain as long as it remains in the area.
      • Cooling Down - When the Heart of the Mountain exits the Blast Furnace it loses heat.
    • Primal Elementalist -
      • Damage Shield - The caster raises a shield of elemental forces, making them immune to all damage.
        • Shields Down - Primal Elementalists are vulnerable to damage when their Damage Shield has been removed.
      • Reactive Earth Shield - The Reactive Earth Shield will heal the target after 8 sec.
    • Firecaller -
      • Cauterize Wounds - The caster seals the target's wounds with flames, cauterizing them and healing the target for 20% of their maximum health.

        Players healed in this way are healed for 1/10th this value.
      • Lava Burst - The caster hurls a massive glob of lava at a random target for 77,466 Fire damage.
      • Volatile Fire - Afflicts random enemies with a seed of Volatile Fire that will explode after 8 sec. When the seed explodes, it inflicts 71,450 Fire damage to all enemies within 8 yards of the explosion.
      • Erupt - The caster causes lava underneath the target Slag Elemental to rise up out of the ground, heating them up. The Slag Elemental is energized to full.
    • Slag Elemental - Slag Elementals will go Dormant and remove the Damage Shield of any nearby Primal Elementalist when they are reduced to 1 hitpoint. While Dormant, the Fury's Blasts will restore 25 Energy. When the Slag Elemental reaches 100 Energy they will revive.
      • Burn - The caster inflicts 42,254 Fire damage to their current target.
      • Fixate - Slag Elementals fixate on a random target, focusing their spells on the victim.
      • Slag Bomb - Upon reaching zero health remaining, the Slag Elemental explodes for 100,000 Fire damage to all enemies within 8 yards and goes Dormant.
      • Hardened Slag - Hardened Slag is impervious to nearly all damage.
    • Security Guard -
      • Defense - The caster provides protection for their nearby allies, preventing nearly all damage.
      • Slay Elemental - The caster strikes the target, disabling any protection their elemental nature would normally provide and causing the target to take an additional 50% more damage for 20 sec.
        Only works on Slag Elementals.
  • Phase 3 - Freedom! - With all of the Primal Elementalists defeated, the Heart of the Mountain attacks everything in site.
    • Heart of the Mountain -
      • Blast - The Blast Furnace periodically unleashes a burst of heat upon the whole room. All players suffer 112,676 Fire damage.
      • Tempered - Exposure to Heat from the Heart of the Mountain's attacks gradually increases damage taken from Heat. Tempered will only increase its efficacy when exposed to greater Heat levels than your current Tempered level and any time Heat is initially applied to you.
      • Heat - Heats up the victim's arms and armor. This heat inflicts 28,169 Fire damage every second for each application and is increased by the victim's Tempered level.
      • Melt - The caster heats the floor under a random enemy. Players entering the affected area suffer 70,422 Fire damage every second.



Brewfest 2014
Brewfest is upon us once again, and Icy-Veins has an in depth guide to all things Brewfest. This year the event runs from September 20 to October 6. This year offers the same items as last year, such as the Pandaren Brewpack and item level 470 epic trinkets.

If you are still leveling alts, don't forget to grab the Brewfest Enthusiast buff at 6:15 AM and 6:15 PM server time outside of Ironforge and Orgrimmar at the Tapping of the Keg ceremony.


Level Type Spec Slot Name
470TrinketTrinket Bubbliest Brightbrew Charm
470TrinketTrinket Bitterest Balebrew Charm
470TrinketSpell DPSTrinket Mithril Wristwatch
470TrinketPhysical DPSTrinket Coren's Cold Chromium Coaster
470TrinketTankTrinket Brawler's Statue
470TrinketHealerTrinket Thousand-Year Pickled Egg

Brewfest Prize Token Rewards

Level Type Slot Name Cost
20Companion Pets Wolpertinger's Tankard200 ×
20Companion Pets Pint-Sized Pink Pachyderm100 ×
20Holiday Preserved Brewfest Hops20 ×
1Quest "Brew of the Month" Club Membership Form200 ×
10HeadHead Belbi's Eyesight Enhancing Romance Goggles100 ×
10HeadHead Blix's Eyesight Enhancing Romance Goggles100 ×
1HeadHead Brown Brewfest Hat50 ×
1HeadHead Green Brewfest Hat50 ×
1HeadHead Blue Brewfest Hat50 ×
1HeadHead Purple Brewfest Hat50 ×
1ChestChest Brewfest Regalia200 ×
1ChestChest Brewfest Dress200 ×
1FeetFeet Brewfest Boots100 ×
1FeetFeet Brewfest Slippers100 ×
1Consumable Pandaren Brewpack100 ×
1Consumable Brewfest Pony Keg100 ×
1Consumable Brewfest Keg Pony200 ×
20Consumable Fresh Brewfest Hops2 ×
20Consumable Fresh Goblin Brewfest Hops5 ×
1Consumable Brewhelm2 ×

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
CASC Patching
Ah, file bloat. In live, major patches tend to take the time to resort and scan the files to get rid of old and useless ones, which the beta doesn't.
There's some truth to this. For example, the user who simply patches from 6.0 to 6.1 (on 6.1 patch day) would have a different amount of data than the user who participated in the 6.1 PTR and received a dozen or more builds.

CASC is still a relatively new system, and the battle.net team will continue to work on it past WoD launch. I know file cleanup is something on their plate, but I don't have an ETA on that kind of tech.

Deleting your Data Folder in your manner is an interesting test case, I'll pass along your findings to our Battle.net team. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Challenge Modes and Tertiary Stats
Tertiary stats as well as gems will be disabled inside Draenor Challenge Modes. Not all of that is currently functional, but it will be soon.

If there are other questions or a desire to discuss the nature or purpose of Challenge Modes as a system, please start a new thread and we can read it and chime in where possible. I'd love to keep this thread focused on dungeon-specific feedback and firsthand accounts of Challenge runs on beta. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Classes
Druid (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Missing the 2 Rage on Dodge for Primal Fury (Guardian)
Yes, we dropped it to 0; no more Rage from dodging. (Celestalon)
Ok. I imagine this is only the first in a suite of Rage changes.
No, no other changes currently planned. (Celestalon)

Priest (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Hopefully some more Disc changes in upcoming builds, still the worst healer by far even with Silence. Thoughts on talent changes?
I don't foresee any talent changes at this point. I do believe their healing received a recent buff. (holinka)

Shaman (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Not sure if bug or an intended change. did High Tide go through any changes recently besides the nerf to 2 extra targets?
I believe we refined the target selection a bit. It'll add targets to the CH that are within 30yd of the primary target, ... (Celestalon)
...and have Riptide, up until there are a total of 6 targets hit. (Celestalon)

Character / Items
Void storage is useless if you can't store items that been marked unique like some weapons, Armor, etc are in it.
Why's that? What things do you want to store multiple of? Why? (Muffinus)

PvE
is the ordos restriction removed?
Yes, you will not need the cloak to fight Ordos in 6.0. (Muffinus)
So how are people without the cloak going to get up to him? The same weird workarounds they have always been able to do?
Everyone gets the windy jump across the bridge! The Celestials are listening! (Muffinus)

PvP
All the PvP gear on vendors that doesn't have set bonuses attached--is that intended/way for people to spend points for alt stats?
yes (holinka)

Why is it that marks disappear from my team members when we do Arena? Sometimes they just.. disappear. Oo Can we get that fixed?
Some spells remove them, like mirror image. We are working on that. (holinka)

intended for BG strongbox to drop lvl 100 gear(620 Ilvl) to lvl 90 players?
No it isn't. (holinka)

you guys have the intention of increasing the size of Ashran in future builds? There are some bigger spaces above the back area
Yes we hope to keep expanding on it. (holinka)

Lore
Then there's not much to be said here. It's mainly another orc expansion. Even as a Hordie, this is getting less original.
How do you define an "orc expansion." Is it the main antagonist? The guys on the box? The final boss? Mobs you fight most? (_DonAdams)
Orcs push the driving action of the story. Other characters are largely passive and react to the orcs.
Is it possible it's just the juxtaposition of SoO with an orc-heavy expac leading to this feeling? (_DonAdams)
Possible, yes. Though I'd argue if you play Alliance, orcs have been the central antagonist since Cataclysm.
How so? Cata was Deathwing, the elemental lords, and the Twilight's Hammer. MoP was mogu, mantid and sha. (_DonAdams)
Certainly Thrall and Garrosh played big roles, we've been building up Garrosh for awhile now. But orc-centric? (_DonAdams)
Ultimately we arrived at having to solve a big crisis, but it was largely caused by our own actions. (_DonAdams)
Cataclysm largely feeling like I was a glorified janitor cleaning up messes so Thrall could steal the glory.
Yeah, there's a reason you almost never see Thrall in MoP. He had too big of a presence in Cata. (_DonAdams)

This also kind of presents a point: surely there's room for situations where the protagonists are driving the action.
This is a good point. I think that was the beginning of MoP - both factions rushing to explore a new land. (_DonAdams)
5.4 felt kind of underwhelming. I don't have a polite way to phrase how I felt about 5.3.
Sorry you didn't like it - was it primarily the content (Barrens) or the story that threw you? Working w/ Vol'jin? (_DonAdams)
I would have preferred it if Jaina or Moira had filled the same role for the Alliance.
For what it's worth, there are WAY more faction-specific quests in WoD. Spires is mostly neutral, but it's unique. (_DonAdams)
Heading out for the weekend, but thank you for the chat! I want the Alliance to feel invested and badass. (_DonAdams)

Rilak and Kirrik from BC are in the Order of the Awakened. So did the Order turn into the Shattrath arakkoa exiles?
Order of the Awakened did not exist in the BC timeline. It's a product of your actions in Spires of Arak. (_DonAdams)

EU Connected Realms Update - 18/09
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
The following realms are due to be connected on 24 September:

English Realms
  • (PvE) Alonsus and Kul Tiras

French Realms
  • (PvE) Chants éternels and Vol'jin
  • (PvP) Kael'Thas and Arak-arahm, Throk'Feroth, Rashgarroth

The following realms are due to be connected after the realms above:

English Realms
  • (PvE) Anachronos and Alonsus, Kul Tiras
  • (PvE) Emerald Dream and Terenas
  • (PvP) Twilight's Hammer and Agamaggan, Bloodscalp, Crushridge, Emeriss, Hakkar
  • (PvP) Al'Akir and Skullcrusher, Xavius

We do not have a date for the following realm connections, but will update this post when we do:

English Realms
  • (RP) Steamwheedle Cartel and Moonglade, The Sha'tar
  • (PvE) Eonar and Vek'nilash, Blade's Edge

German Realms
  • (RP PvP) Das Konsortium and Das Syndikat, Die Arguswacht, Die Todeskrallen, Der abyssische Rat, Kult der Verdammten

Plans for these connections may change at any time. We’ll provide additional updates for future connections here as soon as we can.

Final Phase of Heroes of the Storm Technical Alpha
The Heroes shop is closing on September 22, with all heroes being free to play after that. The next week Heroes will be shutdown for over a week to wipe all data and move to using the live servers. This will split players by region and connect your live Battle.Net friends lists.



Blizzard Art Update
Blizzard has added more pieces to the World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor Art gallery.

This article was originally published in forum thread: The Blast Furance, Brewfest 2014, Blue Posts, Blue Tweets, Heroes Alpha, Blizzard Art started by chaud View original post
Comments 33 Comments
  1. sarow's Avatar
    So no stein this year again?
  1. Alvarie's Avatar
    Here at Blizzard, we love doing annual holiday events... but only updating them every 4 years.

    We CARE about our customers.
  1. Revak's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Alvarie View Post
    Here at Blizzard, we love doing annual holiday events... but only updating them every 4 years.

    We CARE about our customers.
    Exactly what I was thinking

    Unless you need the mount it is pointless to go after the brewfest boss. A waste of time. Which also means longer waits for people who do want to go. Why not make the trinkets 496 at the very least so they are worthwhile for new 90's?!!!
  1. Glaziola's Avatar
    Dat orc art is awesome!
  1. Narshe's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Revak View Post
    Exactly what I was thinking

    Unless you need the mount it is pointless to go after the brewfest boss. A waste of time. Which also means longer waits for people who do want to go. Why not make the trinkets 496 at the very least so they are worthwhile for new 90's?!!!

    Not sure why the trinkets need to be updated when we get a new expansion in a couple months. Why bother farming them when 496 will be irrelevant very soon?
  1. jsz's Avatar
    That fight looks like a mash-up between Spine of Deathwing and Spoils of Pandaria.

    Brilliant.

    /s
  1. Revak's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Narshe View Post
    Not sure why the trinkets need to be updated when we get a new expansion in a couple months. Why bother farming them when 496 will be irrelevant very soon?
    For something to do since it's been 12+ months of no new content in this game now. Why not update them and let people dig in on some alts for a few months.
  1. SniperCT's Avatar
    .. I need that orc's armor from that artwork on my rogue. I need it like burning.
  1. snakeeyesma81's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Revak View Post
    Exactly what I was thinking

    Unless you need the mount it is pointless to go after the brewfest boss. A waste of time. Which also means longer waits for people who do want to go. Why not make the trinkets 496 at the very least so they are worthwhile for new 90's?!!!

    470 IS worthwhile for a fresh 90, and especially since they are so easy to farm. Not saying i wouldn't have liked to see 496 though...help get people trying to get into lfr.
  1. Austilias's Avatar
    I don't know how they can claim with a straight face that WoD isn't Orc-centric.
  1. LanceDH's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Alenarien View Post
    I don't know how they can claim with a straight face that WoD isn't Orc-centric.
    Because they can see an entire expansion ahead of time while we can't ?
  1. Somarlane's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Revak View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Alvarie View Post
    Here at Blizzard, we love doing annual holiday events... but only updating them every 4 years.

    We CARE about our customers.
    Exactly what I was thinking :)

    Unless you need the mount it is pointless to go after the brewfest boss. A waste of time. Which also means longer waits for people who do want to go. Why not make the trinkets 496 at the very least so they are worthwhile for new 90's?!!!
    There's a tweet from today about that, actually. :D

    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    There is no excuse not to bump ilevel of holiday drops each year. Super minor change and you know it. Just saying.
    These items use new auto-level-update tech, @olandgren can probably provide more info than I can :) (Muffinus)
    In 6.0 we can balance power items from holidays to be appropriate without a patch. Wish granted! (olandgren)
  1. Easo's Avatar
    Nice orc art...
    But Blizzard, WTF is with Brewfest???
  1. Turaska's Avatar
    Furnace boss looks quite fun, bet its insane on heroic, especially with so many mechanics that can flip the fight on its head if adds aren't managed properly.
  1. Shardik's Avatar
    "Void storage is useless if you can't store items that been marked unique like some weapons, Armor, etc are in it."
    "Why's that? What things do you want to store multiple of? Why? "

    Blue poster missed the point on that one. Void storage isn't terribly useful when dozens of items are unique and can't be shoved in there. My bank is still half full because some items are pointlessly unique.
  1. SniperCT's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Shardik View Post
    "Void storage is useless if you can't store items that been marked unique like some weapons, Armor, etc are in it."
    "Why's that? What things do you want to store multiple of? Why? "

    Blue poster missed the point on that one. Void storage isn't terribly useful when dozens of items are unique and can't be shoved in there. My bank is still half full because some items are pointlessly unique.
    I have a lot of older items I can't put in there. They're not needed anymore but they can't be acquired (Thief's Certificate and Thieves Tools for rogues, some other stuff). I'd love to safely store them but they're labeled unique.
  1. dustdog's Avatar
    don't know what people are talking about, the orc art is awful
  1. Silvertaurus's Avatar
    2D Character Art stopped beeing relevant to WoW around Wrath of the Lich King .. since then there is single, plain set of chest/pants armors simply textured in different patterns. Only things that change now are shoulders and helm (maybe belt).
  1. mmocecbefcd692's Avatar
    I agree with the trend in comments here, "Update World Events Blizzz WTF". But I disagree that there's nothing to do, I have all the mounts, pets and achievements but have decided to do dailies and collect coins for the fun items that are possible additions for the future toy box :P Think about those, if you don't have them go do the Brewfest stuff and get them for your toy box ... my point is : always look for the bright side of things
  1. thunderdragon2's Avatar
    i remember reading a blue post saying that you could leave the bre of the month club and receive an angry letter any1 know how i can do this as i cant find any info anywhere?

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