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Additional Character Slots, Season of Discovery Hotfixes - April 23, 2024
Obtained a rare mount? Link the Screenshot!
Diablo 3 - RMAH Delayed, Hotfixes, Battle.net Balance Reminder, Constructive Posting, Blue Posts, and Thorns AffixWrathion Pandaria Introduction Quest Audio (Spoilers)
While the details aren't much clearer than the previous post about Breath of the Black Prince, we now have new audio that was added in the latest beta patch from the quest where you share a drink with Wrathion and talk about the future. There might be some minor spoilers, so don't read on if you don't want to know the details!
One other thing that the recent patch added was an explanation of what the Mysterious Note was for: Stranger in a Strange Land.
Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
Greeting:A new era has begun, Pandaria, a land of mystery, history and opportunity. We stand at the crossroads of history.
Intro:
Ah, if it isn’t my favorite master assassin, I was hoping I’d find you here in Pandaria. Very good, let’s talk.
Tong, drinks please. (A Legend in the Making)
My father, Deathwing, tried to destroy the whole of Azeroth. He was, misguided, of course, but he was right about one thing. Our world is, so, fragile. We are a point of light, in a universe of shadow, a candle in a tempest, and sometimes, I think it was the very precariousness of our world that drove my father to madness.
Ah, thank you Tong.
Now, to my point, I believe we are headed towards a reckoning. And no, I am not talking about the current conflict between the Alliance and the Horde. Believe me, what Garrosh Hellscream achieved in Theramore is nothing compared to the horrors that are even now bearing down on our fragile home. But, the war deeply troubles me, do you see my concern? A divided Azeroth cannot possibly stand against the darkness. This war has to end, soon, before it consumes our strength.
Alliance version: I want you to know that your Alliance has my full and unwavering support in this campaign.
Horde version: You can rest assured, my loyalties lie with your Horde.
How do we bring a swift and decisive end to the conflict? I believe the answer lies with heroes, like you. We must ensure that you are up to the task, and then, equip you, accordingly.
Quest:
Try to stay alive, we are just beginning our legendary journey.
Ah, so returns my conquering hero.
The terrace is just up the hill here.
Stay on your guard, few visitors have returned.
You are looking pale, my friend, I trust you have not allowed fear to get the better of you.
Allow me to gather up my things and I will meet you there. (Breath of the Black Prince)
Pissed:
This is an awfully one-sided conversation.
Did you hear what happened to the rest of the black dragon flight? I had them killed, all of them, and they were family. So, if I were you, I would carefully consider your decision to continue poking me.
Finale:
I often venture out here to think, the view is breathtaking, would you agree? Pandaria is indeed a jewel, such beauty, it makes you want to protect her, yes? I feel the same way about Azeroth herself. You have done great things, friend. I can assure you, this is but the beginning of our work together.
Behold, the power of the foes you have vanquished, and the wisdom of those you’ve outsmarted. Here, the embodiment of the fear you have conquered, may it now strike terror into the hearts of your enemies.
Finally, a gift from me. Make no mistake, the Black dragon flight lives on.
There, my work is done, you can now greatly augment the power of any sha-touched weapon. We are just getting started friend, our greatest challenges lie ahead, but when war comes to these shores, you and I will be ready for it. (Incoming...)
Shaman Skill Animations Preview
Today we continue looking at the new skill animations with the new Shaman animations!
New Pet Descriptions
A previous beta build also brought us another new little feature, descriptions for all of the Battle Pets. The most recent patch added even more descriptions, and Daetur was kind enough to make a list of all of them on the forums!
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Daily Quest Cap Removed
Current plan is to remove the daily quest cap completely for ship. Just like what you see in the beta now. We literally have 100's of daily quests at level 90 and we want to make sure that players can pick and choose what they want to do.
Are you worried about running into the problem of people feeling like they need to do all of the dailies every day to remain competitive again?
Not really. We honestly think it would be worse to actually raise the cap and make people think that now they need to do 50 or 100 or whatever higher number we chose. All of the daily's are limited to a random amount per day so its not like you can do every single quest every day. Daily quests are included as one of the new ways to earn valor in MoP. We don't expect many people will choose to cap their valor just by doing daily quests, but that is an option if you really like them. We expect to have around 50 dailys available from all the factions every day.
Like I mentioned before, those 50 would be randomly chosen from a much larger total pool of quests. This helps keep things feeling fresh for a long time. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Woes of the Older Gamer
What are you considering "older"? I hate to burst your bubble here, but, we have a pretty diverse population of gamers that we try to accommodate as much as we can. I assure you that no one is "swatted away like annoying flies" nor are we dropping a knee and begging for direction. This is opinion and conjecture and while your post is somewhat poetic, I'd prefer we didn't make this into a discussion based on age. We believe that every voice matters here both within the company and beyond. Age doesn't even factor into it. The ideas are what matters.
A gamer is a gamer is a gamer no matter their age. I'm not exactly in the "younger crowd" anymore (nor a gentleman despite being around for the "beginning" of home gaming), and I certainly don't see the golden age of gaming being behind us. The future continues to become brighter as we gain more people to our beloved hobby from all walks of life. I assure you, no one has been "disposed of" either. We recognize and value all of the individuals in the community. We also have to recognize though that there are limitations to how much we can do or how happy we can make all of the people we'd like to make happy.
Everyone has different opinions and experiences that shape their perceptions and there's only so much we can do. But to say that we don't recognize or appreciate them is false.
I find that' I'm being pushed out of gaming against my will. It's like the industry is an entity that is slowly purging anything old. I don't think it's age, but I do think most of the industry is no longer directed at me, I'm no longer the target demographic. Just makes me sad is all, the golden age of gaming for me is over.
Perhaps it's not gaming that has changed, it may just be that you've changed or your expectations have changed, which is perfectly alright. I enjoy things differently now than I did when I was "younger". It's OK to let go if you're just not getting the joy out of something you used to, and it's OK to mourn that loss if it makes you feel better.I kind of hit on it earlier I think, but mostly the gaming community, especially in WoW has changed. More in favor for the silent runs through dungeons, just so they can get their next 150 justice points. No communication is made except to argue or berate other players. Yes, I can run with certain people and avoid this mostly, but I'm talking in generalities here. And it seems developers are catering to this behavior, making it easier to be silent and do fine. I just miss the communication gamers used to have on a whole, everyone was excited to be where they were, what they were doing, and were happy to have others along...now, not so much--many people would be happy with 4 other bots perfectly capable of doing their jobs rather than deal with the general playerbase.
We're with you in that the game is just more fun when you have friends and guildmates to run with. The issue we run into is, "what happens when they're not available but you want to do things?" So the most we can do is facilitate the means to get with others easily. We can connect you to other players, but we can't force people to talk or be social. It's going to take effort from the community itself to make it a more social experience by being social. I don't think what you're referring to is a design issue. And if you think it is, I'd love to hear your thoughts on how it could be improved. Just keep in mind, if you share some thoughts, they should keep in mind the current structure of the game. Without taking anything away or putting new restrictions out there, how would you go about doing it? Because as it is right now, it's easier than ever to be put into contact with other people. It's just a matter of then getting those people interested in interacting socially.
Why is it required to have dead times between xpacs, and then wholesale change with yet more leveling up in a new xpac, over and over without end, the same formula every time?
It takes a lot of time and dedicated effort and resources to create an expansion pack. While we can develop both current and future content at the same time to an extent, there has to be a spot in which we put focus on future content so that we don't get in our own way. As I've said in the past, World of Warcraft has many layers of complexity. Changes that seem innocuous may end up impacting larger systems causing further issues if they aren't segregated in some way during development.
Why not have more content patches, leave off new leveling up, and focus on having a steady stream of content without so much change?
I'm not sure I get where you're coming from here other than if you're asking why we choose to make larger changes during expansions than in patches. For the answer, we go back to the first answer. It's far easier for us to make larger system changes and additions in an expansion. Some of this is due to technological limitations and some is about being cautious about breaking that which was not broken before.
Not saying no changes, I am saying fewer changes. Not saying no new content, I am saying do it via patches.
We do patches when we can, but those patches generally occur after we've put in the framework for them. Without that framework, it's more difficult and more can go wrong. Expansions give us the opportunity to make those larger changes that we want to make and we keep the "smaller" ones to patches when we can. It's understandable that some may feel the changes are "too much" and we try to maintain a balance where we can, but we like taking opportunities to make those larger changes where we can so long as we think it will benefit the overall health of the game and community.
Right now raiding is dead unless you are one of the chosen 10, and even a die hard raider like myself is now tired of no new content for a long time, and none to come until the xpac, however long that may yet be.
A valid concern, but I have seen people setting up PUG raids or still spending time in the Raid Finder. It may not be ideal, but the best thing you can do is use the realm forums or the in game chat to see if you can locate others interested in running the content you are. It's understandable though that there are lulls when a lot of people have seen or experienced the content already. We're doing what we can to keep the "downtime" limited, but we aren't making any specific guarantees on timing for the expansion.
Seems like Blizzard is married to a formula that is outdated.
We're not "married" to it, but it does work. We have adapted how we do things over the years and I'm sure we'll continue to adapt as technology and need allows. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Account Wide Mounts
Let's say you have one character with a TCG mount. When MoP hits all of your characters will have that mount. But what if you then delete the character that had that mount originally? Will all of the others still have it?
As far as I'm aware, they should still have it. It's set on the account end and not the individual character end. If (however) I find out differently, I'll let you know. I don't have reason to believe that this isn't how it should work though.
It should be the individual World of Warcraft account itself no matter what realm the other characters are on. There are still details to work out however, so I don't want to give any incorrect information if I can help it.
We'll have more information about pets specifically as soon as we can. That too has some things being ironed out still but we'll share a bit more "soonish". (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Dragon Turtle Vendors
We have not spawned in the vendors for the Dragon Turtles yet. These will hopefully be in the next build. The vendors will be at the Pandaren camps in Stormwind and Orgrimmar. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
"Releasing" and Un-Naming Pets
We have added restrictions on releasing pets in the latest build. The only pets you can release are ones that you have caught though the pet battle system. We have also made a change to the tooltips for pets so that it will always show the pets original name below the custom one. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Status of Tillers Farm
The Tillers and the farming gameplay are still planned for ship. We are in the process of reviewing and iterating on it still. We just want to make sure its ready for feedback when it goes live on the beta. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Flight Path Kite Animations
This is a bug. The kites are in the middle of getting animation updates currently. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Hunter (Forums)
The Quilen Model
This model is currently WIP. We are building a new rig for it to deal with the clipping and animation issues. Keep an eye out for the updated one soon! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Warlock (Forums)
Decay of Embers
The decay of embers (or any resource really) is only intended so that you don't feel like the right way to play is to finish a fight, then go nuke a squirrel or something so that you're at full embers before the next fight. Thematically, embers are something you build up, not something that you start with at full and burn down. However, it's not our intent to punish everyone who doesn't end a fight with exactly 0 embers.
In the beta build you should have now, the decay is much slower. If you are going from creature to creature while questing, you shouldn't see them decay. It should feel about like Holy Power or similar resources. If you're trying to game the resource so that you can start every boss fight or PvP duel will full embers, then you're going to have more trouble. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Current plan is to remove the daily quest cap completely for ship. Just like what you see in the beta now. We literally have 100's of daily quests at level 90 and we want to make sure that players can pick and choose what they want to do.
Are you worried about running into the problem of people feeling like they need to do all of the dailies every day to remain competitive again?
Not really. We honestly think it would be worse to actually raise the cap and make people think that now they need to do 50 or 100 or whatever higher number we chose. All of the daily's are limited to a random amount per day so its not like you can do every single quest every day. Daily quests are included as one of the new ways to earn valor in MoP. We don't expect many people will choose to cap their valor just by doing daily quests, but that is an option if you really like them. We expect to have around 50 dailys available from all the factions every day.
Like I mentioned before, those 50 would be randomly chosen from a much larger total pool of quests. This helps keep things feeling fresh for a long time. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Woes of the Older Gamer
What are you considering "older"? I hate to burst your bubble here, but, we have a pretty diverse population of gamers that we try to accommodate as much as we can. I assure you that no one is "swatted away like annoying flies" nor are we dropping a knee and begging for direction. This is opinion and conjecture and while your post is somewhat poetic, I'd prefer we didn't make this into a discussion based on age. We believe that every voice matters here both within the company and beyond. Age doesn't even factor into it. The ideas are what matters.
A gamer is a gamer is a gamer no matter their age. I'm not exactly in the "younger crowd" anymore (nor a gentleman despite being around for the "beginning" of home gaming), and I certainly don't see the golden age of gaming being behind us. The future continues to become brighter as we gain more people to our beloved hobby from all walks of life. I assure you, no one has been "disposed of" either. We recognize and value all of the individuals in the community. We also have to recognize though that there are limitations to how much we can do or how happy we can make all of the people we'd like to make happy.
Everyone has different opinions and experiences that shape their perceptions and there's only so much we can do. But to say that we don't recognize or appreciate them is false.
I find that' I'm being pushed out of gaming against my will. It's like the industry is an entity that is slowly purging anything old. I don't think it's age, but I do think most of the industry is no longer directed at me, I'm no longer the target demographic. Just makes me sad is all, the golden age of gaming for me is over.
Perhaps it's not gaming that has changed, it may just be that you've changed or your expectations have changed, which is perfectly alright. I enjoy things differently now than I did when I was "younger". It's OK to let go if you're just not getting the joy out of something you used to, and it's OK to mourn that loss if it makes you feel better.I kind of hit on it earlier I think, but mostly the gaming community, especially in WoW has changed. More in favor for the silent runs through dungeons, just so they can get their next 150 justice points. No communication is made except to argue or berate other players. Yes, I can run with certain people and avoid this mostly, but I'm talking in generalities here. And it seems developers are catering to this behavior, making it easier to be silent and do fine. I just miss the communication gamers used to have on a whole, everyone was excited to be where they were, what they were doing, and were happy to have others along...now, not so much--many people would be happy with 4 other bots perfectly capable of doing their jobs rather than deal with the general playerbase.
We're with you in that the game is just more fun when you have friends and guildmates to run with. The issue we run into is, "what happens when they're not available but you want to do things?" So the most we can do is facilitate the means to get with others easily. We can connect you to other players, but we can't force people to talk or be social. It's going to take effort from the community itself to make it a more social experience by being social. I don't think what you're referring to is a design issue. And if you think it is, I'd love to hear your thoughts on how it could be improved. Just keep in mind, if you share some thoughts, they should keep in mind the current structure of the game. Without taking anything away or putting new restrictions out there, how would you go about doing it? Because as it is right now, it's easier than ever to be put into contact with other people. It's just a matter of then getting those people interested in interacting socially.
Why is it required to have dead times between xpacs, and then wholesale change with yet more leveling up in a new xpac, over and over without end, the same formula every time?
It takes a lot of time and dedicated effort and resources to create an expansion pack. While we can develop both current and future content at the same time to an extent, there has to be a spot in which we put focus on future content so that we don't get in our own way. As I've said in the past, World of Warcraft has many layers of complexity. Changes that seem innocuous may end up impacting larger systems causing further issues if they aren't segregated in some way during development.
Why not have more content patches, leave off new leveling up, and focus on having a steady stream of content without so much change?
I'm not sure I get where you're coming from here other than if you're asking why we choose to make larger changes during expansions than in patches. For the answer, we go back to the first answer. It's far easier for us to make larger system changes and additions in an expansion. Some of this is due to technological limitations and some is about being cautious about breaking that which was not broken before.
Not saying no changes, I am saying fewer changes. Not saying no new content, I am saying do it via patches.
We do patches when we can, but those patches generally occur after we've put in the framework for them. Without that framework, it's more difficult and more can go wrong. Expansions give us the opportunity to make those larger changes that we want to make and we keep the "smaller" ones to patches when we can. It's understandable that some may feel the changes are "too much" and we try to maintain a balance where we can, but we like taking opportunities to make those larger changes where we can so long as we think it will benefit the overall health of the game and community.
Right now raiding is dead unless you are one of the chosen 10, and even a die hard raider like myself is now tired of no new content for a long time, and none to come until the xpac, however long that may yet be.
A valid concern, but I have seen people setting up PUG raids or still spending time in the Raid Finder. It may not be ideal, but the best thing you can do is use the realm forums or the in game chat to see if you can locate others interested in running the content you are. It's understandable though that there are lulls when a lot of people have seen or experienced the content already. We're doing what we can to keep the "downtime" limited, but we aren't making any specific guarantees on timing for the expansion.
Seems like Blizzard is married to a formula that is outdated.
We're not "married" to it, but it does work. We have adapted how we do things over the years and I'm sure we'll continue to adapt as technology and need allows. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Account Wide Mounts
Let's say you have one character with a TCG mount. When MoP hits all of your characters will have that mount. But what if you then delete the character that had that mount originally? Will all of the others still have it?
As far as I'm aware, they should still have it. It's set on the account end and not the individual character end. If (however) I find out differently, I'll let you know. I don't have reason to believe that this isn't how it should work though.
It should be the individual World of Warcraft account itself no matter what realm the other characters are on. There are still details to work out however, so I don't want to give any incorrect information if I can help it.
We'll have more information about pets specifically as soon as we can. That too has some things being ironed out still but we'll share a bit more "soonish". (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Dragon Turtle Vendors
We have not spawned in the vendors for the Dragon Turtles yet. These will hopefully be in the next build. The vendors will be at the Pandaren camps in Stormwind and Orgrimmar. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
"Releasing" and Un-Naming Pets
We have added restrictions on releasing pets in the latest build. The only pets you can release are ones that you have caught though the pet battle system. We have also made a change to the tooltips for pets so that it will always show the pets original name below the custom one. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Status of Tillers Farm
The Tillers and the farming gameplay are still planned for ship. We are in the process of reviewing and iterating on it still. We just want to make sure its ready for feedback when it goes live on the beta. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Flight Path Kite Animations
This is a bug. The kites are in the middle of getting animation updates currently. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Hunter (Forums)The Quilen Model
This model is currently WIP. We are building a new rig for it to deal with the clipping and animation issues. Keep an eye out for the updated one soon! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Warlock (Forums)Decay of Embers
The decay of embers (or any resource really) is only intended so that you don't feel like the right way to play is to finish a fight, then go nuke a squirrel or something so that you're at full embers before the next fight. Thematically, embers are something you build up, not something that you start with at full and burn down. However, it's not our intent to punish everyone who doesn't end a fight with exactly 0 embers.
In the beta build you should have now, the decay is much slower. If you are going from creature to creature while questing, you shouldn't see them decay. It should feel about like Holy Power or similar resources. If you're trying to game the resource so that you can start every boss fight or PvP duel will full embers, then you're going to have more trouble. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Kerrigan Statue at Blizzard Versailles
Blizzard added another nice statue to their collection recently! This time it was Kerrigan, a character from Starcraft.
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