Class Trials, Legion Profession Q&A, Brawler's Guild Hiatus, Blue Posts, BlizzCon

[chaud]

One-Button Authenticator, Headcrab & Crowbar Transmogs, Crusader vs Demon Fanart

Asia-Pacific Spring Championships 2016 - Decklists, Meta Breakdown, Information

Gul'dan Confirmed & Model Info

Dev Update: Jeff Kaplan Talks Competitive Play

Character Boost and Class Trials
Legion adds a Class Trial system that allows you to test out a character before deciding if you want to use a character boost on it. You can play through a short intro, the Broken Shore, and Artifact intro quest.

Character Boost and Class Trials Available for Testing

With the latest beta build, we’ve enabled the level 100 Boost and Class Trials experiences for Legion.

• Boosting a character to level 100 will place you into a short starting experience before you join in the Broken Shore experience.
• Class Trials will allow players to try various characters at level 100 as a part of a limited tutorial experience within the Broken Shore and allows players to play beyond the tutorial portion to experience the class through to acquiring their Artifact weapon. The short tutorial experience will focus on teaching many of the class’ core abilities. Players can apply a boost token at any time to keep the character they used during the Class Trial.

For both the Boost experience and Class Trials, players will start with a pre-defined specialization that can be changed at a later point in time. Please note that due to the Demon Hunter not being eligible for Boosting, it will not have a Class Trial associated with it.

For the beta test, we’ve adjusted the class trial restrictions so that players can use these characters for an extended duration.

Patch 6.2.4 Hotfixes - June 17

Bug Fix

• Fixed an issue that could prevent players from opening Titanium Lockbox or have no loot when opened.

Legion Profession Q&A - Submit Your Questions

As announced, we are continuing our weekly series of Live Developer Q&As, which will take place every Thursday at 11 a.m. PT. You can to tune in live at Twitch.tv/Warcraft.

You can submit your questions via Twitter using the hashtag #LegionQA, or simply by replying to this forum thread. For this next session, we'll be talking with Senior Game Designer Paul Kubit regarding Professions in Legion!

We will only be considering questions related to the topic of Professions, and only questions submitted following this week's Q&A. As a reminder, we would like to keep the questions short so we can make sure we get to as many questions as possible, so please keep your questions to 40 words or less.

BlizzCon 2016 Contests Now Open!

The time has come to exhibit your masterful movies, astonishing art, carefully crafted costumes, and terrific talents for a chance at BlizzCon 2016 glory! Head over to our Event Info page to submit your entry and learn more about the epic prizes up for grabs this year.

Don’t delay! The deadline to submit your entry for each contest is August 1, 2016.

Any questions should be directed to BlizzConContest@Blizzard.com.

Good luck!

Warcraft Movie - China Box Office Update
Ticket sales for the Warcraft Movie continue to slow in China.

Brawler's Guild: Last Chance to Rumble...For Now
Don't forget that the Brawler's Guild is going away in the Legion pre-expansion patch!

With the patch coming to World of Warcraft before Legion, the organizers of the Brawler’s Guild will be temporarily closing their doors and going on a much-needed vacation. This means that you only have a few more weeks to experience strutting into the ring and standing alone against some of the greatest challenges ever faced by the champions of Azeroth. This is your time submit your fight card and show the crowd what you’re made of. Plan out your best strategies. You’re going to need them.

Beta Character Copy - Updated 6/17

Character Copy is currently enabled on the Beta realms. Once you login to the Beta realms, click the Copy Character button located under the "Template Character" button.

The characters from your retail account should show up here; selecting one of them and clicking "Copy" will copy over a version of that character to the Beta Environment. If your Character List doesn't copy, make sure you have the proper region select and click "Copy Account Data". Since this system requires gathering data from your live characters, it's possible that characters might not display if they have not been accessed for some time.

Over the course of testing it may be necessary to disable Character Copy with little to no warning; we'll try to provide updates but please be aware the system will not always be online.

Character Copy is currently not working on Beta Leveling Realm 03; cause is unknown at this point in time.

Blue Posts

Blood of Sargeras
You will also see Blood of Sargeras from Disenchanting Rare and Epic items in a future beta build, as well as an increase in the cadence and quantity of Blood of Sargeras from Crafting World Quests in the Broken Isles. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

PvP Stat Templates
I've mostly been testing warrior/rogue/DK, and when compared to out in the world, I lose nearly half my health when joining a BG but hit just as hard. Armor seems silly low. Sitting in Org, my warrior has 2361 armor, but only 590 in BGs. In my last BG, a lock said they only have like 450 armor.

If stamina was doubled in the templates, and armor raised at least 3x, melee might not be so ridiculous. EG, if those 150k+ mortal strikes were brought down to 110k via more armor, and health pools were closer to 500k (as on live) than the current 220-250k health we see on PTR, it might not be so bad.
This is helpful, thank you. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
Frost Mage -- Legion Beta Feedback
Thanks for all the feedback on Frozen Orb. There are some pretty significant changes coming next build that should address this (edit: as those of you watching the Q&A stream with Watcher are hearing about just this moment, as it turns out). In particular, Frozen Orb will return to the role that it had in Warlords: a 60-second cooldown that you use for AoE or for a burst of Fingers procs, not a spell prompted by a rotational proc. We are adding a new single-target spell to fill the rotational role of interacting with the Brain Freeze proc.

Note that the wording of Ice Floes was recently changed to specify "cast time less than 10 seconds", to clarify that it's not intended to work with Ray of Frost. The gameplay of Ray of Frost is that it's a ramping damage burst that rewards you for anticipating when you can remain still for 10 seconds (or at least, 8 or 9 out of the next 10 seconds).

This is nice to hear as far as concerns about Brain Freeze go, but I'm still worried all of the current issues with Orb are going to maintain just now we'll only have to deal with them once a minute. Will patiently wait to get to play with the build before complaining or anything, but I hope the actual core issues with Orb are going to be addressed in addition to this change.

We will also be bringing Frozen Orb's Fingers of Frost chance up, and making it no longer speed back up after the first time it slows down. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

The European 2016 Road to BlizzCon

The 2016 World of Warcraft Arena World Championship is about to kick off—and for teams across Europe, the battle begins in just a few weeks.

This year, we’re pleased to announce that we’re partnering with StarLadder to produce the European 2016 Road to BlizzCon, including all three qualifier cups.

European Online Qualifiers & Sign-ups
The battle begins with three online qualifier cups, starting in end of June, each with their own $6,000 USD prize pool. You’ll be able to catch them all live on Twitch.tv/Warcraft and YouTube.com/WorldofWarcraft beginning with the Round of 8, with the following schedule:

• Cup 1: July 3
• Cup 2: July 10
• Cup 3: July 17

Sign-ups are open under: English and Russian. If you’re interested in competing, head over to the official StarLadder website and make sure to read the FAQ.

Note to competitors: games played prior to the Round of 8 will be played in the days leading up to the broadcast.

European Regionals
The top two teams from the first two qualifier cup, and 4 from the third qualifier cup, will move on to the European Regionals. This year’s Regionals will be held at the Cyber Arena in Kiev, Ukraine on September 30 to October 2. Once again, our eight competitors will be fighting for their share of a $100,000 USD prize pool and one of three coveted spots in the Arena World Championship finals at BlizzCon 2016.

Rules
The complete official rules are available here.

We can’t wait to see what path this year’s Road to BlizzCon takes, and hope you’ll join us when the qualifiers begin!

Blizzcon Party - Con Before the Storm
The Kickstarter for the Blizzcon party run by AskMrRobot and friends is almost over! Last year over 4,000 people stopped by to take a look at the art, enjoy some drinks, and meet other Blizzard fans.

Overwatch Passes League of Legends in Korean PC Bangs
Overwatch is now more popular than League of Legends in Korean PC Bangs!

Final Boss - Beast Mastery Hunter Spec Preview
Final Boss is back with a second round of spec previews.

[risingforce]

Congratulations to Overwatch, that is a pretty impressive feat of strength right there!

[Deleted]

And on Twitch it doesnt even have half the viewers of Hearthstone.

[Kellt]

The class trial is an awesome feature! Also congratulations Blizzard on the WC movie and Overwatch success.

[amythist]

And on Twitch it doesnt even have half the viewers of Hearthstone.

because it's harder to backseat game in Overwatch, which seems to be about 90% of what happens in hearthstone chats

[Super Kami Dende]

And on Twitch it doesnt even have half the viewers of Hearthstone.

Maybe people are playing it instead of watching it.

Implying twitch views amount to anything.

[Rude Hero]

the class trials look like they're going to be a headache in terms of voice acting

the mage one has the guy explaining exactly how frost orb affects your rotation, but this is about to be changed in a micro patch. seems like it'd be annoying to re-record it every time...

[Cheerbleeder]

What ever they just did to Brawler's Guild, please do to Pets and Pet Battles. One day you log in and they all ran away......

(and that ladies and gentleman is a path towards making this game great again)

ps: delete Strand of the Ancients and Isle of Conquest

[Soeroah]

Wonder if you can do the Class Trials without boosting? While it sounds very annoying with how often spells change, it sounds quite useful to teach players how to play when things change, particularly as much as Legion. A level 100 boosted DK will get a tutorial while a current DK logging in in Legion has to work it out alone =P

What ever they just did to Brawler's Guild, please do to Pets and Pet Battles. One day you log in and they all ran away......

(and that ladies and gentleman is a path towards making this game great again)

ps: delete Strand of the Ancients and Isle of Conquest

Hell, just get rid of PvP as a whole, then we can focus on the good stuff.

[Sycharis]

Wonder if you can do the Class Trials without boosting? While it sounds very annoying with how often spells change, it sounds quite useful to teach players how to play when things change, particularly as much as Legion. A level 100 boosted DK will get a tutorial while a current DK logging in in Legion has to work it out alone =P



Hell, just get rid of PvP as a whole, then we can focus on the good stuff.

PVP is the good stuff. Well, it's part of the good stuff.
I actually fell in love with PVP after getting Ashkandi on my warrior and being dragged into battlegrounds by my raiding friends. There's nothing quite like chasing down people and pummeling them into oblivion, especially when it's on even footing and you eke out a victory against the same class in a 1v1 fight.

I wish I had a Legion beta invite, the PVP changes and honor leveling system look really amazing to me.

[Soeroah]

PVP is the good stuff. Well, it's part of the good stuff.
I actually fell in love with PVP after getting Ashkandi on my warrior and being dragged into battlegrounds by my raiding friends. There's nothing quite like chasing down people and pummeling them into oblivion, especially when it's on even footing and you eke out a victory against the same class in a 1v1 fight.

I wish I had a Legion beta invite, the PVP changes and honor leveling system look really amazing to me.

I wasn't being serious, I was highlighting the stupidity of calling for the removal of an entire gameplay feature that doesn't affect you just because you don't like it.

[IntellectuallyChallenged]

PVP is the good stuff. Well, it's part of the good stuff.
I actually fell in love with PVP after getting Ashkandi on my warrior and being dragged into battlegrounds by my raiding friends. There's nothing quite like chasing down people and pummeling them into oblivion, especially when it's on even footing and you eke out a victory against the same class in a 1v1 fight.

I wish I had a Legion beta invite, the PVP changes and honor leveling system look really amazing to me.

There's nothing like being a discipline priest dragging 5 alliance all over your back while you carry their flag the length of the field to cap it. 3 times. Oh wait, that was BC. There's nothing like being an unkillable tree waving branches everywhere while someone tries to pummel you into oblivion just to pop those cooldowns to full health as I /lol at the poor soul that just started smashing their face into their keyboard. Oh wait, that was WotLK. There's nothing like a game that was never intended to have PvP to begin with, but shoehorned it in making it so there will never be any actual balance without screwing up the rest of the game.

There are way better games out there for PvP. Hell, MTG is better for PvP than WoW will ever be.

[nuMbxx]

Profession Question:

In Vanilla and TBC there were very powerful and useful profession crafting patterns/designs/weapons throughout the expansion. It seems like anymore professions are merely used as an inroductory way to get into raiding and then trails off to meaningless as the expansion goes on. Is there plans to add super hard to attain and super powerful crafting patterns like, say Arcanite reaper in Vanilla or Stormherald in TBC? Those weapons were hard to attain and powerful, felt good to use them. Maybe we could craft a legendary but it would be difficult but rewarding?

[Shudder]

Brawler's guild shutting down. Proving grounds are abandoned when they said they'd fix it and make it better. Challenge modes are gone. As we all know, WoW needs less content not more. Blizzard is right to be removing things.

[Bathory]

Brawler's guild shutting down. Proving grounds are abandoned when they said they'd fix it and make it better. Challenge modes are gone. As we all know, WoW needs less content not more. Blizzard is right to be removing things.

You act like the pre-expansion patch is new or something

[Laylriana]

I absolutely hate what they have done to beast mastery hunters. I played in the PTR the other day and it was awful. I think they got so enamored with Survival hunter that they put all their creative energy into that spec and so looks like my hunter will not be played in this expansion because I do not want to be a Survival hunter and play melee; nor do I want to have around 3 attacks and then wait for focus regen.

[Shudder]

I absolutely hate what they have done to beast mastery hunters. I played in the PTR the other day and it was awful. I think they got so enamored with Survival hunter that they put all their creative energy into that spec and so looks like my hunter will not be played in this expansion because I do not want to be a Survival hunter and play melee; nor do I want to have around 3 attacks and then wait for focus regen.

I wouldn't be surprised that after all this pruning Blizz will announce the global cooldown will now be 3 seconds. Shortly after that consoles will be announced. Shortly after that playing the game on facebook will be announced.

[Sylreick]

the class trials look like they're going to be a headache in terms of voice acting

the mage one has the guy explaining exactly how frost orb affects your rotation, but this is about to be changed in a micro patch. seems like it'd be annoying to re-record it every time...

Yeah, and just think, by next expansion they'll likely have to be redone with all the class changes to come or else they scrap the system altogether making it only relevant for Legion.

They could have just gone with speech bubbles and no audio. Probably cheaper and just as effective.

[ttak82]

Congratulations to Overwatch, that is a pretty impressive feat of strength right there!

Agreed. It's impressive both as OW is a new game and that its a different genre from LOL. That said, there's been some talk of LoL having a significant botting problem in Korea for some time. But I am not sure how serious it actually was.

[Triggered Fridgekin]

'Continue to slow' is very generous. The Chinese bubble which carried this film to financial prosperity is nearing collapse after a week. Shame, I was hoping that this film could be used as a reference point for future sequels on the dos and dont's in order to end with a more solid product both critically and financially but this may be it folks. Even the Launcher no longer has it as a splash screen and tv spots dried up quicker than rain drops in Phoenix.

Chalk it up to another film swallowed by development hell. Hopefully there will at least be a Director's Cut which may give it the 'Kingdom of Heaven' treatment.