World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

We’re making it even easier to find your friends and join them on their adventures through Azeroth with the addition of a Quick Join option in patch 7.1: Return to Karazahn.

You’ll be able to quickly and easily see friends who have queued for select eligible content within your Social tab (o) in the “Quick Join” tab. You’ll

also be able to recommend others by using /invite to join the group even if they aren’t already friends with the group leader. Additionally, friends won’t need to leave their queue to add you and will receive a join request that they can accept or deny for each additional member.

What content queues will you be able to join your friends for?

• Dungeon Finder
  
• Raid Finder
  
• Premade Group Listings (once the friend has joined the group)
  
• Non-rated Battlegrounds
  
• Non-rated Arenas
  
• World PvP such as Ashran

So whether it’s your guildmate, your Battle.net friend, or your Real ID friend, you’ll be able to find each other and take part in a variety of game aspects without the need to ask the age old questions of– “What are you doing?” “Any room in your group?” “Can my other friend join?” You’ll just be able to see all of your friends, see what they’re up to, and ask to join with just a couple of clicks. It’s so easy, a drogbar can do it!

Hey everyone,

We’ve seen some talk among the community that you might be expecting to hear some news on legacy servers at BlizzCon, and we just wanted to take a moment to let you know that while we’re still discussing the possibility, we won’t have any updates to share on that until after the show.

These past few months we’ve been laser-focused on the launch of Legion and getting Patch 7.1: Return to Karazhan ready to go (it’s almost here!), as well as prepping for BlizzCon—which is always a huge undertaking itself. You’ve heard us say that the launch of Legion was just the beginning of the story we want to tell in this expansion. What we will focus on at BlizzCon is how the team is committed to making sure we bring you a steady stream of content going forward, and we can’t wait to share what’s next for Legion.

Thanks for your patience, and we’ll see you at BlizzCon.

-J. Allen Brack and the World of Warcraft development team

An extra weekly quest and rewards are here— the new Legion Dungeons event is underway!

This Week
All week, open Group Finder (default hotkey: i) and then select Dungeon Finder to queue for any Legion dungeon on Normal or Heroic difficulty. Alternately, get a group of veteran dungeoneers together and travel to one of the Legion dungeons on Mythic difficulty:

• The Arcway
  
• Assault on Violet Hold
  
• Black Rook Hold
  
• Court of Stars
  
• Darkheart Thicket
  
• Eye of Azshara
  
• Karazhan
  
• Halls of Valor
  
• Maw of Souls
  
• Neltharion’s Lair
  
• Vault of the Wardens

Look for the following all week long:

• Archmage Timear near Violet Hold in Dalaran has a quest for you.
  
  • Quest requirement: Complete 4 Legion dungeons on Mythic difficulty (not Mythic Keystone difficulty).
    
  • Rewards: One loot box containing a piece of gear from Heroic difficulty Emerald Nightmare.
    
• Passive bonus: The final boss in each dungeon drop additional loot on all difficulties (except Mythic Keystone difficulties).

We will be easing a couple of linked features with 7.1.

First, Court of Stars and The Arcway will now unlock account-wide once each individual dungeon is completed once on an account.

Second, World Quests will no longer have the "friendly" reputation unlock requirement for secondary/alt characters. Once you hit 110 on an alt, you will immediately receive a quest to speak with Khadgar to receive your Flight Master's Whistle and unlock World Quests, as long as you've already unlocked World Quests on your main.

If you’ve got a question that needs to be asked at BlizzCon, we’ve got you covered.

On Saturday, November 5 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. PST on the Main Hall (D) stage at BlizzCon 2016, several Lead World of Warcraft developers will answer questions from attendees and queries gathered online. Our forum hotline is now open for you to submit your question.

Click here to go to the World of Warcraft discussion forum and submit your question for the BlizzCon Q&A.

The online submissions thread will be closed at 12:00 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, October 26.

If you scored a ticket to BlizzCon 2016 and would like to submit your question in-person, head up to the Darkmoon Faire community area on Level 3 on Friday, November 4 and look for the Warcraft mailbox. We’ll have everything you’ll need to write down your question for the devs, and if it’s selected, you’ll be given the opportunity to ask it live during the Q&A. Please note that in-person questions for the Q&A must be placed into the Warcraft mailbox before the end of the first day of BlizzCon.

We’re looking forward to answering as many of your questions as we can during the live panel.

For Azeroth!

Class Feedback and Solo Play
one dev plays fire mage, so that has to be uber strong, no dev plays elemental shaman so we pretend that specc doesn't exist. etc

Considering the WoW development team consists of hundreds of people, it is very likely that there is at least one person on the team playing your class and spec. I think a lot of people are misinterpreting, or even twisting, what Ornyx has said.

While the developers have their own philosophies, vision and game design in mind, they ultimately want the end product to be something that players will enjoy. This does not mean that any feedback to the contrary will be disregarded. Even from as early a stage as when we enter Friends & Family testing with our products, the products can change quite significantly based on the feedback received. However, if the changes would compromise the overall vision, then the developers may disagree with making those changes. That doesn’t mean that they don’t care for, or appreciate, the feedback.

To use the restaurant example that comes up quite a lot in this thread:
If the developers were chefs, they wouldn't want to open a restaurant serving food that they would not be willing to eat themselves. However, they are only human and sometimes a dish isn't served to perfection, a mistake gets made, or a dish needs a little bit more preparation than others. Sometimes a dish simply requires a little bit of salt…

To tie this back into the ongoing concerns about class balance, we've recently received some information about philosophy and potential changes for Outlaw Rogues and Havoc Demon Hunters.

However, if your class and/or spec isn't mentioned there it doesn't mean that we are ignoring you. We're collating all the feedback we're receiving and forwarding it on. I realise it's frustrating to be left waiting but please understand that if we receive any information we can share with you, then we will of course share it with you.

WQ´s are great, but they stop progressing at 850, Crafting is great, but it also stops progressing at 850 + it requires mythic dungeons, HC dungeons don´t offer progress, LFR doesn´t, non rated BG doesn't ...

There are so many things that don´t work, as you guys don´t put effort into them. You serve them to your playerbase in such a way, that they must get the impression, that you don´t care about them, but only your own kind - the raiders and mythic dungeon players, as this content is what you do as well and therefore put lots of effort into.
The re-design of Kara, damn it´s great, but it´s not accessible by the majority of your players, therefore they can never see how much work went into it and this is a problem.

What your team needs is a casual, who does not raid or do these dungeons, someone who is telling you every evening in the office, that he has nothing meaningful to do. I am sure this would change things to the good.
We have some new content coming in Patch 7.1 tailored toward solo-play as well as some changes coming to non-rated PvP that should make it feel more rewarding.

With the recent changes to emissary caches to give gear more in-line with rewards from World Quests, it is possible to get up to a gear level comparable to that of mythic dungeons without even setting foot in a mythic dungeon. You still have chances for those rewards to Warforge or Titanforge and be on the same level as rewards from higher difficulty Mythic Keystone dungeons. In this regard, gear is more accessible than ever before.

We've been seeing a lot of requests over the years for more organised smaller group content, this originally took the form of Challenge Modes and has since transitioned into the current Mythic Keystone system. Base mythic dungeons are fundamentally designed around a level of communication and co-operation that automatically match-made groups often lack.

Organised group content that requires commitment should have a reward that correlates to the investment required. This is why higher difficulty dungeons and raids have a more consistent chance of providing a more powerful reward when compared to hoping that the 830 World Quest reward will Titanforge up to 860+, but either way no matter which content you do, there is still a chance that you're going to get an upgrade.

Karazhan holds a special place in many players’ hearts because it's an iconic location in Warcraft lore and was one of the first truly accessible raids for players in terms of the number of players and co-ordination required, even when compared the 20 man versions of Zul'Gurub or Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj in classic WoW.

At BlizzCon, and through talking to fans, I've often heard stories of friendships and guilds that were formed and blossomed as a result of Karazhan. By making Karazhan a mythic dungeon it allows us to attempt to re-capture that spirit of Karazhan by promoting more organised, smaller group, play again.

Like I said in this thread, I don't think it's inherently bad for World of Warcraft to offer solo-experiences, but on the flipside I don't think it's inherently bad for the game to offer organised small group activities either. One of WoW's strengths has always been the breadth of content if offers for different playstyles. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
Elemental Shaman Concerns
I've also gathered concerns from this thread (among others) and sent them to the development team with a round of questions on our goals/philosophy for Elemental.

Once I hear back from them I'll share what I can. Thanks for your patience in the meantime! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Classes
Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
Youre talking about giving Spriests choice in 100 Talents tier? Meanwhile literally no choice for Hunter talent trees.#LetsTalk
I believe I mentioned the lack of choice/options in the Barrage/Sidewinders rows for Marks; which others concern you? (WatcherDev)

Raiding
Then Blizz deciding raiding was too expensive and worked to fix it. Being "Raid Ready" isn't a new thing like you suggest.
BC still had chain-potting with no one-per-combat limit; and in 2.0/2.1, elixirs stacked with flasks. (WatcherDev)
Anyway, I don't think we disagree. As said in the Q&A, if the market still looks like this in a month or so, that's a problem. (WatcherDev)

PvP
will pvp season end with 7.1 arrival?
No, Legion Season 1 will not end when 7.1 launches on Oct. 25th. https://t.co/a3P0uIo4FB (holinka)

Hidden Things
Still cant believe this community figured out Kosumoth. That was the one I thought would take the longest. What did you think of it? (Muffinus)
The first person in each region that unlocked the final Kosumoth orb had their name announced to the region. Did you notice? Was this cool? (Muffinus)

Will you guys ever do another secret based around spirit form and wandering the world dead?
I hope not (Muffinus)

Holiday Events
Any way you could scale holiday events? Want chances at goodies, but all my alts are still 100, not the 110 needed to participate.
a very good idea, love it! (Muffinus)

Pet Battles
Could you tell (or hint) us whether or not this mini pet is in the current live game? and if not, will it… https://t.co/dMCZiqYYq7
.Needed more anims to be a real battle pet, expect this lovely guy to show up in the future! (Muffinus)