Update (9:00 PM EDT): Added behind the scenes footage.

10 Ways Diablo 3 Could be Better, Community Spotlight on Patch 2.4.1 Guides

EU Spring Tavern Heroes Tournament this Weekend!

Chromie Hero Profile, Builds & Talent Calculator, Brawl with the Blues - Chromie Edition

Legion - Suramar Preview
Suramar is the max level zone in the Broken Isle. It was unlocked in recent builds but it still doesn't appear to be complete just yet.





Warcraft Movie Screening and Reviews
Some members of the press saw the Warcraft movie last night, but they are not allowed to talk about it until May 30, several days after the EU release. Thankfully two people on Reddit have already shared their thoughts on the movie!



Warcraft Movie - Behind The Scenes
A little bit of behind the scenes footage from filming was released today!



Warcraft Movie Stills
Another batch of stills went out recently and Collider has them all.







PvP Realm and Beta Launch
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Hello everyone, we recently announced that Legion Beta will be starting later this week. We wanted to give you a heads up that the PvP realm will not be available for the first day of the Beta.

We want to learn as much as we can from the first day of Beta to help improve the launch experience for Legion. So it's important that we focus as many people as we can on that launch content.

Also, when the PvP realm does come up the next day, only battlegrounds will be available. Battlegrounds will only start if a lot of people queue for them, so we're going to focus the PvP queues on them for the beginning of beta.

We'll monitor the queues and bring back Skirmishes once we feel we've gotten some solid testing on battlegrounds.

Thanks again for all of your participation and feedback. We'll see you in Beta!

Legion - Expensive Items on Vendors
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
There are, as people have noticed, a small handful of very expensive items on vendors in Legion. This isn't anything fundamentally new - the original Kirin Tor Signet Ring cost a small fortune in relative terms when it first came out in Wrath, as did the Grand Expedition Yak in Mists.

When it comes to cosmetic items and convenience perks, they vary tremendously by source, both in terms of playstyle and degree of difficulty. Some are widely-earned rewards, some were simply a matter of being around at the right time (e.g. the Onyxian Whelpling), others require tremendous skill (Gladiator mounts, Mythic raid mounts from current content), while others require a combination of persistence and luck (Time-Lost Proto Drake, Elegon's mount, etc.). Some require you to engage in PvP, others require raiding, others require extensive outdoor gameplay, or profession use. And some require a sustained and concerted effort to accumulate a ton of gold.

Besides, think of it as a favor to all the arachnophobes out there - do you really want massive spiders skittering around everywhere?

Just to be clear, I agree that the Mad Merchant isn't going to serve as a very effective gold sink. But that's because he isn't intended to be one in any meaningful sense. Gold sinks, in an MMO economic sense, are primarily things like repair costs, the Auction House tariff, and a range of useful expensive items that still fall within the price range of many guild banks and gold-rich players. In this case, a handful of very wealthy players may dump a large portion of their gold reserves into this one vendor, but that's ultimately a blip in the grand scheme of the WoW economy.

If we wanted to drain as much gold as possible out of the economy using these items, we'd be pricing them differently. If the Blackfang Widow cost 200k, I'd wager that far more than 10x as many would be sold. Inflation is a concern, but that's a battle that will be waged on many other fronts. This is just a crazy merchant. The point of the items is to be ludicrously expensive, just as the point of something like the Time-Lost Proto Drake is to be ludicrously rare (if you think about it, a multi-day respawn that shares a spawn point with a more common variant and has a zone-wide patrol is pretty insane...). Some of the vendor's details may be tweaked, and there's been very good feedback in the thread on the relative attractiveness of the different items, but the 2mil price tag for the mount is not likely to change.

This is starting to sum up the Legion expansion feedback in general. "We appreciate the feedback given, but not a damn thing's gonna change. We're totally listening to you guys though!"
I'm sorry it feels that way. This is going to be a lengthy post that will stray far afield from the topic of expensive vendor items, but there there are at least two major underlying issues here:

First off, there are multiple viewpoints on nearly any topic, as you can see in this thread. If I'd instead posted that we were going to reconsider and massively reduce the prices of the cosmetic items on this vendor, there would be other people feeling like their feedback was ignored. It's exceptionally rare that everyone wants the same thing (despite frequent framing of "no one likes X" or "we want X" when giving feedback). And even then, there is a large silent majority that does not post on forums. If there were actual unanimity regarding a certain issue, we would change our design: For example, early on in Warlords, we changed Group Finder loot from Personal back to Need/Greed until we could iterate on Personal loot further, and the community overwhelmingly told us that was a dumb idea. The change was reverted within 2 days.

Second, almost every facet of WoW is an activity that caters to a minority of the playerbase. That may sound odd at first blush, but it's true. In a sense, that's part of the magic of WoW. It is not a narrow game, but rather one that can be enjoyed in numerous different ways, by people with hugely diverse playstyles. A minority of players raid. A minority of players participate in PvP. A tiny minority touch Mythic raiding. A tiny minority of players do rated PvP. A minority of players have several max-level alts. A minority of players do pet battles, roleplay, list things for sale on the auction house, do Challenge Mode dungeons, and the list goes on. Virtually the only activity that a clear majority of players participate in is questing and level-up dungeons, but even then there's a sizeable group that views those activities as a nuisance that they have to get through in order to reach their preferred endgame.

And yet, taken together, that collection of minority groups literally IS the World of Warcraft.

Perceptions of feedback are further complicated by the fact that, due to the cooperative nature of the game, players tend to make connections with others who favor a similar playstyle. I'm generalizing a bit here, and there are certainly exceptions, but I'd guess that a typical Gladiator-level player probably doesn't have a WoW social group that consists of people who mostly solo-level alts and explore the world. And most small friends-and-family guilds don't spend a lot of time talking to competitive Mythic raiders. So when there's a change, or a feature, that is aimed at a portion of the game that isn't your personal playstyle, it's easy and in fact natural to have the sense that "everyone" dislikes it.

If we decided to focus on a specific playstyle and elevate that portion of audience above the rest, then we could certainly visibly and consistently address clear feedback from that group, but WoW would become a far smaller game in the process.

Another major consequence of this structure is that if we have some special reward (be it a unique mount, a powerful item, a title, etc.) and we choose to associate it with a particular playstyle, almost by definition a majority of player feedback will be against that decision. For example, if an awesome mount comes exclusively from PvP, the majority of players who don't participate in PvP yet desire the mount would prefer that it were otherwise. If our goal were to please a majority, we would likely have to make a version of that mount also available through raiding, and one also available through outdoor questing and reputation, at the very least. But doing that would dilute the reward itself. Ultimately, the approach we take is usually to tailor different content and rewards that can feel special to different groups, rather than trying to come up with a lowest common denominator that isn't special to anyone.

In closing, I know it often can seem like we don't listen. We are - just to many, many different voices. And it may be that a given change, feature, or reward is simply aimed at a different portion of the playerbase. Or we could be wrong and we haven't realized it yet. So please, keep talking.

Just a simple question that they won't answer: Will the mount be unique or will it show up reskinned elsewhere? If it's unique, I'll buy it. If it's not, I won't. What conceivable reason could they have to not answer something so simple? So frustrating.
The only reason is that it's difficult to make absolute "never"-type statements with confidence. We have no plans to offer a recolor or highly-similar version of the Widow, as we agree that it would undermine the value of the mount (highly debatable though it may be) if there were easily-obtainable variants.

But in the distant future? Who knows. Maybe some day we make a spider expansion, all about spiders, complete with a playable arachnid race (this is where I alienate all the arachnophobes who were grateful for my first post in this thread), and there are spider mounts everywhere. So I can't say "never."

But in general, we feel that we've diluted the impact of some of our mounts by offering numerous variants of the same base creature. It's appropriate for some creatures, especially where it feels like a prominent part of the natural fauna of a new continent (e.g. all the various Proto-Drakes in Wrath, or Cloud Serpents in Mists), but when something is unusual we should try to keep it that way. A mount like the Ratstallion should also remain unique for the foreseeable future.

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Classes
Brewmasters: Wall of text crits you for 9001.But you Ironskinned, then Purified it, so you survive. (Celestalon)
I really wish you'd post things like this for every spec, but that's unreasonable. But it would probably stop shadow priests >
Aye, I wish we had time to give more attention and have more discussion with every spec, but it's not really feasible. (Celestalon)
now you are telling people (mythic raiders at that) how to play the class they have been maining for years? Icing on the cake.
When we make significant changes to, there's a new learning process for even the most experienced players to go through. (Celestalon)

Or maybe more to the point; as healers, should we be letting BMs drop low instead of trying to obsessively keep them above 80%?
We're aiming for a world where ALL tanks, regardless of class, who are at 80% are viewed as not an emergency. (Celestalon)
If your tank is at 80%, I'd hope that you look at that as "Sweet, I'll let HoTs cover that", not "Time to Flash Heal them!" (Celestalon)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
Good morning! Will judgement of light heal players at full health? Will be a lot better if only players at less than full hp
No; we will change this to not spend charges on players with full health. (WarcraftDevs)

PvP
Could you bring back rated arenas to 70/80/85/90 to make the brackets active again?Take out achievements I don't care.
We have no plans to return rating to these brackets. (WarcraftDevs)

Will crit return to do 200% DMG in PvP instead of 150% now that multistrike is gone?
Critical Damage and Critical Heals in PvP combat will continue to deal 150% of normal spell and ability effects. (WarcraftDevs)

Are Tol Barad and Wintergrasp battlegrounds being removed with Legion?
Both Tol Barad and Wintergrasp will remain active in #Legion. (WarcraftDevs)

Misc
Eric turns to the room of quest designers and says he's going to put us in-game. I say "Please don't." (craig_amai)
He puts us in as incompetent NPCs who got captured. And makes a quest to find us and kill us. Such love. (craig_amai)

Starcraft II Sale
The Starcraft II games are on sale!



Final Boss - Guardian Druid Spec Preview
Final Boss is back with a second round of spec previews.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Suramar Preview, Movie Review, PvP Realm and Beta, Expensive Items, Guardian Preview started by chaud View original post
Comments 36 Comments
  1. Stacie's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Jagang View Post
    anyone have a reupload of the behind the scenes?
    They seem to be pulling the video down. Don't know if this will work for you https://www.facebook.com/Zuratugushi...8431211515644/
  1. bornlol's Avatar
    i had high hopes for this movie but its lookin like its gona be shit... too bad but suramar preview actually looked pretty sick
  1. Tricky91's Avatar
    Gosh, why do I never get a Beta invitation? I would really love to try it and provide helpful feedback...
  1. Dead_MAX's Avatar
    So the spider mount is going to cost 2 mega? Fuck me, I really liked how it looks.
  1. Arvandor's Avatar
    Second, almost every facet of WoW is an activity that caters to a minority of the playerbase. That may sound odd at first blush, but it's true. In a sense, that's part of the magic of WoW. It is not a narrow game, but rather one that can be enjoyed in numerous different ways, by people with hugely diverse playstyles. A minority of players raid. A minority of players participate in PvP. A tiny minority touch Mythic raiding. A tiny minority of players do rated PvP. A minority of players have several max-level alts. A minority of players do pet battles, roleplay, list things for sale on the auction house, do Challenge Mode dungeons, and the list goes on. Virtually the only activity that a clear majority of players participate in is questing and level-up dungeons, but even then there's a sizeable group that views those activities as a nuisance that they have to get through in order to reach their preferred endgame.

    and you make this mount for ONE fucking minority!

    where is the logic?
  1. Kolvarg's Avatar
    Movie is looking amazing Much better feelings with these clips than with the trailers tbh.
  1. Masternewt's Avatar
    Yep, Travis Fimmel will ruin this film. He cannot act, everything he does is horribly cringy as if he's about to start giggling like a drugged kid. It was a problem with Vikings, it's a problem here. But I guess he was the cheaper choice to a proper actor for such a role. Too bad.
  1. Teebone's Avatar
    The movie is going to fail. It's too 'Hollywood'. Just like when they thought people would enjoy a mouth-sew-shut version of Deadpool that shot fucking lasers out of its eyes kind of bad.

    Hell, if this isn't an indication of how much a train wreck its going to be, nothing is: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/war.../1100-6439727/
  1. Malico's Avatar
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP2Orqg3Zf4 cant watch this because of block country. Can someone fix this for eu?!
  1. GMZohar1's Avatar
    "Equalized PvP Gear

    Gear has been normalized in PvP combat. Characters entering a Skirmish Arena, Battleground, Rated Arena, Rated Battleground, or Ashran now receive an aura called Principles of War.
    Principles of War removes all stats gained from gear (Strength, Stamina, Haste, etc.), disables gear related bonuses (like trinket effects and set bonuses), and gives the character stats based on their specializations, and increases based on overall item level. The goal is to provide a much more finely tuned and balanced PvP experience."

    R.I.P. PvP... You will truly be missed... Maybe one day Vanilla, BC,WotLk, Cata or MOP servers will be up, until then goodbye wow
  1. JaceDraccus's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Arvandor View Post
    Second, almost every facet of WoW is an activity that caters to a minority of the playerbase. That may sound odd at first blush, but it's true. In a sense, that's part of the magic of WoW. It is not a narrow game, but rather one that can be enjoyed in numerous different ways, by people with hugely diverse playstyles. A minority of players raid. A minority of players participate in PvP. A tiny minority touch Mythic raiding. A tiny minority of players do rated PvP. A minority of players have several max-level alts. A minority of players do pet battles, roleplay, list things for sale on the auction house, do Challenge Mode dungeons, and the list goes on. Virtually the only activity that a clear majority of players participate in is questing and level-up dungeons, but even then there's a sizeable group that views those activities as a nuisance that they have to get through in order to reach their preferred endgame.

    and you make this mount for ONE fucking minority!

    where is the logic?
    Which is different how?

    How is it different from the mythic archi mount, or the heroic raid boss mounts that came before? The juggernaught, Invincible? The heavenly black cloud serpent? A minority will have even tried to get those, even less will have them.

    How is it different from the TLPD, or the sunhide gronnling? Aeonaxx? A minority will have been able to get those...

    PVP mounts? Like the infernal?

    How is this really any different? There are heaps of mounts that only aim at one minority. Stop complaining for the sake of it.
  1. mmoc63e7652113's Avatar
    D: abcdefghij
  1. Mazzic518's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Masternewt View Post
    Yep, Travis Fimmel will ruin this film. He cannot act, everything he does is horribly cringy as if he's about to start giggling like a drugged kid. It was a problem with Vikings, it's a problem here. But I guess he was the cheaper choice to a proper actor for such a role. Too bad.
    LOL WUT?


    /10 chars
  1. Galathir's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kolvarg View Post
    Movie is looking amazing Much better feelings with these clips than with the trailers tbh.
    I absolutely agree. I was very careful with my enthusiasm before but these clips get my hope up that the movie might actually be decent.
  1. Yoda11's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by chaud View Post
    If you have come across a better review, please let me know. That review and the other one in the link are generally positive (and two of the only three reviews I have seen so far).
    how are these people reviewing this shit. there is definitely an embargo.
  1. SMBComix's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Sigmar View Post
    And the WoW movie is shit. Does this really surprise anyone?
    I'm surprised that you don't know a bloody good movie when you see it.

Site Navigation