Netherlight Crucible, BlizzCon Warcraft Key Art, Hotfixes, Arena Cup, PvP Like a Pro

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Saddest Stories in Diablo Lore

Knights of the Frozen Throne Releases August 10

The Netherlight Crucible And You

Hey guys!

So, after yesterday's Q&A, it's become apparent that there's still some confusion about the Netherlight Crucible and how it works. We've been keeping an eye on your discussions about the topic, and wanted to give some explanations where we can, as well as open up a thread for any additional questions you may have.

Q: How do the Relic "talents" unlock?

A: As your Artifact increases in level (by spending Artifact Power), your Relic slots will level up as well. When you first unlock the Crucible, you'll have access to the first additional trait (a +5 increase to your Artifact's item level) in each slot. The second row unlocks at Artifact level 60, 63, and 66 (for the left, center, and right Relic slots respectively), and the third and final row unlocks at Artifact level 69, 72, and 75. This should all be pretty apparent when you look at those slots in-game, but may not be showing clearly via datamined info.

Q: What did you mean by "it can't double roll a trait"?

A: Just that you will never be able to upgrade a Relic to increase the same Artifact trait twice. If your Relic already has a bonus rank of Wrath of the Ashbringer on it, that trait will not be one of the three options presented in the bottom row of the Crucible's upgrade tree.

In other words, there's no risk of having your Wrath of the Ashbringer relic be "ruined" by not rolling a second bonus to Wrath of the Ashbringer, because that could never have happened in the first place. However, if you get a relic without Wrath of the Ashbringer, there's now a chance that it'll gain it from the Crucible.

Additionally, those three options will always be unique; it won't, for example, give you the "choice" between Deflection, Deflection, or Deflection. Aside from making sure you always have options, this means that your odds of having your favorite trait appear on a Relic you'd otherwise have discarded are actually pretty decent.

Q: How do the ranks for the first two rows work?

A: There are no such ranks. We think this is coming from some confusion about how the Netherlight Crucible is showing up in datamining, versus how it actually operates in-game. Once you've unlocked a row in the Crucible, you just select the option you like, and that's it - there's no additional leveling up of those options beyond that.

For those peeking into the data (or anyone else who might be curious): this is because of how we built the system to allow the unlockable effects to stack between each relic. It's just a subtle behind-the-scenes optimization on our end.

Hopefully that will help clear the air about how the Netherlight Crucible works, but we're sure you have more questions, so ask away and we'll do our best to answer what we can! We'll aim to provide an update sometime next week. Thanks!

BlizzCon 2017 Warcraft Key Art
Jaina will be representing Warcraft on the BlizzCon 2017 Key Art!

Patch 7.2.5 Hotfixes - August 2

Class Halls

• Warlocks who have completed their class mount quest should be able to see Calydus' vendor list.

Dungeons and Raids

• Darkheart Thicket
  
  • Dresaron has tidied up his lair, moving his eggs to the edge of the room.
    
• Tomb of Sargeras
  
  • Mistress Sassz'ine
    
    • Crashing Wave takes 1 second longer to occur after the warning visual in Mythic difficulty.
      
    • Concealing Murk duration increased to 12 seconds in Mythic difficulty.
      
    • Befouling Ink recast time in stage three increased by 5 seconds in Mythic difficulty.
      

Professions

• (Hotfix in testing) Fixed a bug preventing the Archaeology digsite in The Wildwood from functioning properly.

Blue Posts

New Shop Mount and Pet
As you may have seen from PTR previews, there are a ton of new mounts coming in 7.3 for you to get in-game if that's what you prefer.

It's been a long time since we've added a new pet/mount to the shop, but Twilight and Luminous Starseeker are an awesome Argus-themed addition.

And, as Mezasu said, you can always convert WoW Tokens into Battle.net balance for this one.

Did ya not read my 2nd post about it obviously you didn't blizzard you still making money off of somebody else who paid real money for gold. You are making extra money.Since you edited it in, no - I did not before I wrote my post.

And honestly I'm not sure that fact matters at all. Since you can directly convert gold into balance through the Token, there's no negative trade off there that affects you monetarily.

We've sold pets and mounts for years now, and, as a player, I've never had a problem paying for something cosmetic that I want. If you don't want it, move on - let other people be happy with what they want. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
Feral Druid Changes in 7.3.0
Savage Roar will no longer be a "snapshot" mechanic damage buff, where it causes a damage over time ability to deal the bonus damage for its entire duration, like how Bloodtalons and Tiger's Fury work. This is a recent 7.3.0 change and is intended.

Snapshotting can be a contentious mechanic - some people like it, some people don't. However, snapshotting has been a mechanic on Feral for a long time, so we want to keep it in some form on the spec for now.

Savage Roar is not really an interesting place to have snapshotting, especially in 7.3.0 where its duration is being greatly increased and combo points won't be as scarce in a Jagged Wounds build. Keeping Savage Roar up 100% of the time will be much easier, and as a result, snapshotting there becomes a mechanic where you're only really given opportunities to fail with a larger than usual damage penalty. Contrast that with Bloodtalons and Tiger's Fury where - due to their limited nature - the player is instead given opportunities to maximize the benefit of those two buffs and gain more than usual benefit from a low-uptime snapshotting damage buff. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
Elemental Shaman Tier 21 Set Bonus
The set bonus does work with Icefury if you talent into it. The buff increases the damage bonus of the Icefury buff so it affects all 4 of the damage increased Frost Shocks. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Arena Cup #5 LIVE Saturday 11am PDT: Tune In!

Cup #5 of the North America Arena World Championship goes live Saturday 5th August. To keep up with the action, tune in to the broadcast at 10.30am PDT, with matches kicking off at 11am PDT sharp. Don’t miss out!

Here’s where to catch the action, Saturday at 11am PDT

You can also watch the stream in Russian.

First Round Fixtures

Championship Finals
Don't forget, the Championship Finals will soon be upon us. The finals will dictate who will be at the global final at BlizzCon.

• EU Championship Finals: August 23-26
• NA Championship Finals: September 7-20

Good luck to all the teams, and see you on Saturday at 11am!!

PvP Like a Pro: Finding the Right Partners

Competing in Arena can be a lot of fun but for many players it’s difficult to get started. Recently we had the chance to sit down with a few of the 2017 EU Arena Regional Finalists who let us in on their secrets to success which we will be presenting over the next few weeks in this three-part series: PvP like a Pro.

Part 1 - Finding the Right Partners
Often one of the greatest challenges players face when trying to get started in arena is finding the right partners. Alec from team ABC joined us and broke it down into these 3 major points:

The Basics - Know your Class
The most important step is to look up a guide...for your class.
Finding the right partners starts with being a good partner for others. You need to be willing to take the time to become intimately familiar with the abilities of your class as well as with what other classes can do to counter you—this is first and foremost to success in Arena.

“In Legion, it’s quite simple. The most important step is to look up a guide to dealing damage or healing for your class.” Alec recommends using Icy Veins to find this information.

Keep it Simple - Start with 2v2
If you are in the right place, you’ll increase your rating as you both improve.
Once you are confident that you know your class sufficiently, you should start out practicing in the 2v2 bracket. Alec says that he often uses the LFG system to practice a new class as his team healer doesn’t like playing 2v2 with his alts. “There are so many friendly people in 2v2 – and if you guys are doing well you can stick together in 3v3…. If you are in the right place, you’ll increase your rating as you both improve.”

2v2, especially when running a Healer/DPS composition, can be a more manageable source of arena, since fewer players means less information to track. This is a far more ideal location to practice your gameplay, and find partners that you’d want to branch into 3v3 with.

Attitude Matters - The Right Mindset
Mindset is a critical attribute on both the side of you and the partners you find. “The right players don’t deflect and try not to blame” states Alec, who has one of the longest standing team rosters in professional Arena.

Never blame a loss on the ability of your partners.
Alec says that Cdew and his team Method: Reborn are a good example of having a positive team mindset. “His teams are very good since they look at what they can do better together rather than blaming each other… if you have partners that are willing to get better, and willing to practice with an analytical mindset you are more likely to succeed,” says Alec.

Having team mates who can be self-critical and have a positive mindset can be a key to enjoying the game, and improving together in a friendly environment. In the words of Alec “Never blame a loss on the ability of your partners.”

Alec himself, formerly known as Daisyduke, competed in his first event – The Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, Paris – in 2008. He definitely knows his way around World of Warcraft arenas and is often praised as the mastermind behind his team’s strategies. You can Catch him and his team ABC live at gamescom on August 23-26 on our official Warcraft Twitch channel.

Stay tuned next week when we'll be hearing from Fabss of team Method for part two, PvP like a Pro: Team Composition.

FinalBossTV #150 - Method World 1st Mythic Kil'jaeden Interview
FinalBossTV sat down with Method this week to talk about their world first kill!

Knights of the Frozen Throne Releases August 10
Knights of the Frozen Throne releases on August 10! The Lich King headed to Blizzard recently to hang out with the Hearthstone team.

[Dastreus]

Jaina bby plz lemme smash

[MrKnubbles]

Jaina huh? How curious...

[Rustedsaint]

Nooo stay good Jaina stay good. Bah who we kidding she Gona go all lovecraft on our butts next expac.
Side gdam it I wanted to roll 3 decent traits when I get a set of full mindsear/shadowmend relics again >_<

[Enan1981]

Well Jaina looks so refreshed... What a vacation can do to someone to unwind and relax... Or is this a trap? O.o?

[Xerra]

Well Jaina looks so refreshed... What a vacation can do to someone to unwind and relax... Or is this a trap? O.o?

If Jaina is a trap and if she still likes Kalecgos does that mean the trap is...

[Dartz1979]

Jaina is just so sexy i love her new look maybe khadgar might date her now he will have to defeat me first though i belong to jaina.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

I'm glad this feels like a "she's back!" instead of a "she gonna get killed" cause if she was just featured in the promo art just to become evil that would be just too mean lol.

I'm ready for Kul'tiras.

[Kynario]

I'm glad this feels like a "she's back!" instead of a "she gonna get killed" cause if she was just featured in the promo art just to become evil that would be just too mean lol.

I'm ready for Kul'tiras.

Indeed, Kul'Tiras pretty much confirmed. Jaina at Blizzcon and the Kul'tiras map on armor in 7.3. It's pretty much the 'most information' we'll ever get.

[Deleted]

Hints, hints everywhere.

[VyersReaver]

So, they wanted to make the Knights of the Frozen Throne less silly compared to all the HS expansions. And then they didn't.

[Ilfayt]

So, they wanted to make the Knights of the Frozen Throne less silly compared to all the HS expansions. And then they didn't.

From what Ive seen, some of the promo material is goofy, but the actual thing will be more serious(like the jaina voice over trailer)

[Mendzia]

This Jaina art looks amazing. Does anybody know if there is no WoW/BlizzCon sings version? I want that on my wall as a poster. :P

[ForrestAnthony]

Jaina story arc hype. Too pumped for Blizzcon, why does it have to be so far away argh

[dvaz]

Jaina bae.

hngggggg/10

Time to get rid of the sjw mage in charge on the council.

[Deleted]

More shite for people with more money than sense to buy.

[Tupolew519]

can't wait to see an announcment of wor expansion.

[Gibalt]

Any news about the giveaway? The draw would've been two days ago by now and I didn't see any notes on the latest news posts. I'm sure I didn't win, but it's not clear if the winners have even been PM'ed.

[Deleted]

there was something very "Sheldon" like about him