Visions of Time - Courting Destiny, Malkorok Preview, Blue Tweets, Weekly News Recap

Diablo III is Out for Consoles, Official D3 Console Strategy Guide, Josh Mosqueira: 'Loot 2.0 is Coming'' + Tweets from Lylirra

Beta Streamer Tournament Review, 1.3 Billion Damage Lorewalker Cho, Weekly News Recap

Patch 5.4 - Visions of Time: Courting Destiny
Patch 5.4 adds a quest line on the Timeless Isle that involves working for Kairoz of the Keepers of Time. He is on the Timeless Isle because the Bronze Dragonflight is not as powerful as it once was, only being able to catch furtive glimpses through time. He has created an hourglass that will allow for a window into the timeways, but you must collect 50 x Epoch Stones to make it usable.

After collecting the stones, you embark on a series of weekly quests to use the Vision of Time in different locations to calibrate the Vision of Time. Kairoz eventually will reveal that there is a traitor among the Bronze Dragonflight.

As the hourglass grows more powerful, he will send you to the Temple of the White Tiger to see a glimpse of Garrosh and Anduin, which is the scene you see below.



Patch 5.4 - Malkorok Preview
Malkorok is the ninth boss in the Siege of Orgrimmar. The encounter takes place under Ragefire Chasm in Orgrimmar.





Raid Testing Schedule - September 3 - 4
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
On Tuesday, September 3, and Wednesday, September 4, we will continue testing raid encounters in the Siege of Orgrimmar raid.

Each encounter should be available at approximately the listed times below for all Public Test Realms.

Tuesday, September 3
  • Galakras - 25 Player Heroic - 10:30 PDT (13:30 EDT, 19:30 CEST)
  • Malkorok - 25 Player Heroic - 13:30 PDT (16:30 EDT, 22:30 CEST)
  • Paragons of the Klaxxi - 25 Player Heroic - 16:00 PDT (19:00 EDT, 01:00 CEST)

Wednesday, September 4
  • Sha of Pride - 25 Player Heroic - 10:30 PDT (13:30 EDT, 19:30 CEST)
  • Spoils of Pandaria - 25 Player Heroic - 13:30 PDT (16:30 EDT, 22:30 CEST)
  • Thok the Bloodthirsty - 25 Player Heroic - 16:00 PDT (19:00 EDT, 01:00 CEST)

As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a beta environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session, change the boss being tested, or cancel a test entirely, due to bugs, server hardware issues, etc. Keep an eye on this forum for the latest information, and thank you in advance for testing and providing feedback.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Connected Realms and Battlegroups
so who is getting grouped with who then, and will it go by current battlegroups?
The battlegroups is a factor for sure that needs to be taken into account, but I cannot say yet if they will be a limiting factor. Also, we are still in the process of determining which realms to connect, so we it will be a little while still before we can announce a list of the realms that will be connected. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Darker Nights
"Patch 5.4 will have a test case for darker nights in Orgrimmar, Stormwind, and Vale of Eternal Blossoms."
Blue-tagged! Sleep tight and enjoy the night, don't let the Sha of Nightmares bite! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Flex Raiding
Sure, makes total sense, but btw three raid lockouts per week may be overkill. H Raiders seem not excited about Flex.
Not sure why heroic raiders would run flex more than once or twice unless their progression in heroic was really slow. (Source)
You're not sure why..? because of ridiculous trinkets, set bonuses, and weapons if they've been RNG-screwed in ToT.
Set bonuses are a problem if you've just been very unlucky. Trinkets are a problem if we screw up the balance. Wpns should not be. (Source)
If you rerolled or something, maybe, but if you have a N or H weapon from the previous tier, you should be good to go. (Source)

Raid Finder
Getting bored of people moaning about LFR. Take it away and I may as well cancel my sub.
We like LFR. It's not going anywhere. Just trying to provide additional features on top of it. (Source)

you never put in the tools like a good voice communication system for LFR to succeed as organized gameplay. ur fault
I don't think difficult + voice forces random groups to coordinate, but it's a fair criticism that our voice sucks. (Source)

i will not use flex on principle its an attempt to kill lfr.
It is not an attempt to kill LFR. It's an attempt to provide a more casual alternative to N for social groups who don't enjoy LFR. (Source)

the thing is...LFR Takes away the epic experience. dont believe me? look at every raid since 4.3.
Another POV is LFR provides an epic experience for players who otherwise never would have had it. (Source)
100% agree that LFR is less epic than normal (or flex). But it is more epic than a YouTube of the fight. (Source)

PvE
Is the normal mode still all open on the first week?Tom Chilton says the normal will just open wing 1 on the first week.
The plan is normal will all open on the first week. (Source)

Out of curiosity, will in the Siege raid. Will the Horde have a time where a npc clear out a portion of the mobs?
We are trying to give both H and A cool moments in the raid without just mirroring each other. (Source)

Does this mean it will take four lockouts for the cloak quest? Or will you be able to kill he last three in week 1?
The latter. You just only get loot for the first "kill" that week. (Source)
wiait, so position has changed that legendary cloak could be unlocked in first week? Now it will take at least 4 weeks?
You can "kill" all the celestials on day one. You only get loot from the first one you defeat every week. (Source)

so the next xpac will be another cataclysm, you had this talk before that launch about difficulty and need to change
No, the problem with Cat was there was no alternatives to HC dungeons. As I said, exclusive is fine as long as alternative exist. (Source)

Weekly News Recap
Another very busy week full of news, so here is your chance to catch up!

  • August 26
    • We looked at the General Nazgrim encounter.
    • Another developer interview:
      • The Horde version of the cinematic after Garrosh will show the process of the Warchief selection. The Alliance version will be slightly different.
      • The technology for scaling up old content is mostly in place now, but the devs haven't come up with a good rewards scheme for scaled up old dungeons and raids yet.
    • DiabloFans posted a nice recap for the Reaper of Souls expansion.
  • August 27
  • August 28
    • We looked at the Visions of Time: Hidden Threads cutscene, which takes place in the destroyed Stormwind Harbor.
    • Another developer interview:
      • Blizzard isn't ready to show off any of the new player models yet, but hopefully will have an announcement soon.
      • Changing the player model risks causing players to no longer feel attached to their character.
      • Upgrading player models has never been done successfully in an MMO.
  • August 29
  • August 30
  • September 1
This article was originally published in forum thread: Visions of Time - Courting Destiny, Malkorok Preview, Blue Tweets, Weekly News Recap started by chaud View original post
Published on 2013-09-03 04:06 AM
32 Comments
Comments 32 Comments
  1. CheeseDoodlez's Avatar
    clearly some important character intervenes just before we deal the killing blow to Garrosh, telling us that we can't kill him. Because if we do, we have no knowledge of what dire consequences it could have for Azeroth to destroy the last remnants of the old god Ysharj :O.... So we cage him instead, and save him for later when blizz runs out of ideas.
  1. Eazy's Avatar
    It's just a vision, it shouldn't be really truthful, we saw also the vision where faction leaders are impaled.
  1. Tyraena's Avatar
    Bets on Taran Zhu saving him? He hasn't died any other time he should have....

    My thoughts are he is the Pandaren Emperor. And nobody lobbied for his death when possessed of a Sha, why kill Garrosh for it? He was a prime example of character flaws opening one up for corruption, which should argue for rehab, not death.
  1. Sovash's Avatar
    Malkorok looks like it'll be incredibly frustrating for healers in LFR.
  1. SmokeNicotine's Avatar
    Why do all the third world countries get beta invites? >.>
  1. caninepawprints's Avatar
    Upgrading player models has never been done successfully in an MMO.
    I can't think of an MMO that's lasted as long as World of Warcraft either. They are clearly better developers for this kind of genre, and I have faith they can change the character models without players becoming irrational over it. We've been asking for updated models for a long time and I don't think we're going to be upset with the result (unless we get a female Worgen incident again).

    Blizzard has successfully changed previous models with positive feedback (i.e. Druid forms). It's time for them to update the old models!
  1. Pacster's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Venziir View Post
    Uh, I honestly hope that this is just a "what if" vision. Let's just kill Garrosh and be done with him.
    Yeah, but I'm afraid we gonna see him again. Either he will do the "evil dies in a last heroic moment where he becomes the good guy"-stunt...or will be freed and we fight him again. It's hard to say from that scene. He could be sitting around like a budda-monk dealing with his karma....or like the lurking sinister evil that is sure that someone will get him out of that cage some day.
  1. Azrile's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Shudder View Post
    I like to see them making night time actually dark. But I don't have any confidence in them anymore to do what they say. I doubt we'll be able to even tell the difference. They need to make it extremely dark, with torches lighting up areas. With a toggle to shut up the whiners of course.
    The problem with dark ´nighttime´ is that it lasts too long in WOW. There are people who can only play at night, which means their entire play experience is in very dark night.

    The day/night cycle in WOW needs to be much faster than real world because there are probably a lot of people who play evenings for a few hours after the kids go to bed... stuff like that.

    I think UO had like a 2 hour night.. 4 hour light type cycle, or something like that.

    Dark nights are cool if it is in contrast to days.. but dark nights are not fun if you play every night for 3 hours, and you never see colors.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by caninepawprints View Post
    I can't think of an MMO that's lasted as long as World of Warcraft either. They are clearly better developers for this kind of genre, and I have faith they can change the character models without players becoming irrational over it. We've been asking for updated models for a long time and I don't think we're going to be upset with the result (unless we get a female Worgen incident again).

    Blizzard has successfully changed previous models with positive feedback (i.e. Druid forms). It's time for them to update the old models!
    UO tried twice to updated player models and graphics. After the first time, they then spent a year implementing a way to allow players to go back to their old models. The problem with their approach was they updated all the graphics in the game ( which most players wanted), but at the same time updated character models ( which most players hated). Players had no choice but to go back to ALL old graphics if they wanted their old character model. In the end, polls showed about 90% players playing with the old graphics.. It wasn´t so much a nightmare for players as much as it was just a huge amount of wasted dev time ( basically the major features of a new expac).
  1. Tinykong's Avatar
    "Pandaria was merely a set back..."
  1. Daovan's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by caninepawprints View Post
    I can't think of an MMO that's lasted as long as World of Warcraft either. They are clearly better developers for this kind of genre, and I have faith they can change the character models without players becoming irrational over it. We've been asking for updated models for a long time and I don't think we're going to be upset with the result (unless we get a female Worgen incident again).

    Blizzard has successfully changed previous models with positive feedback (i.e. Druid forms). It's time for them to update the old models!
    Everquest has 5 years over WoW, 19 expansions over 14 years, is still in production, and has loyal players, so I could see that as an MMO that has lasted longer than WoW without having an rts game to build off of.
  1. F-Minus's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Azrile View Post
    The problem with dark ´nighttime´ is that it lasts too long in WOW. There are people who can only play at night, which means their entire play experience is in very dark night.

    The day/night cycle in WOW needs to be much faster than real world because there are probably a lot of people who play evenings for a few hours after the kids go to bed... stuff like that.

    I think UO had like a 2 hour night.. 4 hour light type cycle, or something like that.

    Dark nights are cool if it is in contrast to days.. but dark nights are not fun if you play every night for 3 hours, and you never see colors.
    Hm... I don't know who those people might be, are they 24/7 coal mining or what. Every shift, evening, night, day, morning lets you with free time during daytime, so really every person, whatever shift he has, has access to sunlight and since the in-game world is based on the time of the real world, there is no people who only see night time, but if they only play during the night that is a different issue for which we and Blizzard shouldn't really care it's their decision.

    Making day/night cycles faster would just be stupid and destroy the immersion of a living world at least for me and many others.

    That said, nights in wow were never pitch black, so it's not like you can't see nothing.
  1. Rhlor's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Venziir View Post
    Uh, I honestly hope that this is just a "what if" vision. Let's just kill Garrosh and be done with him.
    this is the best ending for Garrosh! Death is the end of everything, we have to give Garrosh the peace of the grave? Hittle committed suicide at the end of the war not to be judged and many others also committed suicide, for they did not want to be judged for their horrible crimes and not see their enemies stood with the final victory. there can be nothing better than Garrosh dragged through the streets of Orgrimmar and see how this destroyed and orcs dead, you see the rebels and the alliance occupying the city. that after trying to conquer the world and be on top of power in the horde is caged and taken to pandarea for trial.
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