World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

We will be connecting the realms listed below on Wednesday, November 13th during a scheduled maintenance beginning at 6 a.m. PST through approximately 11:00 a.m. PST. Once maintenance is finished, these realm connections will be complete.

• Aggramar and Fizzcrank
• Echo Isles and Draenor
• Gul'dan and Skullcrusher/Black Dragonflight
• Malorne and Firetree/Rivendare/Drak'Tharon
• Scilla and Ursin

Please note that as a part of the connection process realm times may change to match each other.

Classes

• Priest
  
  • Class Armor
    
    • Resolved an issue that sometimes caused Holy Spark from the Discipline/Holy Priest Season 14 2-piece set bonus to not function correctly while in a Battleground.
      

Quests

• At the Stonemother's Call: Players should now be able to accept this quest from Terrath the Steady after completing Resonating Blow.

Creatures

• Elder Lin and Sage Whiteheart have learned to respect each other's personal space should no longer occasionally try to occupy the exact same spot in the Shrine of Seven Stars.
  
• Visual effects for Flamestrikes cast by NPCs should no longer incorrectly appear twice as large as its actual area-of-effect.

Pet Battles

• Battle Pets
  
  • Murkalot's Righteous Inspiration should no longer incorrectly affect the entire team instead of just the swapped-in pet.
    

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• Siege of Orgrimmar
  
  • Paragons of the Klaxxi
    
    • Skeer the Bloodseeker's Bloodletting ability should now correctly spawn blood creatures even if the player has an immunity effect on them.
      
  • Garrosh Hellscream
    
    • Players who are dead will now continue to emanate the full effects of Malice for the remainder of its duration.
      
    • Resolved an issue with creature pathing during the Realm of Y'Shaarj phase in the Temple of the Jade Serpent.
      

Battlegrounds and Arenas

• Armsmaster Holinka and Roo Desvin have returned from their vacations and will offer to sell Season 14 gear for honor points to players who have obtained a 2000 rating and earned the Grievous Conquest achievement.

Items

• Contemplation of Chi-Ji should no longer incorrectly disenchant into Haunting Spirits.

We recognize that, for some guilds, the transition from 10-player Heroic raiding to 20-player Mythic raiding is going to be something of a challenge. This wasn’t a decision we made lightly. Ultimately, we feel that the long-term benefits for everyone, such as better-tuned raid encounters, a faster encounter design process, and more variety in raid mechanics, are worth the short-term consequences – even for players in guilds facing this transition.

That said, I think there are several key factors worth bringing up that will help make the transition less frightening overall. For example:

1) This change is coming with an expansion. Historically, an expansion release has always been a volatile time for guild rosters – and a great time for recruitment. When everyone’s gear is suddenly equalized, the pool of potential recruits swells dramatically. It's also a time in which a lot of former players, friends, and guildmates return to the game. Sure, maybe not all of the above will be of the caliber you’re looking for as a Mythic-minded raiding guild, but you only need 10.

2) On a similar note, we’re continuing to roll out the Connected Realms feature. As more realms are connected, the potential recruitment pool on those realms will grow.

3) While 10-player guilds who want to do Mythic will need to pick up an extra 10 people, current 25-player guilds will need to shed some. That’s yet another thing that will lead into a higher pool of potential recruits.

4) Flexible scaling for Heroic (or Mists of Pandaria's "Normal") difficulty will allow many guilds to "ease in" to a 20-player raid size. Granted, if you’re planning on zoning into Mythic the first day it’s available, this won’t help you much, but for the guild that will spend a few weeks or months on Heroic (MoP Normal) difficulty before eventually clearing it and starting on Mythic, you’ll have plenty of time to expand your roster. What’s more, those new recruits won’t be expected to just warm the bench while they wait.

I think that’s an easy one to forget about. It’s easy to make a mental comparison between a Warlords of Draenor 10-player guild trying to recruit up to 20 for Mythic, and a Mists of Pandaria 10-player guild trying to recruit up to 25. But that comparison doesn’t really work, because the absolute biggest challenge that the MoP guild in this example faces is finding people who are willing to wait around and possibly not even raid as the guild expands its roster. That’s not a problem in Warlords – while you’re still working through and gearing up in Heroic, player 11, 12, 13, and so on will be able to join you. It’s much easier to keep recruits around when they’re actually getting to play.

Seeing a lot of debate about the number 20. Let me take a stab at clearing up a few things:

We chose to put Mythic at 20 largely for the function of raid design. One of the biggest issues we're currently facing with 10-player Heroic raiding is that of raid composition. It's impossible for every group to have every class, and often that means they're lacking in certain tools, which in turn means that we can't design encounters around those tools (or if we do, it becomes extremely frustrating for the 10-player Heroic guild that suddenly needs a Paladin for Hand of Protection).

We want to be able to use those sorts of mechanics again. Those of you who have been with us for a while might remember things like Mage tanks on High King Maulgar, or Priests using Mind Control on Instructor Razuvious. We want it to be okay when, say, the Paladin can use Hand of Protection to clear a dangerous debuff, because we can reasonably assume that most guilds will have at least one Paladin in their raid. We like it when someone gets to feel awesome and have a special task on a fight because of class abilities that otherwise wouldn't get much use.

We can't do that when we're designing with a 10-player raid size in mind. We don't think we'd be able to get away with it at 15 either. At 20, it becomes a lot more acceptable for us to say "you should probably bring a Mage to Spellsteal this." And honestly, that's just one example of the sort of encounter mechanics we can start to utilize in a larger group size.

I'd also call into question the statement of "It's easier to drop people than it is to recruit them." It's technically true, yes -- finding new raiders is harder than just not inviting the ones you have -- but totally ignores the fact that cutting people from your roster often means losing people you like. Which feels better: making new friends, or telling your current ones that they don't get to play with you any more? We're already asking a lot of many 25-player Heroic groups to cut 5 people.

As I mentioned before, this was not a decision we came to lightly. It's definitely going to be a very scary transition for a lot of people. We knew that when we made the decision. We just also feel quite strongly that, when the dust settles, we'll be able to provide a better raiding experience for everyone.

Warlords of Draenor
If you want to talk about the content we've previewed thus far for the upcoming expansion, that's awesome. We're reading.

Try to boil everything down to a negative catch phrase all you want. We're still going to spend countless hours making Warlords of Draenor the most epic expansion possible.

Your feedback to help us achieve that goal is most welcomed. Your sideline semantic criticisms of what makes an expansion an expansion aren't very meaningful.

it bassically is the same map but a new coat of paint on it and a few new areas which is fine by me thats all a zone is an area with some paint haha
It's cool that that's fine with you, but I want to reiterate that Draenor is being constructed literally from scratch. This isn't a Cataclysm-style revamp of Outland like we did with Azeroth. The artists used Outland landmarks as a reference point. That's about where the relationship between Outland and Draenor ends in terms of environment design. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Realm Population Issues
Just dropping in here to let you know we're aware of this situation, and we're hoping Connected Realms will help with it significantly as we go forward.

Those of us on high population realms enjoy the busy atmosphere, not to mention the people and community we've come to know and love, but having to queue up each night is a pain, for sure. Previously, the Free Character Migration (FCM) offer was unappealing to many of you because we used to offer the move to realms that needed players the most, and that usually meant you'd end up on a realm with very few players at all.

Now, we offer free moves to medium population realms, so this shouldn't be the case any more. However, even medium population realms can sometimes feel a little quiet, especially after being on a very busy realm. But going forward, thanks to the Connected Realms technology, all realms will have ideal population levels. This means that FCMs from high population realms in future will be much more tempting for those of you wanting to move.

We won't be making any big changes to the FCM process while Connected Realms are being implemented, but we'll certainly be monitoring the system as a whole during the process and after everything is in place. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

We're doing another WoW Source (watch the first one here) and are looking for your questions. This is a BlizzCon wrap-up episode, so we're going to talk about all the announcements, parties, competitions and contests that went on. Get your questions in, and feel free to use the “thumbs-up” Like button to support questions others have asked that you’d like to see answered. Your question could be featured on the next episode!

The Recruit A Friend program is back and better than ever! Now you can choose from 8 different mount and pet rewards—including the brand-new Emerald Hippogryph—and enjoy leveling benefits all the way to level 85.

The upgraded Recruit A Friend allows you to email friends and family members Starter Edition activation keys for World of Warcraft from directly within the game. To get started, simply open up your in-game Friends List and click the new Recruit A Friend button.

A Treasure Trove of Rewards
Similar to the old system, after a recruited friend purchases 1 month of World of Warcraft game time, the veteran player (aka the recruiter) will get 1 month of free World of Warcraft game time. In addition, approximately one week after a recruit successfully purchases two months of game time, the veteran player will be able to select one of the following epic pet and mount rewards to permanently add to their collection. Recruit enough friends, and you’ll eventually be able to snag them all:

• Emerald Hippogryph
• Heart of the Nightwing
• X-53 Touring Rocket
• Swift Zhevra
• Golden Pig
• Silver Pig
• Jade Tiger
• Zipao Tiger

​In-Game Benefits
To help you and your recruit take on the challenges of Azeroth together, players who participate in the Recruit A Friend program will enjoy the following in-game benefits for up to 90 days:

• Recruit and veteran characters can summon one another to each other's locations.
  
• While adventuring with your linked friend or family member, you will each gain triple experience while partied up to level 85, as long as your characters are within 4 levels of each other.
  
• For every two levels the recruit's characters earn, one grantable level is gained. Recruit characters may then grant these levels to the veteran player's character as long as the character is lower in level than the level-granting character.

Check out our video walkthrough of the new in-game Recruit A Friend process:

Click here to read more about using Recruit A Friend benefits.

FAQ

Q: I sent a request to a friend but they didn’t get it—what now?
A: You can attempt to send another one. Ensure you have their correct email address, and let your friend know to check their Spam/Junk mail folders, as their email service could be filtering the invitation.

Q: How long are Recruit A Friend invitations valid?
A: Recruit A Friend invitations are valid for 7 days. If you haven’t received a response from your friend within that time, you’ll need to send another invitation.

Q: My friend just started playing. Can I still recruit them even if they already made an account?
A: Yes, with the new system you can recruit players who have World of Warcraft accounts that are less than 30 days old. Simply use the standard Recruit A Friend process. When your friend receives the email, clicking the link will bind your accounts for Recruit A Friend rewards and benefits (as long as the potential recruit’s account is still 30 days old or less).

Q: I’ve recruited someone already—can I do it again?
A: Yes! You can recruit as many people as you like, and with the new reward system you’ll have a variety of mount and pet rewards to choose from when each of your recruited friends purchases two months of game time.

Q: Can I get every Recruit A Friend pet and mount?
A: Yes. If enough friends accept the Recruit A Friend request from you and pay for two months of game time, you’ll be able to receive all of the rewards.

Q: I received a Recruit A Friend reward from the old system, but didn’t claim it. Will it still work?
A: Yes. You will receive a credit for the old mount reward if you didn’t redeem it.

Q: I sent or received a Recruit A Friend request invitation from the previous system, but it hasn’t been accepted yet. Is it still good?
A: No, you’ll need to send or receive a new invitation through the updated Recruit A Friend system.

For more information on the Recruit A Friend program, visit the support page.

New Character Models
So I have to say...I'm disappointed there are no screenshots of any updated human females...are they not getting a new character model update too?
We're still working on many of the character models. They are all (up to goblin and worgen) getting it. We'll consider goblin and worgen too later if it makes sense. (Don't panic.)

Chris Robinson during the art panel said he had wished he could have brought completed screenshots of all of the races and genders but it just wasn't possible. When you take a look at the ones we're able to show currently, you'll be able to see all of the hard work and care being put into them though. Check out a few races on our site- http://us.battle.net/wow/en/warlords...or/#characters

Nethaera, please check these threads on mmo-champion, there's a lot of feedback about the new character models
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...w-undead-model

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...Keep-the-Hunch
We'll be keeping an eye on ALL feedback that's coming in on the content we're working on, just keep in mind, the issue with art is it's subjective. No matter what we do, someone else is going to believe they know how it can be better.

They have to finish updating Horde races first. After that's done, they'll start working on Alliance models.
Odd perspective when two of the models being shown on the website are dwarf and gnome and we showed the female gnome and female dwarf a little at BlizzCon. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Free Character Re-Customization
Once again I want to say this. The question didn't mention at all about a free customization. It only asked about if it's possible to get a customization. I think either Jay or whatever read the question wrong or the guy asked it wrong.
Again I think it's just way too early to make a determination, and Tom certainly didn't give a definite answer. Our artists are going to extreme lengths to ensure the new models and animations embody (kyuck knyuck?) what you know and love about your characters. Our hope (and Tom's point) is that you log in, go AWESOME, and enjoy playing your character that still looks and moves and acts like your character - just at a much higher fidelity. If it comes down to it and we just totally miss the mark I'm sure we'd at least seriously consider offering a chance to pick something else. But again, too early to say for sure.

With all due respect, Bash, the quote (including the additional context Chaud just posted) seems fairly definitive to me. It's only not definitive in the "it's pre-beta and anything could change" sense, but his statement was not ambiguous. His current plan is to not offer free recustomizations. Maybe he'll change his mind, but, well, that's the point of this thread: to get the policy changed.
That's cool if you want to take it that way, but there's no policy. It's current thoughts based on sound intent of a faithful update for current looks and options. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Wrathion and Warlords of Draenor Content
Where did Wrathion go? Why did you scrap the Burning Legion despite all of the chatter about their return? Why did BlizzCon offer so little about actual content and instead focus mainly on Garrisons? I gotta say, I am not really all that thrilled about another filler expansion that is more or less just a huge patch with new features.
I'm sure we haven't seen the last of Wrathion. Keep in mind (not saying this is related to Wrathion btw) that the story bits you've seen are just one part of the expansion's story. There will be plenty more that you'll get to experience. You are going to get to experience the Draenei's real culture, history, and heroes among many others.

There's a ton of new content as well. Garrisons is a new piece of content, as is the new PvP zone, Trial of the Gladiator is completely new and there are a ton of quality of life improvements. Not to mention all of the new (completely new from the ground up) zones, creatures, quests, story lines and much much more.

This next expansion is definitely not filler. It always makes me a bit sad when I see people who say things like this, but we'll do our best to help you see the light with more information releases as we go along.

This is part-and-parcel of a new expansion and certainly would expect nothing less. I've always found the expansions offer tons of new zones, quests, etc. The critique here is that the tone of the game seemed to be shifting in a very obvious direction, but it seems like it was scrapped last-second for Warlords. Based on the presentation--what are the raids, who are the bosses, what is the lore, what story does the cinematic tell--it almost seems like you were not prepared to reveal a new expansion at BlizzCon.

P.S. - I don't mean to make you sad. As you know, the game has a pretty passionate following.
Nothing was built and then "scrapped at the last second" in fact, from what I know, the developers have been working on a lot of this plus more (future more) very very hard. If you read this blog (if you didn't see the live stream) by Bashiok, you can read more of the dungeons and Raids that are planned. The "Warlords of Draenor: The Adventure continues" panel live stream also went more into the story and who you're going to see and meet there (the original warchiefs like Grommash, Durotan etc.)

The trailer shown for the announcement is more of a tease, but if you look at the main image, those are all orc warchiefs that those familiar with the original Warcraft RTS will readily recognize. This is a chance for the Alliance to take the initiative and go after the Iron Horde and it's a chance for the Horde as it is now to rediscover who they are and what they're about. The story is about YOU as a hero as well, facing down an incredibly powerful and dangerous foe in order to protect Azeroth as it is today.

It seems that there's still a lot of information that you're missing and if you didn't get the live-stream or don't plan to, might I also suggest spending some time reading the articles on our various fansites and listening to their podcasts? (We'll try to gather as many of them together for you as we can to help too.) I think that might help you understand a bit more about our plans.

As always, this is just the start of things and as development progresses, ideas, and implementation of those ideas may change, but we'll try to share as much as we can as we go along for you.

I must admit the whole garrison thing could have been cool but bliz just flat out got it wrong again... I would much rather see a GUILD garrison. Would it not be completely awesome if your garrison was attacked by random bosses/mobs and had to be defended by your guild. I picture huge armies of gnolls charging your gates or some random rock giant eating your walls... Make the events random and give some world loot for defeating it, or suffer thru massive costly rebuilds if you cant.
Much like the farm was a first step, consider this another step. People kept asking for player housing and we had to find a way to make it truly a part of Warcraft and not just a place to collect dust bunnies. This is what we've come up with. Could guild structures be something that comes about eventually? It just might. Not getting something now doesn't mean it's not possible some time in the future. It may just happen. We didn't just come up with Garrisons overnight. It took time, planning, thought, and technology to all come together. It's a great addition and you'll still be able to bring your friends and guildies into it to visit and maybe even show off your elite Garrison planning skills.

Wait...we're actually getting Draenei Lore? I thought that didn't exist?
Getting some? We're going to their HOME. We get to get up close and intimate with who they are, what they're about, their lore, their, struggles, their triumphs, their defeats. We get to find out so much more about them (plus no one crashes a space ship.) Are you sure you're ready for it?

I am not really missing out on a lot of information--Bashiok's blog post about D&R in WoD is not overly informative (it was mainly about the fact that Flex worked and it's coming back even more so, but we're renaming the difficulties).
We purposefully didn't recap all of the panels because we know how much coverage there would be from fansites etc. I certainly didn't want you to think I was saying you didn't know or understand the lore. I'm going off of all of the extra information that was shared within the panels that had a lot of extra nuance that may have been missed. We'll be doing what we can to fill in the gaps too over time. We just felt it was a good idea to get the basics out there, round up the fansite and media coverage and then as we move forward, start getting into more of the nitty gritty details as we define them more during development. Call it some breathing room if you will.

The story is being moved forward, just in another way. I understand if you might not have an interest in it or have expectations for a different story all together, but it's not directionless development being done. There's a plan in place and hopefully we'll be able to continue to express that plan to everyone in a clear way.

We really do appreciate all of the interest and discussion on it all already as well as the constructive feedback. Please don't think we don't.

Well... do we at least get a quest to crash an Elekk, Gryphon, Gyrocopter or something along those lines at least?

I've heard there's tanks. Will those do?

And here I thought that Draenor wasn't actually the homeworld of the Draenei, that Argus was their homeworld, and that they just landed on Draenor after escaping the Burning Legion. Looks like another Draenei-influenced retcon.
Not a retcon and technically you're correct, it's not their original home, but it's a home that they made their own complete with culture and history. So, you're right on one level and not right on another. They've had several homes, this one though is a pretty big one for them.

Just to touch on Wrathion briefly, it seems Dave Kosak did mention it in a panel that we like Wrathion and he may make an appearance but we have no plans to have him work on a Legendary quest line in Warlords of Draenor. (I checked with the team to see if I missed the answer somewhere and it seems I did.)

While we're discussing the story of WoD, here's something my wife seriously asked me after watching many of the panels:

"Are they going to have a heroic scenario where we discover the secret location that Blizzard is stashing all their female leads for WoD and free them?"

Seriously though, watching them roll out 10 main characters and having them all be men is disappointing. Maybe that works for the testosterone filled 18-24 male age group, but please remember that many of your players are women and men who appreciate a diversified story with actual female characters. Blizzard has always done a fair job of this, so the 10 main characters highlighted being all male felt very 2003 and out of touch for 2013. And frankly it's just boring to have the whole expansion be a sausage-festival.
Valid concern and I can address that only a little right now, but it's worth noting that there are plans for some female characters as well. Historically the clan chiefs are all male, so I can see how with the announcement video that it looks very male heavy. But, there will be female characters that will have their time as well. I'm not going to say 50/50 or equal time since I'm not privy to the specifics right now and wouldn't want to spoil anything anyway, but I can say that the designers are working on it. I don't know how much was covered by Applecidermage when she spoke with quest designer Helen Cheng but from speaking to her (and she's someone that's been critical of this herself), she seemed pretty happy about what she's heard. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Warlords of Draenor Content
Time travel is a concept that in every TV, game or movie I have seen it in means your product has jumped the shark and run out of ideas. The only thing worse in storytelling is the "It was all just a dream!" device. Not sure how they are going to implement it, but I would assume instance-style ala Caverns of Time or phasing. Fine for a patch. But didn't Blizzard just say in Cataclysm that creating a disjointed world was part of the reason it failed? Same with the Garrison concept. It's almost player housing...with phasing...which nobody likes and will be exploited in PVP...

What I do know is that this the first time I have ever leaned heavily towards not buying the Xpack. As an average player, that makes me feel like I am not alone, and that there needs to be more of the things I would expect in a patch. What I see right now does NOT make me want for fork over $50. (New character models!!! Really?)

Cmon Blizzard, give me a better reason to stay! What is missing that you need to see from this Xpack? For me, the minimum needs to be a new race/new zone. Otherwise, what am I paying for?
First, it's not a story of time travel. It's a story of Draenor. There's not moment where you've disrupted the space/time continuum. There's no moment when you will worry about running into your double. It's an opportunity to experience it in it's (savage) glory. Nothing more.

Second, while you may feel disappointed right now, (though from what I've seen you might be one of the few), you may just change your mind. Have you watched the Live-Stream at all? There is an awful lot to get excited about.

That said, I respect that you may feel the way you do, but I think you need to really look at it all again and then keep an eye on our updates we'll be providing along the way.

I think you may just feel you've gotten a new race just by the character updates. We're not just talking about a re-skin, but talking about more bones, more movement in hair, facial expressions that bring characters even more to life, animation, and even improvements to how they SOUND when they walk. (Sound Panel for those that missed it.) We also have to ask ourselves if a new race and class is necessary or even makes sense. There are so many to choose from already and a lot of work that's gone into each existing one as it is. Do we really have room for more? Maybe someday in the future. Is now the time for it? Perhaps not.

If you want new zones, there are plenty of those see here. There are seven of them all being built from the ground up.

If you're hinging your total enjoyment on whether or not there's a new class or race though, then yes, you're probably going to be a bit disappointed.

Sorry, but that WOULD make it a revamped Outlands. A new zone wouldn't need to be based on anything, that's what NEW implies.

Blizzard's definition of new and the actual dictionary definition of new are apparently two different things. See Neth's comments on how the new character models will be like getting all-new races.
My words taken out of context are just that. Don't make it sound as if it was a pithy remark to dismiss a concern someone had. There was more to the answer there. My point was that it may well feel (to some) like a new character with the enhancements/updates.

Outland is not being revamped. Draenor is a completely new world. Outland is the shadow of what Draenor was before it was shattered. We're not putting the pieces back together though. We're creating Draenor for you to experience as it was prior to it being shattered. It's being built (literally built) from the ground up. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Warlords of Draenor and Time Travel
Blizzard sucks at realism. It's natural.
Please share your real time travel with the rest of us.

You are from universe A, going to parallel universe B 30 years ago. Anything happen in universe B won't affect history of universe A.
Right. Garrosh goes back to Draenor and starts messing with things to make his perfect Horde which creates an alternate timeline. From that alternate timeline they find a way to come through the Dark Portal to our present. A very real danger to our current Azeroth, but changes on the alternate timeline's past would not affect our present (except for the angry murder-orcs spilling out of the Dark Portal).

As Dave said it's not something you need to worry about, this isn't the time travel/paradox expansion; it's about exploring that setting, visiting those locations, meeting or facing these legendary names and figures from the past, and experiencing some extremely important settings of Warcraft's history in a bigger way than we've ever done before. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Account Wide Reputations
Even the account-wide systems have limitations/exceptions, and most are based on the idea that you're still playing individual characters that are making progress within the world they inhabit. Making various systems account-wide is obviously convenient and time-saving, but it can have a downside of reducing attachment and meaning for the actions of your individual characters. Despite some player's intent to reduce the game to its core systems, we do still hold that this should be an immersive roleplaying game, and that your character's actions aren't just numbers or an entry in a database.

In quite a few cases we're ok with sacrificing some character individuality for the sake of convenience, but even with those there are exceptions where achievements/mounts/etc. are character-specific. We don't really want the game to be a platform where you swap characters in at out at-will because there's no difference between them except a skin and set of abilities. Ideally you're making an alt because you want to play them.

So, in-short, we prefer that reputations are an enjoyable way to track your progress while playing, or something earned by a hero that so impressed a faction as to gain their highest esteem and reverence, and for those reasons we have no intention to make reputations account-wide at the current time. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

The Cost Of Leveling Gear
You can make more mining, skinning and herb picking in lowbie areas than in the higher zones. What does that do to lowbies trying to raise their profession, trying to make money, and to equip themselves?
Probably makes them fairly wealthy off-the-bat if they have a gathering profession, which most do as the guides out there recommend against dual-crafting professions for new characters. Likely a what-if situation more than a real problem a lot of people run into. If low-level things on the AH are going for a lot, it means low-level players are going to sell the stuff they find for a lot, and they'll be able to get into the economy fairly quickly.

The redesign of 1-60 in Cataclysm also brought the quest/dungeon itemization in-line with newer designs, so crafting that OP Enchanting wand that'd last you until level 20 isn't really a thing any more. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

New Race or Class
We're making new character models for all original races (and likely draenei/blood elves as well) including redone hair/skin/appearance options and animations. We're essentially implementing 8 (10) "new" races, as far as the amount of work goes. It's been a long-time coming, it's been one of your guys' main requests for the game, one of our biggest wish-list items, and we're finally delivering on new character models. That's huge.

As far as a new class, when we take a long-term view of World of Warcraft we don't see a game where we ended up having 50 classes. A new class is a big deal, and while it can be a lot of fun, it's also a big shakeup to people's understanding of the game ("Who is this new guy and what does he do?" /in your best Arnold voice). Even if you don't play one they'll be in your groups and so it requires that everyone essentially learn the new class. We are intentionally cautious about adding new ones. Plus we just added monk and the class landscape right now feels pretty good. There will of course be class tweaks and changes in Warlords of Draenor, but having an expansion with the same talent system as the expansion before it (*gasp*), and with more or less the same ability/class lineup will be a nice change of pace and allow both our designers and players to focus on the big new features and quality of life improvements to the game's core systems. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Female Characters in Warlords of Draenor
After watching the Blizzcon panels my wife asked me the following: "Are we going to get a heroic scenario where we discover the secret location Blizzard has hidden all of their female lead characters so we can liberate them?"

I've come to understand that so heavily weighting your stories to an all-male cast isn't just mindlessly sexist, it's downright bad storytelling as well. And it's a surefire way to make your story freaking boring (there are others of course, but this is a big one).

Of course I can appreciate that Blizzard has been hard at work, in secret, to build the WoD story and game. In that crucible of fire and secrecy, a lot of ideas are thrown in that will not pass a more public scrutiny. It is in that vein that I offer this post.

Now that you've opened up the process to the fans, allow me to help give you some perspective. And I'll also give you a little reminder that this is 2013, not 2003, and boring one-dimensional stories aren't going to cut it anymore.
I answered you (I believe it was you) in another thread, but I wanted to reiterate. As with any time we announce new expansions, we haven't revealed a lot of the story. Some things are just going to have to be experienced or revealed later if we choose to reveal them. That said, there are female characters that will be showing up to be a part of the adventure. I know of one at least that I'm really looking forward to learning more of.

Personally, I'm really happy to have so many in the community come forward and ask to see these wonderful female characters to get more air time. Hopefully the designers will be able to satisfy a bit of this for you. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)


Toy Collection in Warlords of Draenor
I think the new inventory features for toys and heirlooms are great! But....how do I get back all the toys I had to destroy because I didn't have room for them?
We'll see what happens, but it may be possible to get you back the toys that were quest rewards. We'll have to see about anything else though. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

PvE
Do you see other types of PvE based content (i.e. raid alternatives, not faction grind/dailies) coming into WoW?
It is possible but certainly not trivial to design. (Source)

regarding encounter design, why do "tank swaps" keep getting used? Is there no other way to force a second tank into a 10m?
Swaps are one tool, along with just tanking different things, but we want to be able to have one boss fights as well. (Source)
We no longer do saber lash-style damage soaking, which tanks as a group were pretty down on. (Source)

Hey gc, how do you feel about the change from Hmode being activated through mechanics (like ulduar) vs clicking a menu button?
People tend to remember Mimiron and maybe Freya, but the fact is we were going to run out of "button" ideas really quickly. (Source)