WotLK Beta, Blue posts, Comics

[Boubouille]

WotLK Beta Start Date
We heard a lot of rumors after the Worldwide Invitational, according to a few people the WotLK beta is supposed to start on July 3rd. This is very, very unconfirmed for the moment and a lot of people (including me) don't think it could happen that fast, but Blizzard could always surprises us. As long as nothing is confirmed from Blizzard, any mail mentioning the beta you might receive is a scam and should be deleted.

While we have made announcements at BlizzCons in the past, that doesn't mean that that is the only time we will do it. The beta phase is not currently active and we will post more details when they are ready.

Edit: Just to add on to this - The date for the Wrath of the Lich King Beta has not been announced yet. This is a date that is determined by our development team when they feel the game is ready and not something we need to properly market for a length of time beforehand. When it does begin we will post information on the official website/forums about it and about signing up which we plan to do for it.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/misc/beta-signup.html
As that is part of the official website, it is not a scam. This is the page that was used for the "Future Beta Signup" with the keys given out at BlizzCon in August 2007. Notice it doesn't say that the beta phase is currently active.

For the moment, we had two big previews of Wrath of the Lich King, one in may, and one during the Worldwide Invitational.

WotLK Preview - June 08 (Worldwide Invitational)

• PvP Panel (+ 40 pictures)
• Raids & Dungeons Panel
• Wrath of the Lich King Screenshots & Artworks
• Q&A Grab Bag
• Class Panel
  

WotLK Preview - May 08

• Wrath of the Lich King Preview - Part 1
• Wrath of the Lich King Preview - Part 2
• Wrath of the Lich King Preview - Part 3
• Wrath of the Lich King Preview - 134 Screenshots
• Wrath of the Lich King - HD Trailer
  
  

Blue posts

Reset timer for the 10 and 25 man version of the same dungeon
The current plan is to keep them separate, so if you want to run both you are welcome to do so. (Source)

Server upgrades for WotLK starting
We will be performing maintenance on all realms beginning at 3:00AM PDT, July 1, and finishing at approximately 11:00AM PDT. The realm Dreadmaul will also be undergoing hardware upgrades during this time to help prepare for the launch of the upcoming expansion Wrath of the Lich King.

Heroic Dungeons slightly easier in WotLK (See Raids & Dungeons Panel
This should allow them to be more accessible while building a stronger progression line of max level dungeons into the heroic dungeons and then on into the 10/25 person raid dungeons. (Source)

Bringing up the world map makes the group invitation window disappear
This is working correctly and exactly as it does on live.

Naxxramas in WotLK

• We wanted to bring this instance to a more entry level raid as it was a dungeon that received a lot of praise back in the day and doing this would allow more players to experience it while delivering a great setting to begin raiding in Wrath of the Lich King. In a new expansion we would rather make brand new dungeons that are the most challenging. For the players who did push the content in the past, this will be an easier dungeon for them to get through and move on to the new content. If it was a high-end dungeon again it would feel weird to have new content then a dip into difficult but old content before moving on. (Source)
• I don't have exact details on all tier armor sets at the moment, but we have said that we plan to re-use the Tier 3 armor models. (Source)

Comics
Today we've got the official comic contest winner for May 2008, and the new issue of Dark Legacy.

[tanvide]

How will you receive the Beta Sign Up Code ?
By mail?

[Balbaroy]

a gnome will show up at your door with the beta key

[LavaDuck]

no gnomes plx

[Drush]

I anticipate there will be a lot of people wondering why their pet from the WWI isn't working. I opened a GM ticket this morning and got a reply that my code was working perfectly fine and the pet will be implemented next patch (2.4.3).

Also whilst I was testing out the WOTLK @ WWI I was sitting next to a journalist who was asking a lot of questions from a staff member. Whilst most of the questions were trivial the Blizzard member of staff did say that it was unlikely that the Beta Key given in the goodie bags would be restricted to one game and even if it was it was even less likely to be restricted to StarCraft 2. He finished by saying something along the lines of "You'll be able to test out more Death Knight features at home with your beta key."

My Guess is the beta key part will be open for sign ups further down the line, so fear not.

Source: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread....72858086&sid=1

[vectrex]

a gnome will show up at your door with the beta key

Will they show up if we put some milk and cookies outside the door?

[atmospheric]

I don't have exact details on all tier armor sets at the moment, but we have said that we plan to re-use the Tier 3 armor models


gz! and I guess tier7 will look like tier1?
lazy bastards

[Nezoia]

Fuck yeah ! And guess who got a beta key !!

[magicone_812]

how do you get the beta key?

[KaNNis]

Fuck yeah ! And guess who got a beta key !!

Your mom?

[Nezoia]

how do you get the beta key?

I took a trip to Paris, France , got a orgasm at the D3 presentation, watched some korean noobs play Starcraft, and glared evil at alot of french people talking french.

And oh, I also got a goodie bag with a beta key in.

[Nørf]

All in all you lacked info to post on this puny tuesday :/

[Phok]

Read his profile, he's from Denmark.

[Brick_Tamland]

<rawr i'm cute little bunny>

Oh, the irony!

[Gilbaron]

http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread....eNo=2&sid=3#33

translation of the main aspects

there is no exact release date for the beta, but they HOPE to start in july

[Diesel_rat]

Third, tomorrow oO

[mechleader]

I took a trip to Paris, France , got a orgasm at the D3 presentation, watched some korean noobs play Starcraft, and glared evil at alot of french people talking french.

And oh, I also got a goodie bag with a beta key in.

I did the same as you but it was 3 weeks too early and came for the D-day ceremonies (from Canada), so no orgasms or koreans. We recieved the glaring for speaking english, and talking about the new French war flag being a white eagle on a white background. I didn't receive a Beta key =(

[leviathonlx]

The CM who told Allvatar that it would start July 3rd corrected himself to sometime this month when they re-contacted him a couple days ago and said the July 3rd part was just due to the hard time at the WWI.