WotLK Beta, Frostmourne replica, blue posts

[Boubouille]

WotLK Beta very soon ?
A nice change has been made to the official site, http://beta.worldofwarcraft.com is now working ! Well it's not really working, but it's effectively redirecting people to http://beta.worldofwarcraft.com/game...cter-copy.html on the server. Before yesterday it was only showing a 404 error, this could be the sign of an imminent opening of beta signups and it wouldn't be the first time something like this happens, the Wrath of the Lich King website was "detected" a few days before the Blizzcon using the same method.

Frostmourne Replica auction closed - Highest bid reaches $20,700!
A few days ago the Frostmourne Replica Auction has been closed, and the two highest bid were respectively ... $20,700 and $20,600 ! The 3rd bid only reached the ridiculous amount of $12,000. I personally find it a bit overpriced for a sword, even if it's Frostmourne, but that's probably because I'm a hunter and I don't really use my melee weapons right ?

You can see the top 100 bidders on Blizzplanet.com

US-Proudmoore first realm to reach Phase 3
US-Proudmoore players are the first to reach the Phase 3 of the offensive on Quel'Danas ! This will let them rebuild the anvil and access the new heroic badges rewards ! Congratulations to them.
[blizzquote="Drysc;http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=5720272408&postId=57197076895&sid=1#0]Watching the realm progress and wanted to give a shout out to all the Proudmoorians and their success thus far in taking back Quel'Danas! The Shattered Sun Offensive is surely impressed by your efforts.[/blizzquote"]


EU Realms - Free Character Migration

Due to population differences between some of the highest and lowest populated PvP realms, the following Free Character Migration will be available April 2nd to 8th:

From: Burning Legion, Crushridge, Outland, Stormscale
To: Burning Blade, Dentarg, Haomarush

Please note that the migration may be closed at any time should a destination realm's population rise too high.

FAQ: http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/faq/charactermove.html

Other blue posts

Power Word: Shield Sound Change
We can confirm that the sound change for PW: Shield is in fact a bug and will be fixed in an upcoming patch. (Source)

Arena Tournament - Ireland eligibility
The arena tournament rules (linked below) have been updated, and Ireland IS in fact eligible to enter the Tournament. (Source)

Bugged Release Spirit Window preventing resurrection
This is a known issue ( I just added it to the list) and will be fixed in an upcoming patch. Until it is fixed you can use the following script command to release your sprit "/script RepopMe();". Or you can wait 6 minutes for you to auto-release. (Source)

What is your April Fools Favorite?
Blizzard started a small poll on both EU and US forums to know what was the April 1st announcement they enjoyed the most.

As a part of the yearly April Fools tradition, there were a number of shocking announcements that spurred conversation in many venues, but what we’d like to know is, which of these was your favorite?

If you missed any, check them out right now and put in your vote!

Tauren Marine: http://www.starcraft2.com/features/terran/taurenmarine.xml
Diablo Loot Piñata: http://www.blizzard.com/us/diablo2exp/pinata.html
Molten Core: Unleashed!: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/moltencore/
Bard Hero Class: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/features/bard/bardclass.xml

Poll on US Forums
Poll on EU Forums

02/04 Spotlight - BattleHeat

The focus of our latest World of Warcraft Spotlight is Blacksmithing, not the profession in-game, but one of the oldest crafts and a major cornerstone in building our modern world. While the profession has been around for a long time it still has much to offer us and a small dedicated group of “real life” armor blacksmiths inspired by the World of Warcraft universe were eager to show the community just how much.

We interviewed a member of the German workshop group BattleHeat, and talked about the creation of a paladin armor set, the challenges they face and their ideas for the future. Discover the heat of the battle and the ancient art of blacksmithing!

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/community/spotlight/armor/index.html

3 New Fan Arts
The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with new pieces of artwork.

[Bruun]

Clearly Frostmourne is a hunter weapon

[bbr]

Over 20 Grand for a display quality sword?
Just so they get a number tag lower than others,, that's just... ridiculous.

[Brodaty]

Pity americans don't allow us to vote the poll.
Imo Molten Core was best, as it is brilliant idea to create minigame for i.e. mobiles and Pocket PC, including whole Molten Core instance and all bosses. Can be mmo too! Or at least multiplayer (via bluetooth, wifi or http even)

[Dessimus]

Ohhh yes, the beta is coming!!

[Azain]

tauren marines lol

[leviathonlx]

I wouldn't look to much into that just yet or get my hopes up. Same thing I posted on worldofwar (who also brought up the PTR forum being down).:

Blizzard does not use the PTR forum for the beta and alpha they use a entirely different forum with a entirely different link (believe it was forums.beta.worldofwarcraft.com before). Before the beta there would be a private Friends and Family alpha also which likely would not stay private for long before people were running around on sandbox servers of it just like for TBC. I doubt they would announce much of a beta at the WWI as Blizzard hates announcing things like that but it may start a bit after that if the alpha already began by then. It would be more likely to see them announcing a SC 2 beta at the WWI than WotLK though.

Blizzard has been taking the PTR forums offline before bringing up the PTR lately to reduce spam and as they have said there will be a 2.4.2 thats probably whats about to come up.

The best sign to watch for before there is a beta is for the F&F Alpha to begin then you know the beta is soon.

[the_nell_87]

Pity americans don't allow us to vote the poll.
Imo Molten Core was best, as it is brilliant idea to create minigame for i.e. mobiles and Pocket PC, including whole Molten Core instance and all bosses. Can be mmo too! Or at least multiplayer (via bluetooth, wifi or http even)

There's also a poll on the EU forums.

[Brodaty]

Omg me lazy...
Flying ther to vote ;D

[rothomp3]

Remembering back when Burning Crusade beta started…

With all due respect to the poster above, I would take the change to beta.worldofwarcraft.com as a very strong indication that the Friends & Families Alpha test has started, as the exact same thing happened back then when the BC F&F test started.

This doesn't necessarily mean that a closed beta is happening soonish, but it is a sign of progress!

[galvin]

Too soon for beta, sunwell just came out. If beta was to say start in one month. Figure 3 months for testing, then lichking would be coming out august/september.

[nsupra27]

Too soon for beta, sunwell just came out. If beta was to say start in one month. Figure 3 months for testing, then lichking would be coming out august/september.

BC beta lasted about five months, and I'm assuming WotLK will last about the same amount of time. That would make it's release around October if beta started within sometime in April, which would make some sense

[leviathonlx]

Remembering back when Burning Crusade beta started…

With all due respect to the poster above, I would take the change to beta.worldofwarcraft.com as a very strong indication that the Friends & Families Alpha test has started, as the exact same thing happened back then when the BC F&F test started.

This doesn't necessarily mean that a closed beta is happening soonish, but it is a sign of progress!

They are likely preparing it yes but it is not occurring yet. If the alpha was happening we would know just like when BC entered its alpha.

[Wasabii]

The alpha for TBC started at the end of August. The Alpha character copy and forum were under Beta.blahblahblah.com. Like the poster above me said if the alpha started already we would know. Blizzard tries to stop info form coming out, yet never really do. I don't remeber when the beta started it was around phase 4 or 5 of the alpha.

If anyone remembers when the TBC hunter talents were released...it was the next day the beta started and the test forums became pure shit...like the WoW forums ate paint chips.

I'd say the alpha is starting soon with the website and the accidental post on the forums about a new server immediately disappeared, something about it was really for internal testing...or so I heard.

[rawrform]

Wow 20,000 dollars for a sword. I mean it looks ba and all but seriously 20,000 is a bit over the top.

[KaNNis]

Uhh...anyone noticed http://beta.wow-europe.com/ doesnt redirect to http://teaser.wow-europe.com/ anymore... and I am sure I got redirected yesterday and today it shows 403

[solarwind]

Interesting, I hope that the WotLK beta starts soon