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Why You Standing There? U Can't Touch This! The Glorious Immunity Card Design Competition

Battle.Net Patch 1.9 Build 9397 - Now With Emoji Support
The Battle.Net App was updated today to group your favorites, sort your friends by activity, additional emoji support, and more!



Netherlight Crucible Update
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
Hey guys!

We’ve been seeing a lot of discussion going back and forth on the Crucible lately, so we’ve had some conversations with the development team and I wanted to pop in and share a few points that came out of it.

Regarding comparisons to Reforging – Reforging was always a simple, mechanical choice. Players were, at the end of the day, simply replacing their worst stats with best stats on every item that didn’t already have your best stats up to a mechanical limit. The Crucible, by comparison, is only affecting a small subset of items and presents much more varied situations than say “change 30 Hit Chance into Haste”.

We’ve also seen a bit of discussion around players desiring the ability to respec the Traits that are locked on the second and third tiers of relics. We feel that the ability to respect Traits would lead to players picking traits based on perfect optimization for any given situation, which could lead to players leaving a raid to change to AoE-centric traits for the next fight during raid progression. While we feel that’s a nuisance in itself, this would also make the system feel like a watered-down version of talent rows, and would undermine the choice that is made when selecting your Relic Traits.

That being said, Relics are items and will be replaced; we do expect players to make choices and experiment with this system. Since there is still new content ahead of us in Antorus, better Relics will be available and players who make choices they may not like now will have the opportunity to get new Relics before long with a potentially new set of Trait choices.

As a note, we are also fine with the current state that Relics Soulbind on inspection in the Crucible. We believe the alternative of everyone porting in and out of the raid to pass the relic around and see who it’s best for is far, far worse. Players are smart and will be able to make educated decisions based on the information that’s available to them. As I said, we do expect experimentation however.

A final note: I saw the post on Reddit laying out three choices for Relics, asking players which one they would pick -
Relic A : 930 Ilvl BiS main trait, 3rd BiS bonus trait, but forces worst tier 2 crucible trait
Relic B : 915 ilvl BiS main and bonus trait and 2nd BiS crucible tier 2 trait
Relic C : 940 ilvl 2nd and 4th BiS traits and BiS crucible tier 2 trait.The poster responded by saying the only way to know is to sim it. If you’re generally a player who simulates gear upgrades to make decisions, you’re probably going to do that anyway, and that’s fine. If you’re a player going off basic guidelines such as “I play a fire mage so I want Critical Strike” you will get by as you always do in this situation and pick what you think is best for your particular class or spec.

Thanks for all the feedback on the topic so far, I’ll be on the lookout for future discussions, as always.

The Mythic Dungeon Invitational Weekend 2 This Saturday and Sunday!
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
The competition has begun and with weekend one behind us, we’re looking forward to weekend 2 with teams from Europe and the Americas teams taking their shot this weekend.

Weekend 2: Europe and The Americas
Europe: Saturday, September 23 at 5:00 a.m. PDT
The Americas: Sunday, September 24 at 9:00 a.m PDT

We’ve chosen 32 teams who have pushed themselves to the limit and proven they are ready for their next challenge in the Mythic Dungeon Invitational. Eight teams from China, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Americas will compete over the span of three weekends to see who will make it to the top 8 before moving on to the semi-finals and finals.

Check out the teams in the official post!

So, What's Next?
Each team will compete over three weekends head-to-head within the Mythic Dungeons. Two teams will advance from each region during a single-elimination, best-of-3 format. These teams will need to balance speed, skill, and strategy to claim their victory over their opponents. Keystone levels and affixes will be determined by Blizzard and all competition will take place on special tournament realms in which all players compete on an even playing field.

Check out the list of Keystone Affixes that we’ll be putting into play during the competition:

Affix 1
  • Sanguine
  • Teeming
  • Bolstering
  • Raging
  • Explosive

Affix 2
  • Quaking
  • Volcanic
  • Explosive
  • Grievous
  • Volcanic

Affix 3
  • Tyrannical
  • Tyrannical
  • Fortified
  • Fortified
  • Teeming

Event Schedule
The competition all begins this weekend on Twitch Friday, September 15 and Saturday, September 16 when the top teams in China begin their bid to make it to the Global top 8.

Here’s the full schedule of events:

Weekend 1: China and Asia-Pacific
China: Friday, September 15 at 9:00 p.m. PDT
Asia-Pacific: Saturday, September 16 at 9:00 p.m. PDT

Weekend 2: Europe and The Americas
Saturday, September 23 at 5:00 a.m. PDT
Sunday, September 24 at 9:00 a.m. PDT

Weekend 3: Global Top 8, Semi-Finals, and Finals
Saturday, September 30 at 9:00 a.m. PDT
Sunday, October 1 at 9:00 a.m. PDT

Where to Watch
You can catch all the action in English on the official Warcraft Twitch channel https://www.twitch.tv/warcraft. Hosts Adrian "Healingstat" Archer-Lock, Daniel "AutomaticJak" Anzenberger, Martin "Treckie" Meiner, Richard Campbell, Robert Wing and Ted "Sloot" Bacinschi will be on hand to provide commentary and expertise on all the action.

We’re also working to provide additional language support for this event, so check back soon for more listings. You won’t want to miss a thing!

Learn more about the Mythic Dungeon Invitational in our previous announcement or head over to the official World of Warcraft Esports site.

Play Overwatch Free September 22–25 on PC, PlayStation® 4, and Xbox One
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
Attention, recruits! If you haven't already had the opportunity to suit up and save the world as one of the heroes of Overwatch, now's your chance.

From September 22–25, we're calling on all prospective agents: assemble your team and dive in during the Overwatch Free Weekend on PC, PlayStation 4, or Xbox One!

For this free weekend, we're making Overwatch's full roster of 25 heroes and 16 maps available for play in a variety of modes, including Quick Play, Custom Games, and the Arcade. Players will also have the ability to level up, earn Loot Boxes, and unlock a variety of different customization options.

Plus, if you decide to purchase Overwatch after test driving the game, you'll get to keep any progress that you made during the weekend—just be sure to use the same Blizzard, Sony Entertainment, or Xbox Live account that you played on.

For more details and to learn how you can participate, read on below!

Deployment Schedule
The Overwatch Free Weekend will run from September 22–25. PlayStation 4 owners with a PlayStation Plus membership, Xbox One owners with an Xbox Live Gold membership, and Windows PC users with a Battle.net account will be able to download and play Overwatch for FREE during this period—no special keys or sign-up codes needed!


The free period will begin on September 22 at 11am PT and end on September 25 at 11:59pm PT in all participating regions across all platforms. If you'd like to see when the weekend will go live in your region, check out the guides below. For additional time zone assistance, please visit timezoneconverter.com.

The Overwatch Free Weekend may not be available on all platforms in all regions. See our FAQ for details.

This Week in WoW History
We're taking a look back at old MMO-Champion posts and World of Warcraft news that occurred during this time in previous years.

Legion Max Level Content Unlocked
Legion allowed players to take their time leveling, delaying most of the max level content that people had previously rushed to level for until a few weeks after release. During this week, Normal and Heroic Emerald Nightmare unlocked, World Bosses started spawning, Mythic+ Dungeons opened, and the first PvP season started.



BlizzCon 2015 In-Game Goodies Round-Up
BlizzCon 2017 is rapidly approaching and we've already seen the new Horde and Alliance mounts that we will get this year. Looking back to 2015 we see the final in-game goodies roundup that included the incredibly cute and dangerous Murkidan, a Nexus Battle Beast Mount in Heroes, Hearthstone card back, Starcraft II Portraits, and a Pennant, Pet, and Portrait for Diablo III players.



Warlords of Draenor In-Game Cinematics
During Warlords of Draenor Beta, Blizzard released all of the cinematics from the initial Warlords of Draenor campaign at once. This was done because the team was aware that some players enjoy spoilers and would seek out the cinematics on fansites. These included the iconic scene with Garrosh and Thrall, Yrel, Velen, the Warlords, and more.



Mists of Pandaria Zone Previews
As more and more of Mists of Pandaria was being revealed, players finally got a chance to check out what some of the zones would look like. The previews included Krasarang Wilds, Dread Wastes, and Townlong Steppes. These offered some different environments and creatures than players had ever before scene, introducing the Klaxxi, Yaungol, and more Sha. Krasarang Wilds was a vibrant forest-like area teeming with all kinds of flora and fauna, Townlong Steppes housed the Shado-pan Garrison, and the Dread Wastes was an ashen and torn environment being overrun by Klaxxi.



Appear Offline Coming "Soon"
It may not seem like it, but it now has been five years since the Appear Offline "Coming Soon" notice was posted! Questions about the status of the feature is a favorite among BlizzCon Q&A topics. In the years since, we got an update about adding Appear Offline to Overwatch in 2016, another update in 2017, and strings that refer to appearing offline were added to Hearthstone this year. For now, the Appear Offline feature appears to still be coming "Soon".

This article was originally published in forum thread: Battle.Net App Patch, Netherlight Crucible, Mythic Dungeon Invitational, WoW History started by chaud View original post
Comments 76 Comments
  1. Yot's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Eleccybubb View Post
    If you have specific friends you need to hide from then maybe they shouldn't be on that list in the first place?
    I take it you don't have any co-workers on your btag list and never called in sick or played hooky.
  1. muSPK's Avatar
    When will the staff of Mmo-champion understand that its not only Americans that visit there site? U should always write out the times for the other major timezones not only american timezones.
    Anyone knows the times for this upcoming event in CET?
  1. Frumpy Frumpy Frak's Avatar


    I pray that we're able to use the emojis in game chat.
  1. Eleccybubb's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vidget View Post
    I take it you've never been an officer in a guild and just wanted to login on an alt now and then and play the game without being bothered by guild business. If you're online then you're available, that's how it is unfortunately.
    Yes I have. And even guildies have understood if I wanted to be alone. We had respect for others in our guild and if they were in a mood or wanted to be alone we would always say if they needed to talk we are here or at least try to find what the issue was. If they didn't want to talk about it and just chill then we were ok with that.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Yot View Post
    I take it you don't have any co-workers on your btag list and never called in sick or played hooky.
    Nope. When I wanted time off work I would book it. My co-workers always know I've booked time off for a video game. If I call in sick then I am sick.

    The only time I book off as well is the amount I'm allowed.
  1. Sparklelord's Avatar
    Think we'll get this feature a lot sooner than later, it appears they've enabled offline messaging now (so you can send messages to offline people and they'll see them next time they're on) and that's the first step, otherwise you could just send someone a message to see if they were online or not. Didn't see it mentioned in the front page post either.
  1. Aquinan's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Eleccybubb View Post
    If you have specific friends you need to hide from then maybe they shouldn't be on that list in the first place?
    I dont get that either, just unfriend or block them?
  1. gaaara's Avatar
    Tyrannical
    Tyrannical
    Fortified
    Fortified
    Teeming

    holy jesus
  1. MWhite's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by shanaynae View Post
    jup, yet again completely ignoring what players are experiencing. The cruscible system sucks donkey balls in it's current form. Take a wrong turn on the extra trait on a freshly high TF relic does not feel very nice at all. They say it's not the same as reforging and that's incorrect, it's a simplified and worse system.
    Complaining about it doesn't help them fix it, constructive criticism and ideas will help.....and really I would rather have the RNG than have no new upgrades, at least they are trying something new and giving us a way to get an upgrade to our relics, they could have just done nothing.
  1. mmoc1571eb5575's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by MWhite View Post
    Complaining about it doesn't help them fix it, constructive criticism and ideas will help.....and really I would rather have the RNG than have no new upgrades, at least they are trying something new and giving us a way to get an upgrade to our relics, they could have just done nothing.
    They've had constructive criticism and more or less ignored it in favor of defending the current system.

    Saying "well we think relics binding on inspection is fine because the raid hearthing out would be annoying, it's the lesser of two evils!" is either playing dumb to avoid having to deal with real criticism, or idiocy on such a level you shouldn't be designing a game when the obvious solution is for the relic traits to be visible ON the relic from the get-go without needing to hearth to the crucible.

    Likewise with "We're worried players would constantly respec for the fight", how is that somehow worse than players potentially making a dreadful mistake by clicking the wrong talent that not only punishes them but also punishes their fellow raiders when they need to soak up another relic to replace their mistake - just slap an AP cost on the respec that makes doing so on a fight to fight basis too costly, but replacing a bad mistake possible if you put in your own time and effort re-grinding AP.

    I hate the developers feigned idiocy more than the crucible system itself, there's no way they're this blind to obvious alternative solutions after designing the game for so long and having over a decade of prior systems and how the playerbase has interacted with them to compare - instead of defending their current implementation vs obvious alternatives they seem to pick out silly strawmen implementations to attack instead.
  1. pzijderv's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nagassh View Post
    They've had constructive criticism and more or less ignored it in favor of defending the current system.

    Saying "well we think relics binding on inspection is fine because the raid hearthing out would be annoying, it's the lesser of two evils!" is either playing dumb to avoid having to deal with real criticism, or idiocy on such a level you shouldn't be designing a game when the obvious solution is for the relic traits to be visible ON the relic from the get-go without needing to hearth to the crucible.
    That still leaves you with unwanted trade the relic to every player in the raid that can use it to see if they get their best in slot traits.

    Might be your obvious solution is not as solid as you thought?
  1. Mhyroth's Avatar
    "We've read your feedback regarding the Netherlight Crucible, but we still prefer shoving up RNG down your throat so deal with it and quit whining."

    At least they've read the feedback, something a lot of us were sceptic about wheather they do or not.
  1. Planetdune's Avatar
    I never understood the difference between smileys and emoji... they look the same to me, at least if you are talking about image smileys.. isn't all just pictures that depict a state of mind or expression..

    That said, I don't understand the current hype for Discord either... I tested it and it looks like a modern version of IRC channels...
  1. Ryuushima's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Onikaroshi View Post
    Don't understand people's fascination with it... i have almost a full list, 75% are active in multiple games, and no one ever bothers me. If people have that clingy of friends maybe they need to re-evaluate their friendships and not wait for blizz to solve their problem for them.

    Plus, it would only make it easier for people stealing accounts, we've informed people earlier then they would have known that their account was compromised JUST because we could see it on when we knew they couldn't be.
    some people want it, some people don't. Each having their own reasons for it so seeing how quite some people want it the option should at least be there for them instead of just forcing each and every one of them to re-evaluate their friendships. especially since the feature was promised to us years ago already but instead we get emoji
  1. mmoc28280ad8ec's Avatar
    Putting aside concerns about botting, I'm pretty sure people who are vehemently against Appear Offline are, in fact, the friends people want to appear offline to.
  1. mmoc93c1e7e232's Avatar
    Gotta love Blizzard.

    The Crucible statement reworded:
    "We have heard your valuable feedback. We think differently and of course know better than you petty players. But please continue to give feedback!"
  1. Korru's Avatar
    Blizzard has finally adopted Valve Time.
  1. deadman1's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Daish View Post
    adding functions that assist stalkers would be a bad thing i hope blizzard never do it
    Stalkers? Do you really think you are so important that you think people stalk you? HAHA

    Or you could just do it like steam which hides your friends list when you are appearing offline, or just remove the completely fabricated "stalkers" from your friendslist. TBH the only people against said features are the people most of us want to hide from.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Bjoramier of Lordaeron View Post
    Must be shitty you need to lie and hide from your friends, if you have any that is, sounds pretty terrible.
    You realize that you're probably one of those people we want to hide from if you don't understand the issue, right?

    Sometimes you have people who you like on your friends list but they don't exactly understand boundaries and that I might want to just do some pet battles or dailies without being asked to do things. I get tired of saying no every day to them without wanting to removed them from my friendslist and completely burn a bridge.
  1. Pacster's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Eleccybubb View Post
    If you have specific friends you need to hide from then maybe they shouldn't be on that list in the first place?
    It's his mother.... ;-)
  1. kamuimac's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Socronoss View Post
    Gotta love Blizzard.

    The Crucible statement reworded:
    "We have heard your valuable feedback. We think differently and of course know better than you petty players. But please continue to give feedback!"
    not really - it was more of "its a problem concerning 1-3 % of players so who the f.. cares about those nolifing basement dwellers when rest of community is basing everything on highest itlv anyway "
  1. Hellshout's Avatar
    As a note, we are also fine with the current state that Relics Soulbind on inspection in the Crucible. We believe the alternative of everyone porting in and out of the raid to pass the relic around and see who it’s best for is far, far worse.
    For who? Cause sure as shit ain't far far worse for the players. Especially the ones that might farm a certain item for a while now and if there are 2 of them for the same relic why not boost the raid as a whole when you can gamble the item and if it sucks for that player, well they have until WoW is finished to get that item again, right?
    At least don't give us bullshit about it and call it by the name: "we don't want you just trade items like crazy, we want you to work for them".

    change to AoE-centric traits for the next fight during raid progression. While we feel that’s a nuisance in itself,
    i agree with the fact that it will dumb down the crucible, but saying changing talents/specs/items/traits is a nuisance in a raid progression is so freaking stupid. ALL of the competitive players try to squeeze as much dps as possible for the progression and you say it's annoying for the raid? Either the spokes person is a retard(in a derogatory way, not the actual condition, calm down 2017) or Blizz's shit smells like roses sprayed with some Chanel no5 and they can't see outside their asses.

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