WotLK Bestiary, Arena Stats, Blue Posts

[Boubouille]

Wrath of the Lich King Bestiary Update - The Magnataur
The bestiary page for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King has been updated with a new creature and several new screenshots from the upcoming expansion. Learn more about one of the new species you'll encounter in Northrend, the redoubtable magnataur.

Magnataur have the torso of a giant attached to the body of a mammoth. This peculiar appearance has sparked speculation that their race might be related to centaur or even keepers of the grove. Many wonder if these races share a common ancestor, and some have even suggested Cenarius himself.

The notoriously long-lived magnataur are rumored to engage in cannibalism during times when food is scarce. Single males are known to control giant herds and produce sizable litters, but in the frigid, perilous wastes at the roof of the world, only the strongest and meanest survive.

Despite their hostility to most races, the magnataur have become tolerant of the arctic kobolds, who follow the herds for safety and mutual benefit during long hunts. Although the redoubtable magnataur lead solitary lives, adventurers who cross paths with them quickly learn that it would have been wiser to stay at a safe distance.

Arena Tournament Second Qualifier Begins
[blizzquote="Bornakk;http://www.worldofwarcraft.com]Phase 1 of the 2008 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament's second qualification round has begun. Tournament participants have two weeks to hone their strategies, experiment with various team compositions, and practice their teamwork. To track the progress of your team and those of your competition, please visit the World of [url=http://www.wowarmory.com/][b][color=orange]Warcraft Armory[/color][/b][/url] and select the Coliseum 1 battlegroup. For more information on the tournament, please visit our [url=http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/tournament/index.xml][b][color=orange]Arena Tournament information page[/color][/b][/url]. Good luck, and may the best teams be left standing! [/blizzquote"]
And since we're talking about arenas, note that Vhairi's Scratchpad has been updated with new stats from the US Arena servers. The biggest changes are probably the rogues who are becoming slightly more popular, and the warlocks who keep falling down.

Blue posts

US Website Downtime
We will be performing maintenance on the World of Warcraft website and all related web features beginning tonight at 12:01 a.m. PDT, and ending at approximately 5:00 a.m. PDT. This downtime will include all web-based features such as the Armory, account management, and forums. Thank you for your patience and understanding during this maintenance. (Source)

Death Knight starting zone
You'll be eased into playing the class much like you are now when creating a new level one character. The Death Knight starting area will ease players into understanding their class abilities and talents, as well as Death Knight specific mechanics. (Source)

Rendering of water in WoW
The water is only transparent when the land beneath it is within a certain distance from the surface. So, normally the edges of a body of water will be transparent while the middle will not. Unless it's been specifically specified to be otherwise. So yeah, you're seeing it as it should be. (Source)

New Fan Arts
New fan arts have been added to the official sites.

[Nubs]

I'm surprised it took rogues to get so highly represented in 2v2, it's also interesting the mage representation rate in high ratings have doubled, but unfortunately they still share a similar fate with hunter/arena representation

[Syrek]

Wrath of the Lich King Bestiary Update - The Magnataur

Oh look, it's a reskinned Pitlord! How new and exciting!

[kilssii]

so? You're a reskinned orc in rl.

[Sulika]

Also noteworthy that warrior representation is down in all brackets.

[Mazorp]

so? You're a reskinned orc in rl.

No. Look at that "beast." Nearly every aspect is the same except for the skin. Compare the human model to the orc. It's taller, it's arms, legs, hands, face, shoulders, stomach, back, etc are all shaped differently. The animations are also completely different. Just looking at that screenshot doesn't inspire much faith in it being different beyond the skin. So sad...

[MaDmAjoR]

Another fantastic wallpapers with "our king" :d

[Slizarus]

The Basic Model is similar and only tweaked slightly, It's more than a simple reskin, but it was definitely based as the Pitlord and built upon, that is beyond dispute.
Also Animations will likely be the same, which doesn't surprise me at all, I think the Pitlord/Magnataur Animations were the same in WC3 too.

Maybe there's a connection there? Who knows.
Or just Happenstance.. doesn't matter.

Still, a HUGE Beasty, Pitlords still amaze me in their size, They look so small from far away, as NPC's, but when you go to their Skeletons in Org and HFP or do Maggy a couple times.. it's just kind of daunting.. same thing with Gruul.. Everytime I watch a Vid of him, it amazes me because I don't remember him being that big the many times I've killed him (Under 16 grows)

[neolith]

The biggest problem with the Magnataur I have is that the concept doesn't look that much like a Pit Lord - the 3d version however is really, really close to it. The concept is way more original.

On topic of water surface rendering - that's the one thing I was hoping to see changed. Ground surfaces in WoW look pretty nice, especially the parts that have a shader for lighting up parts when you look in the direction of the sun. Water surfaces are dull in comparison.

[Rogz]

Frankly, it's very impressive how Warlocks have hit the very bottom of the barrel, falling below EVERY class in EVERY bracket for nearly EVERY rating (with the exception of high-rated pallies and warriors in 3s.)

Further proof of how Blizzard plans its nerfs long in advance, spreads them over 4-6 patches, and can't or won't turn its ship around, even if it overshoots its target like a Cuban missile headed for Iowa that hits Siberia.

[kilssii]

1 by 1 shall warlocks fall

[Newor]

Lol, Locks just got everything they want from the Season and left xD

[kekek]

Fan art of a green geared hunter WooT.
Looks nice though

[Luniar]

The concept art looks more like a combination of an Elekk and a human/orc.

[Kathranis]

They were reskinned Pit Lords in WC3, too. I think the WoW ones have unique animations, though.

[IS|Neeko]

The Manga inspired Hunter with Pet fan art was amazing.

[Nebalee]

Compare those pics with some of the pitlords in the game:

http://www.wowwiki.com/Image:Azgalor2.jpg
http://www.wowwiki.com/Image:Galvanoth.jpg
http://www.wowwiki.com/Image:Pit_lord_compare.jpg

I think they look quite different. The pitlords has this maggot-with-legs appearance while the magnatur bears resemblance to the centaur. Especially the torso/belly/legs look totally different.
They should change the tusks to look more like those in the concept though.

[Soragh]

Are you guys retarded?? ??? it is definely not a reskinned pitlord :P

[Amgyn]

they second picture looks like they have horns growing out of their chest area.

[Rav]

Frankly, it's very impressive how Warlocks have hit the very bottom of the barrel, falling below EVERY class in EVERY bracket for nearly EVERY rating (with the exception of high-rated pallies and warriors in 3s.)

Further proof of how Blizzard plans its nerfs long in advance, spreads them over 4-6 patches, and can't or won't turn its ship around, even if it overshoots its target like a Cuban missile headed for Iowa that hits Siberia.

Maybe I am reading these graphs wrong, the legend is hard to read, but warlocks are not bottom of the barrel in ANY bracket according to this.

Last time I checked SK100 there was a warlock in the top 10, and they were 12% of the top 100, about exactly what you'd expect with 9 classes (100% / 9 = 11.11%).