World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies RSS Feed

by Published on 2011-07-14 04:14 PM

Update
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Q: Can I invite a friend of a Real ID friend?
A: No, you can only invite your own Real ID friends to the party.

Q: Will aspects of the Real ID Party system be premium-based?
A: We'll have information on this toward the end of the testing period.

New Real ID Party Feature Now Available for Testing
You heard it here first, the news is now official! the Real ID Party Feature is now available for testing!
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
When delving into the depths of Azeroth's darkest dungeons, it always helps to have some friends at your side... now you're able to issue a call to arms no matter what realm they play on. We're pleased to announce the new Real ID Party feature is now available for testing! This new feature will allow World of Warcraft players to invite their real-life Real ID friends of the same faction to a party regardless of the realm they play on, and then queue up for a 5-player regular or Heroic dungeon.

To learn more about Real ID, please visit the Real ID web page and read the FAQ.

For more information about how the Real ID Party system works, check out the FAQ below.

Real ID Party Feature – Test Phase FAQ

Q: What is the Real ID Party feature?
A: Players can now invite Real ID friends of the same faction to a 5-player normal or Heroic dungeon group, regardless of what realm their friends are on. This system is designed to make it easier for real-life friends to play together.

Q: How do I invite Real ID friends to a Real ID party?
A: Inviting a Real ID friend to a Real ID Party is simple. Just open up your Friends list to see which Real ID friends are online. Click on the “Plus” button to send an invitation to a Real ID friend to join your group. You can continue to add Real ID friends to your party until the group is complete. If you cannot complete the group with Real ID friends, you are free to join the Dungeon Finder to fill in the missing roles.

Q: Does a player need to have Real ID enabled to accept a Real ID group invite?
A: Yes, a player must have Real ID enabled, and both players must be Real ID friends to accept or initiate Real ID party invitations.

Q: Can a party leader invite a mix of Real ID friends, character-level friends, guildmates, or random players to the same party?
A: A party leader can invite any combination of Real ID friends from any realm, guildmates from the same realm, or other characters from the same realm to the same party. If the party leader isn’t able to fill up the entire party, the Dungeon Finder can fill in the missing roles.

Q: Can I invite someone who is not a Real ID friend?
A: You can only invite members to a party if they are on your Real ID friends list or if they are on the same realm as you are.

Q: Can I invite a friend of a Real ID friend?
A: No, you can only invite those who are Real ID friends with you directly to the party.

Q: How long will the testing period last?
A: We haven’t yet determined how long the testing period will last. We'll keep you updated on the status and inform you when the test period is going to end in the future.

Q: Will aspects of the Real ID Party system be premium-based?
A: We'll have information on the premium-based aspects of the Real ID Party system toward the end of the testing period.




Season Transition Compensation Action
Originally Posted by Bashiok (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
For our lack of forewarning on the inclusion of new item level 371 gear with Season 10 we’ll be providing the previously announced (http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2794770941) 4000 Honor Point compensation during scheduled maintenance on July 19.

During maintenance, 4000 Honor Points will be automatically applied to all characters that spent Honor on any item level 365 items following the release of 4.2, between the June 28 and July 5 maintenances.

The compensation Honor Points given will be able to go over the point cap, but anyone who goes over will not be able to earn more Honor until they spend under the 4000 cap. Any Honor over the cap will need to be spent before the start of Season 11 when it will be converted to gold. Any characters receiving the compensation honor will also receive an in-game mail explaining the compensation and additional details.

Again, we apologize for not communicating the item level 371 gear introduction, and hope these 4000 Honor Points will offer you some help in obtaining the correct items.
by Published on 2011-07-14 03:27 PM

Update #2 - Nothing in Europe at the moment.

Update - Sources and various GM chats seem to indicate that this is intended, and the service will be offered for free for the moment, most likely as a trial.

Cross-Realms Battle.net Invitation now Activated
It looks like the feature to invite your RealID friends from other realms has been activated on US realms today.

IMPORTANT - Since this isn't official yet, it could perfectly be a mistake from Blizzard. If that's the case you can fully expect it to be disabled soon. Don't get too excited.



by Published on 2011-07-14 06:13 AM

Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest - Legendary Staff "Delegation" Quest
Shattered Oath (US - Emerald Dream) has been progressing nicely on the Legendary Staff questline and released a video of the Delegation quest to recover the Branch of Nordrassil after defeating Volcanus the Firelord.

The video below is from a Restoration Druid point of view, they also released one from an Arcane Mage PoV.

Description from the video
Poor guy. Three phase fight, pretty easy. If you wipe you must do all the phases again.

Phase 1: Harbingers of Flame are the same trash from Alysrazor but more of them, just assign interrupters.

Phase 2: The Tormented Protector should be tanked away from the middle. He'll root the entire raid then cast a 1,000 yard knockback that will knock you off the edge to your death unless you have his roots debuff on you. The roots also tick for 10,000 a second and should be dispelled after his stomp.

Burning Treants spawn in the middle, move slowly and pulse a hellfire around them that will kill you if you stand near them, ranged should kill and knockback them.

Phase 3: Volcanus himself summons slow moving columns of killsyou and pulses a steadily increasing AoE so you should bloodlust on him.





Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Dungeon Journal bugs and accuracy
We are looking at the concerns over the faces blocking the map view in the Dungeon Journal. We're aware of this concern and may provide an option to turn them off at a future point in time. We'll provide information on this though when we are able.

As for the concerns over accuracy, there is always the potential for information to change based on adjustments made to the bosses and the fights. Overall though, the Dungeon Journal should be seen as an accurate representation of the boss fights and abilities. We have seen a lot of misunderstandings or inaccurate information provided via external sources and hope that the Dungeon Journal can better shore up those external sources with its information.

As for some concerns over missing loot, we did purposefully leave out "grab-bag" items. Meaning, items that have the potential for dropping on multiple bosses were not added to the listing of items. We may choose to change this decision at a future point in time if we feel that it's causing additional confusion. For now though, just be aware that these items do not appear in the listed loot tables. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

25 Daily Quests Limit
Is there a point in daily quest limits? Yes. Of course there is. Dailies allow people the opportunity to gain (in some cases) reputation as well as money or skills. We also don't want people feeling that they need to do 100+ daily quests a day just because they can either. It should also be about making choices on an individual basis about what quests you want to work on and still not get overwhelmed by the amount of dailies you feel you need to do each day.

People have asked us if we'd ever raise the cap to this, and we can't say we never will. If the time comes that we think it's a good idea, we'll address the possibility then. For now, it's as it is. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Fun and Games at gamescom 2011
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Surely you’ve heard the news by now: Blizzard Entertainment will be at gamescom 2011 in Cologne, Germany, from 17—21 August, and we’ve got a whole host of fun and games waiting for you.

You an eSports fan? Come and enjoy the StarCraft II show matches, featuring some of the best players on the planet. Want to witness top guilds’ abilities and precision? For the Horde and Ensidia will confront the latest dangers to threaten Azeroth in World of Warcraft Live Raids.

If that’s not enough to satisfy your insatiable appetite for entertainment then make sure to take part in our activities and show the gamescom 2011 audience your talent.


  • Become your character and show off your style in the Blizzard costume contest! Terran, goblin, zerg or worgen. Mage, zealot, warrior or overlord. Your imagination is the only limit!
  • Choose a World of Warcraft race, put on your dancing shoes, and prepare to dazzle the audience as you show us your moves. That’s right, it’s the Blizzard dance contest!
  • Prove your knowledge of the Blizzard Entertainment universes! Enter our daily quizzes to receive your well-deserved rewards.

To apply for entry into the dance and costume contests you simply need to send us an email at gamescom2011@blizzard.com. If you are selected to participate we will let you know. We expect a lot of competitors for both contests, so make sure you contact us as soon as possible to have a shot at winning some amazing prizes! All the details regarding the dance and costume contests’ rules and prizes will be posted in an upcoming blog article.

So, are you ready to take to the stage and dance and dress your way to victory?

New Warcraft Fan Art
The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with four new pieces of fan artwork.

by Published on 2011-07-13 03:14 AM

Patch 4.2 Hotfixes - July 12
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
July 12
  • Pet Defensive stance will no longer cause the pet to assist the player while a vanity pet is active.

Druid (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
  • Rake should again be able to trigger Primal Fury.

Dungeons & Raids
Firelands
  • Characters who make for a good Dinner Time should no longer be ported to Ancient Core Hounds they are not in combat with when the ability’s effects end.
  • Fire Scorpion and Flamewaker corpses no longer provide loot or reputation when they’re eaten by Hell Hounds and Fire Turtles.
  • Unstable Magmas are now gaining energy properly from the Flamewaker Animators.
  • Alysrazor
    • Voracious Hatchlings will now Imprint on a new target if their current target dies.
  • Majordomo Fandral Staghelm
    • Flame Scythe now properly hits pets.
    • Fandral can now cast Searing Seeds and Burning Orbs while moving.
  • Ragnaros
    • Several locations which could be used to avoid damage from Engulfing Flames have been adjusted so they’re no longer safe spots.
    • Combustible will always be reapplied to Living Meteors, even if the attacking character dies as a Meteor Impact occurs.
    • Living Meteors will now become frozen by Cenarius under all conditions when transitioning into phase 4 on Heroic difficulty.
    • If a Living Meteor is frozen in the lava pool during the transition into phase 4 on Heroic difficulty, it will teleport on a player after the stun ends, but will no longer explode immediately. Players now have a 2-second window to escape the meteor’s melee range.
    • Living Meteors will gain the Living Meteor Transform buff once frozen in the Breadth of Frost trap, even if a meteor is knocked into it.
    • If a Living Meteor's fixated target drops aggro via Feign Death, the meteor will target the pet, and then select a new non-pet target upon which to fixate.
    • Ragnaros now enrages after 18 minutes in all raid difficulties and sizes, up from 15 minutes.

Quests & Creatures
Hyjal Regrowth & Molten Front
  • Wounded Hyjal Defenders should no longer sometimes spawn in with full health and in a standing position when players are on the quest Burn Victims.
  • Molten Lords no longer become tapped by the first player who attacks them with any of the Trained Fire Hawk's abilities while on the quest Fire in the Skies, allowing for any player who dealt damage to the Molten Lord to gain quest credit upon its death.
  • Windcallers now respawn within 1 minute on average for the quest Into the Fire when both are rendered inactive. Additionally, players will only experience a maximum of approximately 75 seconds of a delay before they are able to initiate the escort event.

Arena Season Transition Compensation
Originally Posted by Bashiok (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We're still on track for 7/19 and will have some additional info posted soon on who should expect to receive the 4000 compensation points.

World-Class Professional eSports at BlizzCon 2011
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We’re pleased to announce that the Global Battle.net Invitational and GSL October Final are both set to take place live during BlizzCon Friday, October 21, 2011 and October 22, 2011. Top competitors from all over the world will take to the stage in front of a sold-out crowd and put their skills to the test for a combined prize pool of nearly $300,000 USD. Whether you’re attending BlizzCon in person or from the comfort of your own home, you’ll be able to catch all of the action and root for your favorite players.

More information about BlizzCon and the 2011 Global Battle.net Invitational can be found at the official BlizzCon website(www.blizzcon.com), and more information on the GSL can be found on its official website(www.gomtv.net). Read the official press release here.

Art Gallery Update
The Trading Card Game art gallery has been updated with 10 new pieces of art.




Comics
Dark Legacy Comics #296 and Teh Gladiators #252 + #253 are out!

by Published on 2011-07-12 05:17 AM

Update #4 - Extended US Maintenance
Servers are up!
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
10:40 PDT 07/12/11
All realms are now available for play. Thank you for your patience and we’ll see you in game!

Method vs Baleroc (25 Heroic) - World First Kill Video
Method released a video of their Baleroc Heroic world first kill and it will probably be useful to all the guilds still working on that boss. At the moment, about 30 guilds in the world defeated him in Heroic Mode.


Also, the guild Karfagen released their video of their kill of Fandral Staghelm in 25-Man Heroic Mode.



Ask The Devs 11 Healing Answers Coming Friday
Blizzard heard you like blue posts, so they made a blue posts about a blue post so you can know when it's blue posted.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
The subject line says it all.

We will be posting a new sticky thread with the answers to thirteen of your most popular questions (on the subject of healing) on Friday, July 15th at 9AM PDT.

US Maintenance from 1AM PDT to 7AM PDT
Tomorrow's maintenance was moved to a weird time slot for unknown reasons, and I guess it might have something to do with Cataclysm launching in China on July 12. That would explain why this is an "exception to the norm".
Originally Posted by Nevalistis (Blue Tracker)
There's a number of reasons as to why we might change around maintainance times, Sèrènity. They may be longer or shorter depending on how much needs to be accomplished in that time. What we need to accomplish may change over time too, and times and schedules can be affected by that.

Some of you noticed the maintenance time was shortened by a couple of hours - that wasn't a typo, that was a change in plans. It was decided less needed to be done this week, so less time is allotted for the maintenance.

As for why maintenance is a little earlier, some things may need to be done within a specific window of time. In addition, we want to make sure that window interferes as little as possible with your play time. There's very little chance we can ever do maintenance at a time when it won't inconvenience SOMEONE, so we do our best to pick and move times where appropriate to impact fewer players.

I know this is all wonderfully cryptic, but I hope it provides at least a bit of the insight you were looking for. >^.^<

I live in Perth, so local time is 4pm-10pm, which eliminates any possibility of play for me. I'm not using this as a reason against it, since you can't please everyone (Someone needs to get hit by it), but I assumed the previous time slot was the most ideal, is all. Has that changed at all?
No, that has not changed. This just means there are certain situations or circumstances where we'll change the maintenance window to align with other tasks and ensure as little downtime as possible.

For all intents and purposes, tomorrow morning's maintenance window is an exception to the norm. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Curse is Hiring!
Curse's network of websites now reaches over 14 million unique users each month. As a result of this growth, the team here at Curse is looking to fill a few positions in the near future!


If you're looking for a chance to get into the industry, this may be the opportunity you've been seeking . At the moment, we are looking to fill the following positions:



For more information on working at Curse and for a full job listing, please head to our Jobs page on Curse.com. Thank you for your interest!


Leaders Of The Alliance And Horde -- Baine Bloodhoof
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Of all the heroes of the tauren tradition, Cairne Bloodhoof stands highest among them for his contributions to his race. Uniting a people who had been nomadic for countless generations, securing an alliance that saved his race from extinction at the hands of the centaur, establishing the first permanent capital city the tauren had ever known -- the list of his accomplishments grows with each retelling.

As the new high chieftain, Baine Bloodhoof now struggles to hold together the legacy that his father helped create. In the face of increased dissension from the tribes over Garrosh Hellscream's ever-present demands, Alliance incursions from the Barrens, and quilboar assaults on his people, the young chieftain finds his leadership tested as never before.

Hamuul shook his head as if to clear it. "We existed in a time before the coming of the orcs, if you'll remember. Your father may have owed a debt to Thrall for all he did for our people, but this is a new Horde. I have heard whispers of other tauren. Some are wondering if this Horde is really something we should be a part of anymore." He snorted. "The Horde has done much and we owe much to it, but you must admit that their sentiments are not completely without merit."

Baine pulled a map from the shelf and began looking for all known water wells in Mulgore. "As you say, my father may have owed a debt to Thrall, but he believed in the Horde he helped shape. Though my father may be gone, and despite these changes we face, I still believe in the Horde."

Blizzard Entertainment is proud to present the latest entry in the Leaders of Azeroth short story series: "As Our Fathers Before Us"!


Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Legendary Staff - 25 Embers, now what?
If you've reached the Delegation portion of the legendary quest line, it's a puzzle that intrepid raiders will need to solve starting on your next instance reset. Keep on the lookout for key hints and items during each boss fight in your raid after the next maintenance period. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

New Raid Encounters Design and Tuning
We think one of the biggest challenges in encounter design for a 7-year old game is coming up with mechanics that long-time players haven’t seen a dozen times before. To that end, we're really reluctant to put too many constraints on encounter design. The majority of our fights have 2 tanks and we think that’s close enough. Shoe-horning a 2nd tank role into a fight for which it doesn’t really fit doesn’t make that 2nd tank feel any more heroic – they are often just soaking cleaves, doing taunt swaps, or corralling adds or something.

On normal mode Firelands, the numbers are tuned such that you can get away with comps with fewer tanks and healers, if you’re overgeared or fairly skilled. In Heroic mode, there is only one fight (Majordomo) designed as a single tank fight. Some guilds use one tank on Baelroc, but that puts a lot of stress on the healers, and we see a lot of guilds use two as well. We also see DPS sometimes try to tank, or see tanks tank in DPS gear. It depends a lot on what your group can manage.

I’ll also point out that we had a much more inconsistent number of tanks before dual spec was introduced. It’s not really a dual spec issue at all. We wouldn’t expect a lot of zero tank or five tank fights. But again, it’s more important for us to have diverse, fun encounters than for everyone in the raid to get equal time in the spotlight on every single encounter. If you never get your time, that’s another matter, but I don’t think we’re there. On the other hand, some fights (Shannox and Alysrazor) give two tanks some really fun things to do.

7 also isn’t a lot of bosses (in terms of pure head count, not content or quality), so it’s hard to extrapolate a lot of “trends” at this point. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Goblins Alchemy Racial Bonus
We picked the +15 to Alchemy bonus for goblins because there has always been a strong association between the race and the profession. Not only do goblins have a notable, if not sometimes-deadly penchant for experimentation in World of Warcraft (just take a look at Goblin Rocket Fuel, for example), but there was a Goblin Alchemist unit in Warcraft III, as well as a goblin alchemist building in Warcraft II. So the bonus fits both thematically and in terms of precedence.

Of course, you might feel differently and think that alchemy meshes a little better with another race, or that another profession (like mining) might be better suited for goblins, and that's cool. We're pretty happy with where goblin racials are currently, but we certainly always appreciate your feedback -- be it about something as large as class balance or as specific as how racial bonuses tie in terms of lore. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Insane in the Membrane in Cataclysm
Yes, you can still earn the Insane In The Membrane achievement, which grants the title.

Cataclysm made some aspects of it a bit easier, and some even more insane than before. Ravenholdt reputation in particular, if you didn't work on it prior to 4.0, is simply punishing.

Have fun out there! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Guild Reputation and Guild Permissions
We know that players would like to see more guild management options based around guild reputation, be that in terms of setting up bank permissions (like you've suggested) or simply sorting the roster by current reputation level. While we don't have any plans that we can share with you right now on that topic, we've definitely been listening to your feedback and this is something we're considering iterating/improving upon for future content. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Battle.net Authenticator Recent Changes
This isn't a money saving scheme since your not actually spending anything to generate the code, nor are you impacting bandwidth in anyway. While your concerns are noted, your account no less secure than it was before, the only change is that you will only be prompted once a week to enter unless you change IP address, from where you'll need to enter your authenticator code.

There are a lot of valid concerns, which our developers are aware about, however we cannot give a direct response to all posts made.

Never the less we are not ignoring any feedback posted, its read and noted.

As for authenticator information, this is managed server side not on your actual system. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

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