World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

Timewalking

• Timewalking will be available during select weekend holiday events and allows characters to queue up for a randomly selected old-school dungeon with a twist: your character’s power and gear scales down to the dungeon's level on Heroic difficulty. However, your character retains all of your skills and talents. Emerge victorious, and you will walk away with old loot that is scaled up to your character's level!
• Additional rewards for Timewalking are still in-testing, such as a level 100 quest that rewards a Seal of Tempered Fate per weekend.
• Over the coming weeks, Timewalking for the following dungeons will be available for testing on the PTR.
  
  • The following Burning Crusade dungeons are available for characters level 71 and up.
    
    • The Arcatraz
    • Black Morass
    • Mana-Tombs
    • The Shattered Halls
    • The Slave Pens
  • The following Wrath of the Lich King dungeons are available for characters level 81 and up.
    
    • Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom
    • Gundrak
    • Halls of Lightning
    • The Nexus
    • Utgarde Pinnacle

Raids and Dungeons
Challenge Mode

• Challenger’s Strongbox obtained before Patch 6.2 will all become rusted. Rusted strongboxes can no longer be opened and may be sold to a vendor for 50 gold.

PvP
Ashran

• New Area: Ashran Excavation and New Event: Apexis Marks
  
  • At certain times, spirits of fallen Arakkoa haunt the Ashran Excavation. Defeat them and bring proof of their demise to Rukmaz, the ghostly caretaker of the Apexis vault. First team to show Rulmaz 50 marks wins.
• Reward Changes
  
  • Winning an event now awards Honor instead of Conquest.
  • Defeating Grand Marshal Tremblade or High Warlord Volrath no longer awards a Gleaming Ashmaul Strongbox.
  • New Weekly Quest: Slay them All!
    
    • Defeat 300 enemy players. Awards Conquest.
  • New Weekly Quest: Ashran Dominance
    
    • Win each event in Ashran and defeat the enemy faction leader. Awards Conquest and a Gleaming Ashmaul Strongbox.
  • New Repeatable Quest: Continue the Dominance
    
    • Win each event in Ashran and defeat the enemy faction leader. Awards Conquest.
• General Ashran Changes
  
  • Players are now automatically placed in a raid when entering Ashran.

Professions

• New Ranks for Warlords Crafted Items
  
  • Two new ranks of upgrades have been added to Warlords Crafted items, "Mighty" for rank 5 at item level 700, and "Savage" for rank 6 at item level 715.
  • Crafting the new upgrade items requires Felblood, a new reagent that can be obtained through the Barn.
  • The new recipes can be purchased from visiting Garrison traders.
• Upgrade Item Consolidation
  
  • “Greater” rank 3 and “Powerful” rank 4 upgrade items have been consolidated together. A rank 2 upgrade item can now be used to upgrade a Warlords Crafted item to rank 4.
    
    • For example, Burnished Essence can now upgrade a rank 1 leatherworking item to rank 2, a rank 2 item to rank 3, or a rank 3 item to rank 4.
  • Rank 3 and 4 upgrade items can no longer be crafted and existing items have become unstable. These unstable items can be used to create the appropriate rank 2 upgrade item and refund the materials used to craft it.
    
    • For example, Greater Burnished Essence can now be clicked to create a Burnished Essence, 50 Burnished Leather, and 10 Sorcerous Water.
• Warlords Crafting Material Changes
  
  • Greatly increased the output of the following crafting materials created through a daily cooldown.
    
    • Alchemical Catalyst
    • Burnished Leather
    • Gearspring Parts
    • Hexweave Cloth
    • Taladite Crystal
    • Temporal Crystal
    • Truesteel Ingot
    • War Paints
    • Sorcerous Air
    • Sorcerous Earth
    • Sorcerous Fire
    • Sorcerous Water
    • Savage Blood
  • A number of recipes that use crafting materials created through a daily cooldown now requires less materials.

Jewelcrafting

• Added a new Immaculate tier of gems of epic quality that provides +75 bonus to a given stat.
• Players can unlock the ability to craft the new gems by completing a short questline that starts at an Arakkoa encampment as soon as they enter Tanaan Jungle.
• After completing the questline, Jewelcrafters can craft Versatility gems. To unlock additional gem recipes, players must find or purchase Gemcutter Modules from various sources.
• Jewelcrafters also have a chance to learn one of the new recipes each time the Gemcutting Construct crafts a gem.

Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
General

• Frostfire Bolt now deals 30% more damage.

Frost

• Frostbolt now deals 30% more damage.

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Holy

• Holy Shock's mana cost has increased by 50%.

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Armor Sets

• PvP 2-piece set bonus for Elemental Shaman is now the PvP 4-piece set bonus and has been replaced. New PvP 2-piece set bonus: Reduces the cooldown of Hex by 15 seconds.
• PvP 4-piece set bonus for Elemental Shaman has been replaced by the old PvP 2-piece set bonus. While Ascendance is active, the Shaman is immune to silence and interrupt effects.

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Armor Sets

• PvP 2-piece set bonus for Destruction Warlocks has been redesigned. Getting stunned, silenced, interrupted, or feared now generates 1 Burning Ember. Can only occur once every 15 seconds.

Hey everyone,

We’ve heard feedback from some people trying to get BlizzCon tickets Wednesday that the Eventbrite waiting room system wasn’t working as expected for everyone. We’ve been discussing the issue with Eventbrite, and they provided the following update:

The waiting room was not working as intended for some people during Wednesday’s BlizzCon ticket sale. We’ve been actively working to address the issue, and we have implemented some updates that we believe will resolve things for Saturday’s sale. We’ll be keeping a close eye on how the waiting room is functioning during the next sale, and we apologize to anyone who was inconvenienced on Wednesday.

Timewalking
Isn't timewalking just continued rehashing of old content and calling it new? Call me crazy, but I feel like Blizzard could have made new dungeons to release in 6.2.
We're not all that concerned about how you want to label content after seeing it laid out on paper. There are people out there who are quick to claim that we're pretending "old content" is once again "new content." It's not about old and new. It's about giving players more options and new ways to experience content in World of Warcraft, even if that means creating new systems to experience existing content in different ways.

The common argument, it seems, is that we try to cut corners by "rehashing old content" in order to avoid creating new content. This is a misnomer. Configuring a game system that allows players to experience the dungeons from Wrath of the Lich King and The Burning Crusade at max level, and be appropriately rewarded for it, isn't comparable to designing a new dungeon, especially in terms of art resources -- of which plenty were used to develop Patch 6.2 content.

Timewalking is a new feature. It allows you to access existing content in new and relevant ways. We've not claimed otherwise. If you want to throw a negative label on it, that's up to you. But don't claim that we're pretending this sufficiently absolves us from having to create "new content."

Timewalking also shouldn't give players license to dismiss the actual new content in Tanaan and Hellfire. It's an added feature that we're confident many players will enjoy, as it has the simple goal of providing max-level players with more things to do.

TLDR: It's not very useful to put so much effort into bickering cynically about what content is old or new, and how we're framing that in our patch features list. It'd be a lot more constructive to talk about whether or not new features -- even those that involve existing content -- are fun.

Hey Zar, if you have the time to answer another timewalker question, I'd like to know if the heroics will actually pose a challenge. I just don't want to feel like I'm running say Utgrade Keep and flying past it like I'm in full t10.
We don't want them to be intensely challenging, but we don't want them to be faceroll either. We're in the process of testing the item level to which level-100 players should be scaled down. We're erring on the side of scaling item levels a little lower than they probably would be if one was running these dungeons at their actual level, but that's mostly to try and compensate for the fact that level-100 characters will have extra abilities and talents that they wouldn't at the lower levels, which will be advantageous in some situations.

It does make me curious though, since we would be going back to these dungeons with our current level 100 skill set, is there potential for one or two new mechanics for certain bosses in these dungeons?
As it stands now, no. We're not planning to add new mechanics or creatures. These are literally the existing Heroic versions of the 10 selected dungeons with players' item levels scaled down as I described above.

Will you guys Timewarp these dungeons for every expansion that will be release from now until the end of the World (of Warcraft), or is this a feature for WoD only?
We don't have specific plans to share as of yet. I think it's safe to say that we'd like for this feature to receive updates and be carried onward into the future of WoW, but we'll see how things play out in 6.2.

Why not scale back the talents and abilities? So if you are playing at level 70, you have only the talents and abilities you would have at level 70?
That's not something we want to do. It can be weird and jarring for us to essentially de-level your character's abilities and talents for a specific type of content. We want entering these dungeons at level 100 to feel relatively seamless, aside from a little math under the hood changing your power relative to the content you're running. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

PvP Live Developer Q&A Questions Thread
Q4: Why can't abilities just be split into PvE and PvP versions? 11:52
This is probably the single most important question, and he only gave it about 1.5 minutes of response. "We're not into that solution" "We don't want to see that level of complexity" ... Seems like making a PvP and PvE version of an ability will decrease the complexity of trying to balance them against one another. Will it take a lot of work up front? Yeah, probably. But the end result seems totally worth it. Players won't have to watch as their class gets gutted due to changes made for the purposes of an aspect of the game they care nothing about.
We definitely agree with the underlying sentiment that PvE and PvP should be something that can be tuned separately. We just don't agree that splitting every spell into a PvE and PvP version is the right way to accomplish that goal. There are less cumbersome ways to accomplish that. We're kicking a few ideas around, but it's a bit too early still to share much else.

But yeah, just to be clear: we agree that PvE and PvP are inherently different game types and will often require separate tuning.

I'm not disputing that separating PvE and PvP spells could work. We just have some ideas we think could work better. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Patch 6.2 Change Explanations
How does Blizzard justify making such huge class changes in 6.2 with no communication with the players, and think that that's just okay? The changes to Windwalkers and Brewmasters aren't just number tweaks. They greatly impact how the class will function after the next patch. Why wouldn't you take the time to explain why you're gutting Brewmasters the way that you are?

We're just supposed to go on the ptrs to find that maybe with the new raid trinket, legendary ring and set bonuses, our DPS will remain acceptable? This is just bad game design and I'm not pleased at all with the way that Blizzard is handling class balance.
There's a reason we have a healthy testing phase for large content patches. Our goal is to share more on our design philosophy after further feedback gathering, testing, and tweaking, prior to these changes actually going live.

It's not realistic for us to explain our intent behind every design decision or new feature that's to come in a future patch, as so many details are ironed out over the course of testing. It's understandable that people love to scrutinize patch notes, but there's not much to gain from getting too upset over the first iteration of PTR patch notes.

Do you guys realize how many people your going to lose if you go through with these changes? I really don't think you do.
I realize I've heard that sorta thing every patch for 10 years now.

It also baffles me that Blizz, with all the resources they have at their disposal, can't hire someone to post on the forums for 2-3 hours a day addressing these things when they get released.
Sometimes I wish it were that simple! Providing official responses in somewhat knee-jerk fashion to knee-jerk feedback is oftentimes not beneficial, and can easily make matters worse. Effective communication is about much more than transparency and acknowledgement.

You get knee-jerk feedback because you make boneheaded knee-jerk buffs and nerfs which often comes with no explanation. Effective communication has to come from both sides. If you guys want effective communication from the player base, start making the effort yourselves.
I was referring to us when talking about effective communication in that context. Of course we're far from perfect in that regard. And we never will be when nearly all of our communications are subject to the court of public opinion. But I understand your point. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Tanaan Story
I'm more concerned about it being a storyless pit where there's nothing to do but camp for a mount.

Because that's what TI was. It had no value to max level players with even LFR gear because the RNG nature of the 496's made them pretty bad even for people with the 483's out of MSV.
That's feedback we certainly heard and took to heart following Timeless Isle. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

PvP Gearing and Progression
The PvP gearing process and general idea of character progression are things we talk about and iterate on a lot. Even just looking at how things changed from Cataclysm to Mists, and then from Mists to Warlords, you can see a lot of tinkering and experimentation. We think we've improved with each expansion (particularly with things like the catch-up cap), but don't think we've quite nailed it yet, so we're still looking into ways to improve.

Now, I wouldn't expect any major changes to gearing in 6.2, but it's something we're definitely talking about for the future.

Any chance you can explain holinka's thoughts on the 27k conquest vendor being convoluted? Not a single person I've spoken to thought it was a complex system. It's a very easy 1 sentence answer if someone doesn't understand it; "Once you acqure 27000 conquest points over the course of the season, you are then able to buy conquest items for honor instead".
It's actually a pretty good example of the sort of weird challenge a game like WoW faces sometimes.

There are a TON of people who play WoW. If even a small percentage of those players have a problem with something, that can still be a very large number. In Mists, our CS department was getting a pretty regular stream of tickets from players who were confused about why the vendors weren't willing to sell them gear.

It's the sort of thing that is generally not a problem for the type of person who reads forums and patch notes, but causes a lot of confusion for the people who might not even be aware that the 27k achievement exists in the first place. So, our thinking with Warlords was that, due to gear swapping primary stats and the fact that players who are fully geared generally have extra Conquest anyway, that particular implementation was no longer necessary.

That said, we're hearing the feedback loud and clear that you guys want to have more control over your secondary stats and the ability to gear up alternate specs. We'd rather not go back to the 27k vendor as a solution, but are discussing other options. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Cross-Realm Zones
Competing for quest mobs and nodes while leveling is not my idea of fun. I should not have to login at 2am-5am just to get anything done.
If quests are unable to be completed beyond reasonable respawn timers due to other players that is what we would consider to be a bug, and we'd appreciate you reporting any specific cases.

Resource nodes are however first come first serve, and there will be times when someone else reaches one before you.

I'm curious what purpose CRZ even serves now that there are almost no outdoor elite areas/group quests that would require more than one person to handle. Just to see people?
The intent with CRZ has always been to ensure outdoor zones--in this Massively Multiplayer game--actually have some other people in them, yes. The natural effect of everyone always leveling higher and into higher content is that, or course, most everyone is at max level doing max level things. Being new to the game or even just leveling an alt and not seeing another player for the days or weeks until you're closer to max level isn't a great experience.

It's to reduce server costs. Instead of having to run 20 instances of a zone, they only have to run one.
That's not how it works. Each realm still runs its own zone, and it coalesces players together based on a number of factors like if they're in a group, or their home realm zone population, etc. If a bunch of realms are 'grouped' for CRZ, not everyone in each zone on each of those realms is automatically always in the same 'instance' with each other. It's not simple, and definitely not cost effective--but that isn't the goal. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

An Inside Job Quest Cinematic Missing
If I remember correctly we didn't have it there because it was a big secret until someone unlocked it by completing the quest, and then it was unlocked in everyone's client. If we had anything datamineable about it our fun secret would not be as secret or fun. I haven't checked in 6.2 yet but it should probably be added to the Chronicler list then. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Higher Difficulties in LFR
but it's on a more manageable level, stress wise.
You're putting yourself out here on a public forum, that takes some guts, I have to imagine you'd be capable of running your own group where negativity and tempers are met with whatever response you deem appropriate. Maybe instead of "Don't suck" the group could be called "Be nice or get kicked". What i think needs to happen is for people to take charge of group creation and create the experiences they'd like to have. There's only so much we can do to help lessen social pressures, in a game that is very centrally based on group coordination and player interactions, before those interactions are effectively just taken away. (Which is maybe an option, you could probably close your chat window and not be any worse for the wear a lot of times.)

A higher difficulty LFR will only raise stress levels in those raids, and make them less successful. They'll cause total breakdowns and disbands and ... it's just not going to be the best of both worlds. Difficult content requires coordination and communication, and that's possible with positive and productive attitudes, and every player is capable of making that a reality for them and everyone else in the group.

Does that not raise the question of why don't they? I constantly see players who clear lfr and just seem to give up. Even something as simple as trying to find 4 other people to do a challenge mode is far beyond anything they seem capable of.

If everyone is able to why do you believe so few choose to do so?
Good question... Well some people are fine only seeing LFR. They don't see any point in doing harder content; that's not why they play. For the other people that would like to but don't, the easy/cynical answer is probably because it takes time and effort, but probably more accurately it's likely for some of the same reasons students don't raise their hand, or why class signup rates are higher when they are kept private--people are generally afraid of other people judging them. Lots of people want an easy, smooth, and successful run, but aren't willing to put up with wipes, learning fights, and challenges. Especially with a bunch of strangers. That's where guilds and friends are the biggest difference versus random players, and progressing with other people--even if you've only ever talked to them on mumble--is worlds apart from running with a random group. And it doesn't even have to be a guild now!

But if someone legitimately wants a better experience, and is willing to put in the effort to achieve it... I'm not sure I could answer why they don't. That's a good question.

What do you think? (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

WoW Tokens
We don't allow you to have both Tokens (Shop and AH) at the same time to avoid any kind of purchasing or redemption confusion. If you have the cash to buy a Token from the Shop but also need subscription time, a month of subscription is less expensive and so it's probably recommended you go that route instead. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

PvP
Like PvP? Perhaps consider grabbing Arena Grand Master and Master Pit Fighter (Muffinus)
Perhaps they could be made relevant at 100? AGM & MPF have no reason to be grabbed aside from the gold value now days.
Perhaps that is a good idea (Muffinus)

Once I finished all the quests in Ashran, I vowed never to go back. So I will defer to more seasoned Ashran players to answer this
Your input might be just as interesting. Obviously something turned you off right away. What was it? (Muffinus)

I never even understood how it worked. I preferred Wintergrasp a lot more too.
Do you understand it better now? If yes, what was the catalyst? If no, what questions remain? (Muffinus)
Winterspring is a good example. I used to make sure I never missed the weekly Winterspring. I avoid Ashran like the plague.
Wintergrasp Ok, this is good, discussion is good. Why do you prefer A over B? How did you feel about Tol Barad? (Muffinus)
TB was okay. You could queue up as a group of 3 friends and actually make a difference. Doesn't feel that way in Ashran.
.If you could change 1-3 major things in Ashran, what would you change? (Muffinus)
Have the High Warlord/Grand Marshal drop something of value. It feels so pointless to do Ashran now. One side dominates
What would be an item of value to you, at this point in the expac cycle? (Muffinus)

Professions
Do you enjoy fishing in WoW? What do you like about it? Where do you fish at? (Muffinus)
The Lurker Below in Serpentshrine Cavern is probably the best use of fishing in the game.
or old ZG and the rare feral druid tank staff (Muffinus)

Misc
Doing Garr in oh man such memories, we used to have one hunter (mark each target for each warlock, took 30min (Muffinus)
seeing who could ice block the highest in the air after an explosion was the best as a mage
I was fire spec because I didn't have a DPS meter so I didn't care. What a weird world that was. (Muffinus)