World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

Discover Fractured Peaks
Fractured Peaks is home to craggy steppes and snow-laden pathways, creating an unforgiving landscape rife with demons to slay and secrets to discover. This is where your wanderer’s legend is forged. After completing the prologue, the Fractured Planes will be yours to explore as you wish. There’s much to experience even in this small slice of Sanctuary, so we wanted to call out a few activities of interest.

Nestled among the mountains is the city of Kyovashad, a safe zone where you can repair and purchase new gear, upgrade your health potion, access the Stash, and much more. Think of the city as your base of operations between excursions into the frigid expanse of the zone.

The Main Questline of Diablo IV is rich and consists of multiple Acts. Look for Main Questline markers on your map to begin your pursuit of Lilith. Additionally, there are numerous Side Quests to embark upon throughout Fractured Peaks during your travels. If you find yourself slaying demons near the town of Nevesk, check out the Woodsman of Nevesk Side Quest and one of the nearby Altars of Lilith. Created by Lilith’s first children, these Altars are spread throughout Sanctuary. Finding them provides a permanent boost to the Core Stats of all characters on the Eternal Realm.

While trudging through the snow, you may come across World and Legion Events. World Events are small experiences that arise at random within the zone and may require you to do things such as escorting a lost soul to its loved one or satiate the hunger of bloodthirsty obelisks. World Events can usually be completed within a couple of minutes and are completely optional, but they always provide a reward for your heroics. There are many World Events for you to discover during the Open Beta, try completing them with other players, too.

In contrast, Legion Events are longer experiences meant to challenge you. Ensure you are prepared to overcome hordes of demons before entering them, and if you’re able, take them on with the aid of other players. These events will usually be marked on your map but are sometimes revealed after conquering a Stronghold. With risk comes reward—complete a Legion Event and you’ll be rewarded handsomely for prevailing. These events are optional and can be completed more than once.

Dungeons are a cornerstone of the Diablo universe. Diablo IV, and this Open Beta has no shortage of them to explore. Dungeons and their recommended Level to complete are displayed on your map. These are tight, tense instances where determination and skill will guide you to victory over whatever hell you discover within. Dungeons are a great place to put your skills to the test while also racking up useful gear for even more threatening encounters, such as world bosses.


Combat Massive World Bosses
Daring wanderers seeking a sizeable challenge should look no further—Ashava, a whirlwind of pestilence, has recently emerged in Fractured Peaks. Journal entries recounting sightings of this gargantuan plague bearer make note of her two massive forearm blades and ability to coat the ground in a viscous poison. Her blades, which can cleanly cut through stone and flesh alike, are to be feared. Records appear to mention a way to weaken Ashava, but unfortunately that portion of the page has corroded away.

It is thought that one wanderer alone cannot bring this beast to its knees. Come prepared for an intense fight and recruit your friends and other players to pursue the ultimate glory of conquering one of the Burning Hells’ most heinous creations to date. Should you find a path to victory, a sizeable loot drop awaits.

Here’s when you’ll have an opportunity to combat Ashava during the Open Beta and Early Access weekends:

• March 18 at 10 a.m., 12 p.m., 10 p.m. and midnight PDT
• March 25 at 10 a.m., 12 p.m., 10 p.m. and midnight PDT

Open Beta PC Specs
Knowing if your PC is also ready to reclaim Sanctuary from Lilith’s legions is crucial. We have provided both the minimum and recommended requirements for PC to point you in the right direction. During both the Open Beta and at launch, Diablo IV will not support ray tracing, but this is a feature we plan to add sometime after launch.

Minimum Requirements for PC*
Settings to run the Diablo IV Open Beta at 1080p native resolution / 720p render resolution, low graphics settings, 30 fps.

• Operating System: 64-bit Windows 10
• Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K or AMD FX-8100
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 or AMD Radeon R9 280
• DirectX: Version 12
• Storage: SSD with 45 GB available space
• Internet: Broadband Connection

Recommended Specifications for PC
Settings to run the Diablo IV Beta at 1080p resolution, medium graphics settings, 60fps.

• Operating System: 64-bit Windows 10
• Processor: Intel Core i5-4670K or AMD R3-1300X
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon RX 470
• DirectX: Version 12
• Storage: SSD with 45 GB available space
• Internet: Broadband Connection

*Diablo IV will attempt to run on hardware below minimum specifications, including HDDs, dual-core CPUs, and Integrated GPUs. However, the game experience may be significantly diminished.

Note: A Xbox Live Gold or PlayStation Plus subscription will not be required to play Diablo IV during the Open Beta and Early Access weekends in most regions. In Germany, a PlayStation Plus subscription will be required due to ratings requirements. Once Diablo IV launches, a Xbox Live Gold or PlayStation Plus subscription will be required to access some of the game’s multiplayer features.


Open Beta Early Download
Prepare yourself for the descent into Hell by downloading the Diablo IV Beta early.

• Early Access: Early Download begins Wednesday, March 15 at 9 a.m. PDT
• Open Beta: Early Download begins Wednesday, March 22 at 9 a.m. PDT
  
  • Players who have already downloaded for Early Access do not need to download again for Open Beta.

How To Early Download Diablo IV Open Beta
PC

• Launch the Battle.net client. If Diablo IV is not already in your Favorites bar, you can add it by clicking on the + icon. Alternatively, you can find Diablo IV by accessing the All Games page. You’ll see Diablo IV at the top of the list.
• Once you get to the Diablo IV Game Page. Click the blue button that says Install. The game will install and once it’s available, click Play to Launch.

Xbox

• Launch the Xbox Store and search for Diablo IV–Open Beta. Select Download.

PlayStation

• Launch the PlayStation Store and search for Diablo IV Open Beta. Select Download.

Share Your Journey in the Diablo IV Forums
Starting on March 17, wanderers across all platforms can casually talk about Diablo IV, report bugs, and provide feedback in our new Diablo IV forums. Once the forums go live, visit our homepage and click on the forums tab in the upper left corner to become a part of our incredible Diablo IV community. We’ll see you there!


Community Play Livestream
On March 24 at 11 a.m. PDT, we’ll gather members of the development team for our first Community Play Livestream. Join us to gleam tips and tricks from creators of the game as we play through some of the Open Beta content live! We’ll update this section with the livestream’s start time in the future.

Greetings,

Over the past few weeks, we’ve taken actions that removed almost 120,000 malicious accounts from the World of Warcraft ecosystem, including both Wrath of the Lich King Classic and Classic Era. This is in addition to our usual, ongoing banwaves, which often include actions against tens of thousands of accounts per week.

As a supplement to these recent actions, we want you to know that as of next week’s regional maintenance, we will be returning the original Death Knight character creation restrictions to Wrath of the Lich King Classic. This means that unless you already have a level 55 character on your account, you will be unable to create a Death Knight. We felt it was very important for the launch of Wrath of the Lich King classic to give anyone who wanted to hop into this iconic expansion the ability to do so with as few barriers as possible. Allowing every account access to Death Knights-- even if they did not meet the historic requirements --was important. However, now that the initial launch period has passed, we no longer wish to allow the unrestricted creation of Death Knights on brand new accounts. It’s a tempting vector for malicious actors to use to get into the game and start exploiting very quickly.

We hope that this helps slow the proliferation of malicious behavior in Wrath of the Lich King Classic. It’s important to keep in mind that as long as there is a demand for gold and other services that players are willing to pay real money for, these malicious actors will keep coming back. Please-- never hesitate to report suspected cheating such as buying and selling gold for real money, automation, and advertisements for power leveling or any real-money sales in chat. Your reports greatly help our efforts to take actions that improve the game.

Thanks to everyone who has commented on this issue over the past several months, and thanks to everyone who helps by reporting suspicious activity.

Here are this week’s PTR notes for Embers of Neltharion:

New Zone: Zaralek Cavern

• The Embers of Neltharion campaign is now available for testing.

New Raid: Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible

Millennia ago, Neltharion carved deep places in the earth where he conducted world altering experiments. After his death, these sites were lost to time, until now. Forces seeking to claim the Earth-Warder’s legacy raid his dominion in search for powerful artifacts. Now the champions of Azeroth must venture into darkness and ensure the crucible’s dangerous power doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible features nine boss encounters: Kazzara, the Hellforged, The Amalgamation Chamber, The Forgotten Experiments, Assault of the Zaqali, Rashok, the Elder, The Vigilant Steward, Zskarn, Magmorax, Echo of Neltharion, and Scalecommander Sarkareth.

• Raid testing begins this Thursday, March 16. View the PTR raid testing schedule for more details.

Crucible Class Armor Sets

• Death Knight, Havoc Demon Hunter, Druid, Mage, Brewmaster Monk, Holy Paladin, and Protection Paladin class armor sets are available for testing. Visit Setzertauren in Stormwind and Orgrimmar to pick up the sets.
• Class armor set details can be found in this feedback thread. Please share bugs you find via the in-game bug reporting tool and your feedback about the bonuses in the feedback thread.

Dragonflight Season 2

• Mythic+
  
  • The remaining Dragonflight dungeons will enter the fray:
    
    • Brackenhide Hollow
    • Halls of Infusion
    • Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr
    • Neltharus
  • Four dungeons from past expansions will provide new challenges to keep the Mythic+ rotation fresh:
    
    • Freehold, Battle for Azeroth
    • The Underrot, Battle for Azeroth
    • Neltharion’s Lair, Legion
    • Vortex Pinnacle, Cataclysm
      
      • Vortex Pinnacle will be available for testing in a future PTR build.
  • Seasonal affixes are in development and will be available for testing in a future PTR build.
  • Dragonflight Season 2 Mythic+ testing begins on Thursday, March 16. Visit the feedback thread for details.

Classes

• Druid
  
  • Balance
    
    • The second Moonfire cast by Twin Moons no longer generates Astral Power.
      
      • Developers’ note: With the increase in Moonfire Astral Power generation from 2 to 6 in Embers of Neltharion, this doubling of AP from Twin Moons is stronger than we intend. This change makes it consistent with Astral Power generated by Sunfire.
  • Feral
    
    • Fixed an issue where Sudden Ambush was not affecting Shred and Rake attacks during Berserk.
    • Fixed an issue where Raging Fury was not extending the duration of Tiger’s Fury.
    • Updated descriptions of Pouncing Strikes and Bloodtalons to specify they increase the damage of your attacks for their full duration.
      
      • Developers’ note: This copies the language from Tiger’s Fury and distinguishes effects which snapshot their benefits at the time a damage over time spell is cast (Tiger’s Fury, Bloodtalons, Rake from Stealth) from those that only increase spell damage as long as they’re active (Sabertooth, new Berserk).
• Paladin
  
  • Holy
    
    • Avenging Crusader has been redesigned – You become the ultimate crusader of light for 12 seconds. Crusader Strike and Judgment cool down 30% faster and heal up to 5 injured allies for 750% of the damage done, split evenly among them. If Avenging Wrath is talented, also increases Judgment, Crusader Strike, and auto-attack damage by 30%.
• Priest
  
  • Shadow Word: Death now has a 10 second cooldown (was 20 seconds).
  • 
    Discipline
    
    • Enduring Luminescence now also reduces the cast time of Power Word: Radiance by 30%.
    • Power Word: Radiance now has a spell school of Radiant (was Holy).
  • Shadow
    
    • Shadow Crash damage reduced by 70%.
    • Shadow Crash now has a 20 second cooldown (was 30 seconds).
    • Death and Madness Insanity generation reduced to 8 (was 30).
    • Death and Madness generates Insanity immediately instead of over 3 seconds.
    • Shadow Word: Death now generates 4 Insanity.
    • Deathspeaker trigger rate increased by 50%.
    • Deathspeaker now increases the damage of Shadow Word: Death by 25% while active.
    • Deathspeaker now temporarily increases the maximum charges of Shadow Word: Death by 1.
    • Deathspeaker no longer triggers Death and Madness’ cooldown.
    • New Talent: Distorted Reality – Increases the damage of Devouring Plague by 20%, but Devouring Plague deals its damage over 12 seconds and its Insanity cost is increased by 25.
    • Encroaching Shadows has been removed.
    • Devouring Plague instant damage increased by 75%.
    • Surge of Insanity has moved to Encroaching Shadows’ position.
    • Surge of Insanity now has a Spell Alert while active.
    • Mental Decay now updates the maximum duration of Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch so that the remaining durations are more easily understood.
• Shaman
  
  • Elemental
    
    • Flame Shock’s dispel protection from Control of Lava (PvP Talent) is now a baseline part of Flame Shock.
  • Enhancement
    
    • Flame Shock’s dispel protection from Control of Lava (PvP Talent) is now a baseline part of Flame Shock.

Player Versus Player

• Classes
  
  • Hunter
    
    • Interlope (PvP Talent) has been redesigned – Misdirection now causes your pet to redirect the next 3 hostile spells cast on your target. Misdirection cooldown increased by 15 seconds. Your pet must be within 20 yards of the target for spells to be redirected.
      
      • Developers’ note: We’re still working on this talent, so there may be a few bugs with this ability in this week’s PTR.
  • Mage
    
    • Frost
      
      • Frost Bomb (PvP Talent) explosion damage increased by 50%. Dispelling Frost Bomb before its explosion now grants a charge of Brain Freeze.
  • Priest
    
    • New PvP Talent: Phase Shift – Step into the shadows when you cast Fade, avoiding all attacks and spells for 0.5 seconds. Interrupt effects are not affected by Phase Shift.
    • Phase Shift has been added to the Personal Resource Display.
    • New PvP Talent: Absolute Faith – Leap of Faith also pulls the spirit of the 3 furthest allies within 40 yards and distributes health between you and the affected allies.
    • Eternal Rest (PvP Talent) has been removed.
    • Delivered from Evil (PvP Talent) has been removed.
  • Shaman
    
    • Elemental
      
      • Stormkeeper increases Lightning Bolt damage by 30% for Elemental in PvP combat (was 115%).
      • Casting Lightning Bolt with Surge of Power causes 1 additional Elemental Overload in PvP combat (was 2).
      • Lightning Bolt damage increased by 53% for Elemental in PvP combat.
      • Control of Lava (PvP Talent) has been removed.
      • New Talent: Volcanic Surge – Increases the damage of Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Lava Burst by 20%. Lava Surge instead reduces the cast time of your next Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, or Lava Burst by 25%, stacking up to 2 times.
    • Enhancement
      
      • Thundercharge (PvP Talent) has been removed.
  • Warlock
    
    • Bane of Fragility (PvP Talent) has been removed.
    • Destruction
      
      • Cremation (PvP Talent) has been removed.
    • Demonology
      
      • Call Fel Hunter (PvP Talent) has been removed.
      • Pleasure through Pain (PvP Talent) has been removed.

Quests

• Several new side questlines are now available:
  
  • “A Swallow’s Tale” from Effervesta in Loamm (requires completing “Six Hundred Feet Under” campaign quest)
  • “Slime Time Live” from Elder Honeypelt in Loamm (requires completing “Future Aspects” campaign quest)
  • “Mouse Detective” from Yarren in Hermit’s Hollow
  • “This Might Sting” for Dracthyr in Zaralek Cavern.

User Interface and Accessibility

• A ping animation has been added to the map when opened from the quest tracker, making it easier to spot the quest location.
• Fixed an issue where Hunter nameplate can disappear after using Feign Death.
• Fixed an issue where personal resource display and health bars can become detached or disappear.
• Edit Mode
  
  • Pet Frame can now be moved separately from Player Frame.
  • The Edit Mode menu has been reorganized, with several options now hidden under Advanced Options.
  • The visibility toggle of the Buff and Debuff frames have been combined into one checkbox, but their functionality remains the same.
  • Encounter Bar will stay visible if it’s already shown when entering Edit Mode.
• Options
  
  • The Graphics Quality section has been reorganized into tabs.
  • The Auto Self Cast and Self Cast Key settings have been combined into a single dropdown.
  • Each Action Bar now has its own keybind section that appears if that Action Bar is enabled (they were previously grouped together under one section).
  • Mousing over a keybind row will now highlight the corresponding action bar button, and vice versa.