Blue posts, TTR Battle, WWI08, Wallpaper

[Boubouille]

Blue posts

WotLK and loot changes
We do plan to have more specs share some loot. I know it's great when the Retribution-Paladin piece drops, but that's a piece that isn't good for 26 other classes/specs, so hopefully we can make it so the item will apply to more classes/specs so even the randomness of loot won't be so much of a big deal. When there are examples for players to see it should be easier to understand. (Source)

Engineering - Bugged gas clouds
We are aware that there are reports of gas clouds that need some adjustment and we do have some slated to be corrected, but what we need most is for people to report specific locations for us so we can track them down. If you could do so either in game when you come across them, or post in the bug forum with a specific location, we can definitely get it in the system to be fixed. I already checked with our QA department and they assured me they do have some slated to be fixed. But, they also need these bug reports to keep coming as people find the clouds out of reach so they can be found and corrected. (Source)

Tournament Test Realm and World PvP
There will be no world PVP on the official Arena Tournament Realms, so there will be no world PVP on the Test Tournament realm. If you want to world PVP thats what live servers are for, this realm is to support the arena tournament. (Source)

Tournament Test Realm Battle
Blizzard developers and Community Managers will be on the Tournament Test Realm once again this Saturday, you'll have a chance to fight them in arenas and probably see them do a few tricks and spawn funny things in starting zones. Below are the screenshots from the first event if you still need a good reason to connect on TTRs this week end.

The World of Warcraft team will once again be testing the WoW Arena Tournament on the Tournament Test Realm, and you are invited to be a part of the action. Players in all regions will access the same realm, so the call is going out to all PvPers in North America, Europe, and Korea to log into the Arena Tournament Test Realm and participate in all-out PvP action!

This event will take place this Saturday from 12PM to 4PM PDT, and members of the Community and Development teams will join in the fray.

No character copies are needed for the Tournament Realm as you will get access to the character and gear of your choice just by logging in. The 2.4 PTR patch will provide access to the Tournament realm so download it soon and we’ll see you on the battlefield!

Also, most of the bugs preventing players from connecting on PTRs and TTRs have been resolved.

We are aware of issues with the PTR and TTR.

• Unable to create new characters.
• Unable to Delete existing characters
• Unable to connect to the realms

We have reset the connection servers, this should resolve these problems.

Blizzard WWI 08 Tickets sales
Reminder, the tickets for the Blizzard World Wide Invitational 2008 are still on sale, and they probably won't be here for long.

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This year's Blizzard Worldwide Invitational will take place in Paris, France, at the Porte de Versailles Exposition Centre on the 28th and 29th of June. Tickets are priced at €70 / £55 for the two-day event, which will feature hands-on play with the latest versions of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/) and StarCraft II (http://www.starcraft2.com/), competitive eSport and casual player tournaments, costume, dance and machinima contests, and much, much more...

Please note the event is open to attendees of ages 4 years and above. Due to the nature of some content at the 2008 Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational, attendees under the age of 16 must be accompanied by a parent, guardian, or responsible adult (of 18 years and above).

Have a look at our event website (http://www.blizzard.com/wwi08/event.xml?locale=en_US) and the FAQ (http://www.blizzard.com/wwi08/faq.xml?locale=en_US) for more information and get your ticket now! (http://eu.blizzard.com/wwi08-tickets/sales/menu.html?locale=en_GB)

Thundgot also posted a small message for people experiencing problems with the payment system.

"The error message "Limit of 3 Payment Attempts Reached" is incorrectly given when the payment data is rejected by the payment system. Reasons for this can be mistyped information or using a card which is not valid for payment."

"I just wanted to clarify that we said mistyped information or using a card which is not valid for payment can be a reason for the error, not that it definitely is. We did not mean to blame you for making typos. The key part is that the payment is rejected by the payment service (normally the bank rejecting the payment request) after the data is sent from our site." (Source)

Fanart - Tree of Life Wallpaper
Let's finish the day with a very nice wallpaper featuring the druid's Tree of Life form (via WoWInsider / Resto4Life). You can also check the author's gallery on Deviantart.

[Wildhorn]

It is pretty /meh news. At least it is good to hear that they will keep the sunweel offspec item concept for wotlk.

[Boubouille]

Easter weekend + 2.4 release very soon = /meh news.

[Wildhorn]

Easter weekend + 2.4 release very soon = /meh news.

I know

[bbr]

Engineering - Bugged gas clouds
We are aware that there are reports of gas clouds that need some adjustment and we do have some slated to be corrected, but what we need most is for people to report specific locations for us so we can track them down. If you could do so either in game when you come across them, or post in the bug forum with a specific location, we can definitely get it in the system to be fixed. I already checked with our QA department and they assured me they do have some slated to be fixed. But, they also need these bug reports to keep coming as people find the clouds out of reach so they can be found and corrected.

Pfff, i did that, but the GMs just tell you. "we're aware of the issue, blah blah, -insert roleplay nonsense- goodbye".

They should check and re-check the damn things themselves.. It's not like they are hard to find.

[Serenade]

Blue posts

WotLK and loot changes
We do plan to have more specs share some loot. I know it's great when the Retribution-Paladin piece drops, but that's a piece that isn't good for 26 other classes/specs, so hopefully we can make it so the item will apply to more classes/specs so even the randomness of loot won't be so much of a big deal. When there are examples for players to see it should be easier to understand. (Source)

if this means using item points to put stupid sh!t on items...thats just stupid.
like that old Lower City exalted ring with Dagger skill and Feral Combat Skill.

items shouldn't take a hit in stat points because they are multi-class items...
other than int, a ret pally and warrior use the same stats. str, agi, st, crit, hit and AP
i dunno what item points cost but something like "Reduces cooldown on Crusader Strike by 1 second" and "Reduces cooldown of Mortal Strike by 1 Second"...now that i could see being ok

[Shuji1987]

Oh great, streamlining items..

That is the worst idea ever tbh. If for example, you make a Retribution plate chest which should support Protection and Holy as well, won't you get an OP chest then? The amount of stamina, hit and spell damage to support Protection, Amounts of healing and intellect so it is viable for Holy and ofcourse the melee stats which should be for Retribution. This will make 3 classes when in the same group need on the item and you will be spending even more time in instances this way then before. Not to mention that you will get warriors that need on that as well then neglectable of intellect and +spell damage as is the case with the badge vendor (epic tank chest with +damage) only now, in instances. Not to mention, what kind of consequences would it have for caster classes/specs or melee specs and classes. Since for example Elemental Shamans and Boomkins can need on varios types of armor and thus streamlining them more would cause other classes having a disadvantage?

[Draconicfire]

Hey Boub, would it be possible to have a 2.4 compilation put up soon?

[Qwios]

Oh great, streamlining items..

That is the worst idea ever tbh. If for example, you make a Retribution plate chest which should support Protection and Holy as well, won't you get an OP chest then? The amount of stamina, hit and spell damage to support Protection, Amounts of healing and intellect so it is viable for Holy and ofcourse the melee stats which should be for Retribution. This will make 3 classes when in the same group need on the item and you will be spending even more time in instances this way then before. Not to mention that you will get warriors that need on that as well then neglectable of intellect and +spell damage as is the case with the badge vendor (epic tank chest with +damage) only now, in instances. Not to mention, what kind of consequences would it have for caster classes/specs or melee specs and classes. Since for example Elemental Shamans and Boomkins can need on varios types of armor and thus streamlining them more would cause other classes having a disadvantage?

There are certainly bad ways to implement something like this, but I assure you nothing as idiotic as what you're saying here will come to pass.

[the_nell_87]

There are certainly bad ways to implement something like this, but I assure you nothing as idiotic as what you're saying here will come to pass.

Agreed. Most likely a retribution item would also be useful for DPS warriors. Or hunter items would be useful for enhancement shamans. Rather than having a retribution piece drop when nobody is there to use it.

[Dessimus]

Making the loot drop system more transparent would be good

[fizyx]

Making the loot drop system more transparent would be good

what do you mean, more transparent? It operates off a random number generator, seeded by server time. I don't think you could get much more transparent than that without giving out code... which would be a stupid thing for them to do, so they won't.

[Deleted]

What I would like to see is a "smart" loot drop system. Drop items accordingly to what classes/specs there are in group 1 to 5. But then again, what kind of loot a raid boss drops, has already been "made" once entering the raid instance. Gotta love bosses to drop things no one can use in the raid.

[blay]

A beautiful wallpaper..

Agreed, very nice.