World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies RSS Feed

by Published on 2015-04-06 05:05 PM

Update (Tuesday 10:45 PM EDT): The token is now down to 27.7k
Update (Tuesday 5:00 PM EDT): The token is now up to 31.2k
Update (Tuesday 4:00 PM EDT): The token is now up to 30.9k. The price has been going up 1% per hour.
Update (Tuesday 3:00 PM EDT): The token is now up to 30.6k. The price appears to be adjusted hourly.
Update (Tuesday 2:00 PM EDT): Tokens are live and working in the US. The price has already gone up to 30.3k.
Update (9:15 PM EDT): Added tonight's hotfixes

WoW Token Releases April 7 in the US - $20 or 30k Gold
The WoW Token is finally here this week!

  • You can purchase the WoW Token with gold without an active Subscription.
  • The gold price for tokens is set by Blizzard based on supply and demand, not by players.
  • Purchasing a WoW Token from the AH makes it Soulbound - it cannot be resold.
  • The Token grants 30 days of game time.
  • You can only buy 10 Tokens each month.
  • Tokens listings are region wide and are not limited to just your realm.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Update: The WoW Token will be going live in the Americas region (North America, Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand) on April 7 when maintenance concludes, at approximately 10 a.m. PDT. The WoW Token will be available for $20 USD/$25 AUD from the in-game Shop, and will be set at a starting price of 30,000 gold in the Auction House across the Americas region. From that point forward, the gold price will automatically fluctuate based on player supply and demand. To start we’ll be limiting the number of Token purchases to 10 within a 30-day period, but this limit may be adjusted over time. While Tokens will be available immediately from the Shop, please note that there may be a delay before Tokens put up for sale on the Auction House become available for purchase with gold.


We’ll announce additional regional details closer to the launch of the WoW Token in other regions.

Patch 6.1.2 Hotfixes - April 6
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Raids and Dungeons
  • Blackrock Foundry
    • Blackhand
      • Fixed an issue that was causing Blackhand's Slag Bombs to incorrectly explode instantly and the Slagged debuff to incorrectly persist on a character.
  • Legacy
    • Dragon Soul, Warmaster Blackhorn: Fixed an issue that could cause the encounter to not drop loot if Goriona was damaged too quickly during the transition to Stage Two.

Collections
  • Toy Box
    • Fruit Basket should no longer incorrectly have a chance to trigger trinket effects.

Items
  • Checkered Flag mount speed bonus no longer works while inside of an instance such as dungeons, raids, Arenas, or Battlegrounds.
by Published on 2015-04-06 04:39 AM

Era 3 Has Started (NA), Crusader Summary for 2.2

Top Constructed Decks of the Week & March, Mekkatorque's Workshop - Zul'Gurub Wing 2

Heroes of the Dorm Fantasy Portrait, Epic Plays #24, Into the Nexus #45

Darkmoon Faire Races
This month brings some more races to the Darkmoon Faire, in addition to the other Patch 6.1 changes. The first race uses the same course as last month, allowing you to earn Rocketeer: Gold and the Everlasting Darkmoon Firework fairly easily.

The other two races use a new course that is more challenging. These reward Big Rocketeer: Gold (Race MiniZep Controller) and Big Race Roadhog (Checkered Flag). Keep in mind that the Checkered Flag only has 50 charges and that is the more difficult of the two achievements to complete. This can be done solo if RNG lines up just right or with the help of a friend.

The new course has new powerups as well. Everything other than the speed boots and coins rotates through the buffs, so they are constantly changing. There are two new buffs, one being a rocket that shoots you up in the air and the other being a small blue portal that rushes you ahead like Disengage. You can collect coins to power your final ability. There is also a new obstacle on this course, mini-zeppelins. These will shoot you and slow you down if you get too close to them.





Armory Stats - Darkmoon Faire
This month's Darkmoon Faire has just started, but we can take a look at how people did during the last Faire. Today's sample is of 3.2 million players and 6.4 million characters.

Don't see a chart? Enable javascript!
Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Character / Items
any plans to make the challenge mode gear from MoP account wide?
No plans at this time. (WarcraftDevs)

hi guys, love your game. wondering why there is no heirloom mount that works for new Pandaren characters, is that intended?
This is a side-effect of the chauffeured mount being affiliated w/ Alliance or Horde. It’ll work once you choose a faction. (WarcraftDevs)

with Heirlooms now going up to lvl 100, can we have them drop from Garrosh again? Main draw of those was look/90-100 scaling.
Those were a reward for doing the content when it was relevant, and there are no plans to bring them back at this time. (WarcraftDevs)

Could the Polished Helm of Valor possibly get a change? Both it and the Might have Haste, which the Valor set is Crit-based.
Thank you for the feedback. This and other Heirloom stat changes are being addressed in an upcoming patch. (WarcraftDevs)

Can the Follower Trait and Follower Ability Retraining items stack please?
Items that don't have a high stack amount are our gentle way of encouraging their frequent use. (WarcraftDevs)

WoW Sale
The Battlechest is 50% off and Warlords is 25% off.



Dark Legacy Comics #484
DLC #484 has been released!

by Published on 2015-04-03 07:08 PM

Azeroth Armory: Forging Gorehowl


Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Watch legendary Hollywood blacksmith Tony Swatton (of Man at Arms) stoke the fires of his forge to bring the hellacious weapon Gorehowl to life — only to unleash its fearsome power on some unsuspecting foes. Ouch!

Do you have a favorite weapon you’d like to see emerge from the forge? Share yours with us in the comments below.
by Published on 2015-04-03 07:49 AM

PTR Leaderboard Reset and Hotfixes, Blizzard's B'Motes, Gavel of Judgement on 2.2

Blackrock Depths Heroic Boss Deck Guides - Grim Guzzler, Dark Iron Arena, Thaurissan

Hero Rotation Update, Funny Bunny Murky Now Available, Big Head Mode

Azeroth Armory
Several Twitter accounts posted a preview of something coming tomorrow, including the official Warcraft account, Michele Morrow, SwordAndStone, and more.





Patch 6.1.2 Hotfixes - April 2
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
PvP
  • Chauffeured Chopper should no longer incorrectly allow players to mount up while holding a flag or orb.
  • Ashran
    • Ashran Paladin Captains (Vanguard Samuelle and Avenger Turley) should no longer bubble hearth when they have low health. This should make the Take Them Out achievement more obtainable.

Items
  • Robo-Rooster should correctly only be allowing one Robo-Rooster to be active at a time once more.

Patch 6.1.2 - Build 19831
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
Bug Fixes
  • Implemented a client-side fix for a character name and chat filter issue. Additional work server side will be required and the issue will be resolved with realm restarts.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Racials and Faction Balance in PvP
There's an interesting social phenomenon surrounding racial balance in highly rated PvP. I don't think that equal representation (or even close) is actually possible at the top end of the rankings.

Let me preface this by saying that I'm not going to make the argument that racials are perfectly balanced. I honestly don't have much info to share in terms of actual racial balance other than it's something we talk about fairly regularly. So, don't take this as me saying "racials are fine," just providing a secondary viewpoint on racial distribution at the highest skill levels in PvP. Racial balance is something we constantly investigate and it's entirely possible we will make further adjustments in the future.

Now that we've got that out of the way: top-rated PvP'ers like to be able to play with each other. If we're looking at the top 500 PvP'ers, 500 people is a small enough community that, if I want to be sure I can always find a solid teammate, I'm going to want to pick whichever faction other people are playing.

Interestingly enough, in Mists of Pandaria, the vast majority of top-rated PvP'ers in the North American region were Horde, while the opposite was true in Europe, where most of the top-rated PvP'ers were Alliance. In NA, we saw a ton of feedback that Alliance racials (other than Human) were weak and needed buffs. In EU, we saw the same feedback, but for the Horde races. Both regions were playing the exact same game, but were giving opposing feedback -- and overwhelmingly so.

Then, Warlords released, and we made a few balance tweaks to racials that ended up being mostly buffs on the Alliance side (most notably to Stoneform), and nerfs for Horde (some of which were later reverted, e.g. Will of the Forsaken). In the wake of this, a ton of top-end North American PvP'ers faction changed to Alliance.

Now, you could make the argument that all of those players independently decided that Alliance racials were buffed so much that they should faction transfer. It's certainly possible. I think that at least some number of those players weren't faction transferring over racials, though. I think they were faction transferring because their friends and teammates were.

I guess the points I'm trying to make here are:
  • People want to play with their friends, which is pretty obvious but also has interesting social effects.
  • When you're looking at a sample size as small as 500, those social effects will amplify game balance issues, even if the actual difference is minor (or heavily influenced by perception, as the MoP example shows).

All that being said, I'll bring up racials to the design team again. Can't guarantee I'll have any info to share, just that I'll ask about it. I just think that the extreme top end is always going to skew towards one faction, even if racials are perfectly balanced. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

PvP Issues
Ultimately, I think we'd rather people be able to use their actual characters (who they've put the effort into leveling, collecting achievements, earning fancy titles, etc) for something like this, instead of requiring you to access a separate realm and make a new character that you probably don't care about as much.

That said, we've certainly experimented with some ideas along these lines. For example, you may remember the Trial of the Gladiator concept we were considering for Warlords of Draenor, which would have been a scheduled period of ladder matches that required the use of Tournament gear. There were several, very valid, concerns about what the actual implementation of that idea would have done to the normal ladders, but I think the core concept is smart, and it's possible we'll revisit that idea in the future.

Standard caveat applies that I am not a designer and am not a direct part of those decisions, so I'm mostly just spitballin' here, but I think it's a cool idea.

(Side note: although the discussion itself is fine, please avoid referring to third-party hacks by name, as it only encourages others to use them.)

A separate realm would solve a lot and make things easier as far as balance.
Realistically, I don't think we'd want to put up a separate realm that has individual balance changes that only apply there. If it's a good change, it makes sense that it should be applied to PvP on live realms as well. In cases where a change has potentially negative effects in PvE but positive ones for PvP, I think we'd rather make the change only apply in PvP situations (and have done so on several occasions).

So, in the most vaguest, hypothetical terms, if there's an ability that is ridiculously broken in PvP, like Hunter Murder of Crows, but nerfing it would hurt PVE, what are the steps taken to decide whether to nerf it or how such changes are made?
So long as we can agree we're speaking in hypotheticals here (reminder once again that I am not a designer):

We've actually done PvP-only nerfs to damage abilities many times in the past. Colossus Smash and Chaos Bolt are examples that immediately come to mind. Colossus Smash's armor reduction is lower on players, and until very recently, Chaos Bolt's damage was lowered against players.

So, using your example, if the design team were to decide that Murder of Crows needed a PvP-only nerf, they could easily make it deal less damage to players without affecting PvE in the slightest. The reason such a nerf hasn't happened isn't because the designers have decided that "PvE is more important" or anything like that, it's just because they haven't decided to make that change.

Specifically looking at Hunters -- and it's possible I'm reading into your question a little too much here -- I think a lot of people have misunderstood the intentions of the recent Tranq Shot nerf. Obviously, increasing the Focus cost will have a small impact on Hunter damage when facing comps where dispelling is important. So, it's understandable why a player upset about Hunter damage would come to the conclusion that increasing the Focus cost of Tranq Shot was intended as a PvP-specific damage nerf.

However, the potential (and minor at most) damage loss in PvP wasn't really the point of the change. Tranq Shot was nerfed because the design team felt that Tranq Shot was too powerful. The potential impact to PvP damage is just an acceptable side effect. If the goal was to reduce Hunter damage in PvP, they would have done something else entirely (possibly even the Murder of Crows nerf you've suggested).

That got a lot wordier than I was expecting, but hopefully I was at least able to answer your question.

Really, you're claiming they nerfed tranq shot for PVE reasons? It was already a lost global and 20 focus of lost dps. If PVE is truly why it was nerfed it was a nonsensical change to an already balanced ability.
Er, no. It was nerfed primarily because the designers felt it was too easy for Hunters to dispel in PvP. It just wasn't nerfed for damage reasons.

It does have an extremely minor effect in PvE, but that wasn't the focus (pun not intended). (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

CC Consolidation in PvP
This suggestion comes up a lot, and I know there are other games that have experimented with the idea. We don't think it's necessarily the right choice for WoW PvP though. Coordinating and maximizing CC is a huge part of PvP gameplay, especially in Arenas.

While there have certainly been cases of CC chains getting out of control, and it's possible that some comps still have a little too much potential for non-stop CC, we don't think removing the interaction between different CC categories entirely is the right way to resolve that. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Character / Items
We don’t currently have plans to do that. We like heirlooms being targeted to specific roles. (WarcraftDevs)
Would be fantastic for my Holy Paladin to level with full set of plate intellect gear!
This is a thing we think would be super cool! (WarcraftDevs)

Misc
If RAF recruit uses token to pay for subscription, does it count for reward the same as prepaid card/subscription?
Any form of game time counts toward rewards for the Recruit A Friend system. (WarcraftDevs)
by Published on 2015-04-01 12:55 PM

March 31 Hotfixes, Diablo Social Features, Heroes Big Head Mode, GW2 Adds Flying

Sound off with Confidence: Introducing B’Motes
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Navigating the social pitfalls of online gaming can be a challenge. How do you voice your opinion without stepping on your guildmates’ toes, or keep up with your team’s witty banter if you’re trying to concentrate on optimizing your DPS? If these are the kind of things that keep you awake at night, we have the solution. Today, we are proud to present you with a new way to enhance your Blizzard gaming experience: B’Motes!


With a staggering variety of brand-new emotes and expressions as well as an Automated Chat Optimization Overlay (AChOO*), you can finally sound just as epic as the heroes you play. To get the full run-down of how B’Motes will take your social online experience to the next level, visit the official B’Motes page now!

*Gesundheit.

New Garrison Feature: T.I.N.D.R. for Followers
More content is finally here with the new T.I.N.D.R. feature.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Just because you’re stuck on Draenor fighting a constant, desperate battle for survival doesn’t mean there isn’t time for love. Coming in Patch 6.1.4, we’re introducing a new feature designed to help your Followers locate the perfect complement to their Abilities and Traits—the T.I.N.D.R. Box!

Find companions for your companions, and steer the boat of love to safe harbor.


Acquiring a T.I.N.D.R. Box is easy! Similar to the S.E.L.F.I.E. camera, you’ll be given a random mission in your Garrison that will award a T.I.N.D.R. Box. It can then be applied to any level 100 Follower just like any other upgrade, and that Follower—armed with their new dating gadget—will spend countless hours swiping left and right as they meander through your Garrison, overriding whatever task you’ve assigned them to.


Good news for you completionists: T.I.N.D.R. Box missions will continue to flood your queue until you’ve equipped all of your Followers (including everyone recruited from your Inn and immediately set to Inactive).


When the T.I.N.D.R. box goes live, Pleasure-Bot 8000 will resign from his duties as your Garrison’s sewing machine to play host to your Followers’ relationship excursions. Once you have at least one Follower equipped with a T.I.N.D.R. Box, you’ll receive alerts while out adventuring whenever one of your Followers has found a match. Return to your Garrison and speak to Pleasure-Bot 8000 to begin their date. Be sure to act quickly—dropping out of a Mythic Raid mid-encounter, if necessary—before either prospective match gets distracted and moves on.


When your Follower returns, you’ll be able to see if their mission was successful in fanning the flames of passion, or if they’d “rather just not talk about it.” Either way, as your Garrison’s commander you’ll receive a reward for your attempts at cultivating a courtship—along with a S.E.L.F.I.E. from your Follower documenting their results.


Given enough time, you’ll be able to guide all of your Followers to true happiness. For l’amour!

6.1.4 Patch Notes
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
New Feature: T.I.N.D.R. Box
  • Upgrade your level 100 Followers with this new item and allow them to search for true love!
  • Read more on this upcoming feature in our recent announcement.

New Master Looting Options
  • To alleviate social issues related to the Master Looter functionality, we've expanded the option to offer four distinct choices:
    • Master Looter
      • Unchanged
    • Submissive Looter
      • As the Submissive Looter, you'll sign a contract with your raid allowing you to explore your boss-killing desires safely, with due respect and regard for one's needs, one's limits, and one's well-being.
      • Per contract, you'll be given whatever loot the rest of the raid decides you get, and say thank you. Raid members can decide whether they like the gear you're already wearing and, if not, demand that you disenchant it.
      • A new Safe Word option can be set through your Battle.net account settings that immediately ends the raid upon entering it into chat.
    • Passive Aggressive Looter
      • The Raid Leader agrees to divvy up loot more or less fairly, but will make catty comments about how this raid group will give loot to "just anyone".
      • Note: This setting will also auto-whisper raid members as they join that if they don't like it, they can lead their own raid.
    • MS>OS
      • No different from Master Looter, but everyone keeps asking for it, so here you go. Knock yourselves out.

Warcraft: The Movie: The Game: The Movie
  • In a world with nomble warriors, spirit healers, and arcane powers, a movie industry is brewing. Catch your favorite Warcraft characters acting as other Warcraft characters in a fictional world within a fictional world in Warcraft: The Movie: The Game: The Movie.

General
  • In addition to the items you forgot to pick up, the Postmaster will now mail you special offers on great deals from various vendors around Azeroth.
  • In addition to the recent inclusion of account-wide ignore, the game will now also present a series of flashes and symbols to make you forget the ignored user ever existed. We promise not to use this for any other reason, as far as you know.
  • To curb confusion over whether to call them Undead or Forsaken, Sylvanas's faction is now simply referred to as Walkers.
  • We accidentally put The Dance Studio back in the game for a little while, but it's been removed again. That was a close one.
  • Twitter integration now has a 50% increased chance of making you feel out of touch with whatever the hell kids are doing these days.
  • Patches will now be given titles that are more appropriate for today's internet audience, beginning with Patch 6.2: Conquer the Iron Horde Using This One Weird Old Trick.
  • All active World of Warcraft subscribers are now also game design interns. Please be sure to use the correct cover sheets for your DPS reports. Also, we're gonna need you to come in on Saturday, mm'kay?
  • We've checked on the members of the band Fun, and they are alive and well despite forum claims to the contrary.
  • The Hybrid Tax has been reworked and is now a Hybrid Rebate, providing state funded incentives and cash back at participating dealerships on approved credit.
  • These patch notes were written by lead game designers, producers, engineers, and artists, instead of having them work on important new changes and features.

Forums
  • Kierkegaardian Vote System: You can now expand the down vote display to see who down voted a post, then choose whether or not to down vote their down vote. The end result is that nothing changes. There are two possible situations—one can either do this or that. Our honest opinion and our friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it—you will regret both. It's like, the tyrant dies and his rule is over; the martyr dies and his rule begins.
    • Nothing after this bullet matters.

Races
  • Draenei
    • Gift of the Naaru now actually gives other players a gift. However, as beings of pure light, they probably got you a rainbow, or something? You should make them a list.
  • Gnome
    • Gnomes can now equip and wear goggles regardless of class or profession requirements. However, the goggles do nothing.
  • Human
    • Every Man for Himself has been redesigned. It now grants Humans a third trinket slot.
  • Orc
    • Orcs now receive a state-funded rebate for being more "Green".
  • Walker
    • Corrected an error where Walkers were able to gain benefits from eating and drinking.
  • Worgen
    • All Worgen characters must now wear a collar and carry around little blue baggies.

Classes
Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Mastery: Blood Shield has been renamed to Mastery: Health Shield, because ew.
  • Breath of Sindragosa is now minty-fresh.
  • Bone Shield: Now with 50% more calcium!
  • The Death Knight unique skin colors have been made darker in response to player requests for darker Knights.
  • Dark Simulacrum is now 37% easier to pronounce.
  • Mind Freeze now renders the target unconscious and causes them to slowly turn to ice, unless you erase their memory of the incident and spend the rest of your life in seclusion.
  • Outbreak no longer applies Blood Plague and Frost Fever. Instead, it applies a new, airborne version of a virus first encountered 30 years ago. Enemy players will have to work together to develop a new serum to cure the virus before the military bombs the whole city.

Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Balance has been redesigned. The damage you deal is now variable, based on the current number of threads on the forums demanding nerfs or buffs.
  • Remove Corruption can no longer be cast on the members of your guild's loot council.
  • Cyclone is now dispellable, but only by other Druids.
  • Druids in Tree of Life form will now bear fruit.
  • The Moonkin model has been updated, but it's too adorable to kill, so we aren't going to implement it. It's pretty great, though.
  • Gift of the Wild has returned. It now causes the casting Druid to leave a freshly-killed bird or rodent on the doorstep of the target player's Town Hall.
  • New form: Meatsquatch. Transforms the caster into a creature that's half hamburger, half Yeti. Abilities include "Devour Meat" and "Sabotage Cooking." MEATSQUATCH!

Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Seem fine.

Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Alter Time will now automatically update for Daylight Savings.
  • Overpowered has been nerfed for obvious reasons.
  • Blink's tooltip has been updated to: "Teleports the caster directly into the nearest rock, shrub, or fence." Functionality unchanged.
  • Due to drought, Conjured Water is now being rationed.
  • Invisibility can now only be used when no one is looking, including the Mage.
  • Mage Armor has an even newer, more unique icon.
  • To better illustrate the difference in effectiveness, Fireball has been renamed "Ball of Fire", and Pyroblast has been renamed "Great Ball of Fire." Goodness gracious!
  • Despite their many heroic deeds over the years, player Mages are still nowhere near as cool as Jaina or Khadgar.
    • Seriously, did you see what Khadgar did with the dam in Tanaan Jungle?
    • All of the elements were like FWOOOM and then he threw them at it like KAPOW and all the water went WOOOOSH.
    • It was awesome.

Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Crackling Jade Lightning still exists.
  • Serenity now causes the user to don a brown coat and get really sad about Wash.
  • Storm, Earth, and Fire has had its powers magnified, and can now be used on a total of 5 targets. Because of this change, it's been renamed to "Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, and Heart."
  • Monks can now activate a brief montage cutscene that shows their character farming materials for flasks and food, reading up on boss encounters, and practicing their rotations, instead of having to actually do any of those things.
  • Monks now automatically Roll everywhere instead of running while out of combat.
  • Energizing Brew has been renamed to Red Ox. The effects remain the same, but it gives the Monk wings when activated.
  • Abilities without the words "Chi" or "Zen" in their name have been fixed to correctly have one or both. Enjoy Spinning Zen Crane Chi Kick.

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Empowered Seals no longer causes the user to belt out "Kiss From A Rose" at the top of their lungs.
  • After several years of deliberations, the Templar has finally reached a Verdict.
  • Inquisition is back. Isn't that surprising? No one expects Inquisition!
  • Blinding Light now causes affected players to rev up like a deuce, whatever that means.
  • Execution Sentence has been commuted and replaced with Life Imprisonment.
  • In an effort to provide a friendlier image, the Order of the Silver Hand has designated several Raids, Dungeons, and Battlegrounds as "Judgment-Free Zones." While in one of these zones, all Paladins will have their Judgment spells disabled.

Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Leap of Faith can no longer be used on players channeling Hearthstone.
  • Leap of Faith can no longer be used when the Priest is standing next to a cliff.
  • Leap of Faith can no longer be used on players on or near elevators.
  • Priests are now 80% less annoying.
  • Spirit Shell now melts in your mouth, not in your hand.
  • Spectral Guise no longer summons a bunch of creepy ghost dudes to follow you around. We misread it, sorry.
  • Angelic Feathers can now be used to tickle sleeping party members.
  • Instead of granting vision of the surrounding area, Mind Vision now allows the Priest to look into their target's deepest thoughts. Not recommended for use on King Varian. Dude's got issues.

Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • After earning enough Combo Points, the Rogue's next finisher will include fries and a drink.
  • Distract can now be used on people who write patch no... ooh, shiny!
  • Due to Ravenholdt's increased need for secrecy, all further Rogue updates will be presented using invisible ink.
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Grounding Totem now causes party members to reflect on their life choices and consider that maybe quitting their job to write that novel wasn’t the best idea.
  • Capacitor Totem is what makes time travel possible.
  • Lightning Bolt can now only be cast while moving. Stopping or standing still will interrupt the cast.
  • Using the /kiss emote on Hexed targets will now cause the effect to end immediately, and you're just going to have to live with that.
  • New ability: Water Shock. Used by chefs to keep noodles from overcooking.
  • Ascendance will now properly make the Shaman gradually ascend in the air during its duration.
  • Tremor Totem now has a chance to summon a giant worm and/or Kevin Bacon.
  • Bloodlust has been renamed Heroism.
  • Heroism has been renamed Bloodlust.
  • Unleash Life, uh... finds a way.

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Cataclysm has finally upgraded to Warlords of Draenor.
  • Due to the events in the Warlords of Draenor Opening Cinematic, Mannoroth's Fury is significantly less furious.
  • Warlocks can now find and complete an epic, 47-step quest to earn Chromatic Fire. Finally, you can experience the true essence of the Warlock class: Rainbows!
  • Chaos Bolt can no longer be targeted. Chaos Bolt does what it wants. You're not Chaos Bolt's dad!
  • Dark Soul has been completely redesigned and made way more difficult to use, but we're not going to tell you how. You're going to have to figure out Dark Soul for yourself.
  • In addition to no longer generating Burning Embers, Rain of Fire no longer deals damage.
  • The Destruction passive Backdraft continues to remind you of that weird Kurt Russell movie about firefighters.

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Hamstring has been removed and replaced with a new ability called Ham Sandwich. Sorry about that, one of our designers got hungry.
  • Spell Reflection. R, E, F, L, E, C, T, I, O, N. Reflection.
  • Warriors who use Whirlwind immediately after Bladestorm will get really dizzy.
  • Gladiator Stance has been made 55% more entertaining.
  • Due to increased concerns from their coworkers, all Warriors are now required to take Anger Management.

Garrisons
  • Followers' Followers: Your Followers have gained so much stature that they've started to attract Followers of their own. Followers' Followers will now appear in your Garrison, and your Followers will be able to send their Followers on Missions.
    • The new Followers' Mission Table will appear behind your town hall. This object is not clickable by you, but your Followers will go to it when you send them on Missions, and soon thereafter, you'll see your Followers' Followers walking out of your Garrison.
    • Your Followers will receive rewards from the missions your Followers' Followers return from, but we have no idea what they are and they aren't telling us.
  • The S.E.L.F.I.E. camera mission "Field Photography" is not appearing for all players due to its random nature. We didn't change anything; we just wanted to point out what random means.
  • In order to comply with a new noise ordinance on Draenor, Garrison Jukeboxes will no longer play after 10 p.m.
  • Followers can borrow toys from your collection to play with while waiting for new missions. They won't put them back, though. Seriously, there's going to be toys everywhere.
  • After sending max-level epic Followers on XP missions, you can rush outside to see them leaving your Garrison, and questioning why they continue to put up with you.
  • New Follower Trait: Binge Watching. Causes the follower to completely disappear from your Garrison for the entire weekend whenever a new season of House of Cards releases, and then never shut up about it once they return.
  • Players may now freely travel from their Garrison.

Quests
  • New Quest Hub: Terminus
    • Sanctuary for all. Community for all. Those who arrive, survive.
    • To get to Terminus, pick up the quest "You're the Butcher or You're the Cattle" from Grick Rimes in Stormwind or Orgrimmar and follow the tracks. This quest is unavailable to Walkers.
    • Complete quests and earn reputation with the Terminants to gain access to the Walker’s "Cannibalize" racial ability.
  • To alleviate confusion between franchises, the quest "Trouble at the Overwatch" has been renamed. It is now called "Trouble at the Hearthstone." Wait, no. "Trouble at the Heroes of the Storm." Argh, this is hard.
  • The Legendary quest "Draenor’s Secret Power" was incorrectly requiring 4986 Apexis Crystals, and has been corrected down to the intended 4983 Apexis Crystals. We have no idea what Khadgar's been doing with the extra 3...
  • Senior Historian Evelyna on the Timeless Isle now only asks the Mur'ghoul question.
  • The quest item Fox Poop should no longer appear for players who don't have that quest. Players who do have that quest should just get it over with, it's not that bad.

PvP
  • Players now take 10% less damage in PvP.
  • A number of Crowd Control (CC) changes have been made. Consult your class trainers before using CC.
    • Only use CC when you need it.
    • If your CC lasts longer than four hours, seek immediate medical attention.
  • Killing the enemy faction's leader in Ashran now awards 16 Conquest Points.
  • All CC effects have had their durations reduced by 33%.
  • Killing the enemy faction's leader in Ashran no longer awards Conquest Points, and instead awards 150 Artifact Fragments.
  • Ashran events now begin when you least expect them to.
  • All CC effects have had their cooldowns reduced by 33%.
  • Players now deal 10% more damage in PvP.
  • Tanks no longer take extra damage in PvP, but instead have to play with their hands tied behind their back.
  • Killing the enemy faction's leader in Ashran no longer awards Artifact Fragments, and instead awards 219 Apexis Crystals.
  • The Battle for Gilneas has been renamed "The Battle for the Waterworks."
  • All CC effects have had their effects increased by 33%. For example, Fear is now 33% scarier, and Cyclone is now 33% windier.
  • Players now act like they take 10% less damage in PvP, but they really don't. They're just kidding around.
  • Fixed an issue causing some classes and specs to be completely broken in PvP.
  • A new 1v1 bracket has been added to the game: Rated Ashran.
  • Killing the enemy faction's leader in Ashran no longer awards anything, because the satisfaction of victory should be its own reward, damn it.

Raids & Dungeons
  • Onyxia has seen a full recovery, and is Breathing a Deep sigh of relief.
  • To avoid confusion between the Blackrock Mountain zone in World of Warcraft and the upcoming Blackrock Mountain Adventure for Hearthstone, we're changing the name of Blackrock Mountain to Spooky Dark Lava Holes.
    • All enemies and bosses within Spooky Dark Lava Holes have had their health and damage increased substantially to try to make them feel better about it.
  • Support for VR hardware has been added, but only to the Grimrail Depot dungeon and Hans'gar & Franzok raid encounter.
  • Due to the extensive PvP changes in patch 6.1.4, all players have been nerfed when in raid combat. That's how that works, right?

Pet Battles
  • The Pet Battle Surrender ability has been renamed to Rage Quit.
  • Cat pets will now constantly appear under foot and trip you when you attempt to walk anywhere.
  • Players can now use the /pet emote to earn experience with their combat pets. While targeting a summoned pet, simply use the /pet emote over and over which will show you gently giving it some much needed attention while earning a small amount of experience for each use. We're not sure what this does for the mechanical and undead pets, but just go with it.
  • Beaver-type battle pets' teeth are working again.

Professions
  • New Primary Profession: Character Model
    • We're pretty sure there's a lot more to life than being really, really ridiculously good looking, but you no longer need to find out what that is.
    • Master models can learn the Ambi-turn ability, allowing you to further customize your runway walk and go for the "I Turned Left!" achievement.
    • When taking the Character Model profession, you can still learn to do other stuff good too, because you're so hot right now.
  • Players at max cooking will no longer be able to create food from recipes. Instead, you must use random ingredients from a mystery basket. You’ll have a limited time to assemble a full three-course meal using ingredients like orange soda, marshmallow crème, and gefilte fish. Cooks unable to produce a tasty meal with the ingredients provided will be Cleaved.
  • "Lightly Fried Lurker" and "Spicy Fried Herring" can no longer be crafted in level 90+ zones, as frying is not allowed in Draenor.
  • The last person still farming Embersilk Cloth in Molten Front has been mailed a bunch of it.

UI
  • The Group Finder has been redesigned. It can now be used to figure out where the hell the other half of your raid is 10 minutes after you were supposed to have started.
  • By popular request, you can now make your shoulders invisible! Which seems really weird, but if you want to walk around with your arms detached from your body, okay.
  • A dropdown menu has been added to the Death Recap screen, so you can immediately tweet your favorite developer about how you died.

Items
  • Clothing vendors across Azeroth now offer a unique dress for sale that is either blue and black or white and gold depending on some kind of science stuff we still don't understand.
  • Savage Feasts now stack. Literally. Make forts and stuff.
  • To make it easier to tell whether an item is an upgrade or not, Item Levels have been converted to use the Dewey Decimal System.
  • We've rounded off all of the stats on every item in the game to the nearest 10, moved the decimal one place to the left, and doubled it. That's how we calculate our tips, so we're pretty sure it'll work.
  • The items Filthy Paw, Filth-Contaminated Gem, Choker of Filthy Diamonds, and Filth-Encrusted Tooth have all been given a dirtier sheen, as intended.

Bugs
  • Fixed Curious Wolvar Pup's curiosity.
  • The short-lived Autocorrect feature in chat has been disabled again after it caused a power substation meltdown near one of our datacenters.
  • Fixed a bug whereby it was only possible to max out Archaeology by accruing thousands of gold in student loans.
  • Fixed a crash that was being caused by badboys doing certain badboy things.
  • All savage savagery in Draenor has been savaged by 6-8 savages from the Savage Lands. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.
  • Players who literally can't even should be able to literally even again.

Curse Voice - Hearthstone Integration
If B'Motes aren't enough social interaction for you, check out the latest Curse Voice integration!


Site Navigation