Siege of Niuzao Temple, Pet Battle Music and Skills, Blue Posts, Blizzard Games News

[chaud]

Diablo 3 - Patch 1.0.3 Unofficial Changes

Heroic Siege of Niuzao Temple Video Guide
Siege of Niuzao Temple is a four boss heroic instance in Townlong Steppes. You can see the loot, maps, and quests associated with the dungeon on WoWDB!

Siege of Niuzao Temple
Niuzao Temple extends across two fortified islands far beyond a towering wall called the Serpent's Spine. For years, tenacious pandaren defenders have protected the narrow bridges connecting the isles, staving off any would-be invaders. Yet recently, the mantid created their own bridge--a massive tree root--and seized one of the islands by surprise. Now, these brutal insectoids are poised to assault Niuzao's remaining guardians.

Achievements

• Heroic: Siege of Niuzao Temple - Defeat Wing Leader Ner'onok in Siege of Niuzao Temple on Heroic Difficulty.
• Run with the Wind - Defeat Ner'onok in Siege of Niuzao Temple on Heroic Difficulty while under the effect of Tenwu's Resolve.
• Return to Sender - Defeat General Pa'valak while he has 20 stacks of Detonate in the Siege of Niuzao Temple on Heroic Difficulty.
• Where's My Air Support? - Defeat Commander Vo'jak after having killed the Sik'thik Amberwing in Siege of Niuzao Temple on Heroic Difficulty.

Vizier Jin'bak

• Sap Puddle - The Sap Puddle grows over time, inflicting 8,000 Nature damage over 1 sec to enemies who touch it. Touching the Sap Puddle also causes it to shrink in size.
  
  • Sap Residue - When a player touches the Sap Puddle, it causes the Residue to attach to them. Sap Residue inflicts 8,000 Nature damage over 1 sec. The effect stacks.
• Summon Sap Globule - Vizier Jin'bak summons three Sap Globules from the tree.
  
  • Sap Globule - Sap Globules try to congeal with the Sap Puddle, increasing its size.
• Detonate - The Resin Harvester attempts to detonate the Sap Puddle, inflicting damage based on the size of the Sap Puddle.
• Heroic Difficulty - Siege of Niuzao Temple is only available on Heroic Difficulty.

Commander Vo'jak

• The Escaped Prisoners - The mantid captured these three Pandaren during the initial attack on Niuzao Temple, but the prisoners were able to break free of their bindings and fight back. Now they stand ready to do whatever it takes to end the siege.
  
  • Caustic Tar - Escaped prisoners, Li and Lo Chu, will position and prepare mantid tar kegs for use in the battle. Players can throw the kegs of Caustic Tar onto the battlefield. Caustic Tar inflicts on any unit standing within the tar 23,750 Nature damage, reduces movement speed by 50%, and increases damage taken by 10%. This effect stacks. The Caustic Tar also removes any effect from the target that increases movement or attack speed.
• Stage One: Bring It! - Commander Vo'jak orders his forces to attack the players.
  
  • Sik'thik Swarmer - Lightly armored and well trained, the Sik'thik Swarmers are a key part of the Vo'jak's forces.
  • Sik'thik Amberwing - The Sik'thik Amberwing flies to the top of the platform and bombards the players.
    
    • Bombard - The Sik'thik Amberwing fires a volley of explosives at random enemy locations every 1.5 sec. for 15 sec. Bombard inflicts 90,000 Fire damage to all creatures within 5 yards of the targeted location.
  • Sik'thik Demolisher - Quick and volatile, these mantid carry explosive charges.
    
    • Unstable Blast - The Sik'thik Demolisher carries unstable explosives and explodes when damaged or killed, inflicting 42,750 to all targets within 16 yards.
  • Sik'thik Warrior - Sik'thik Warriors slowly advance on the enemy position.
• Stage Two: Your Defenses Did Not Stop Me! - Commander Vo'jak's enters the battle as his forces near defeat at the hands of the players.
  
  • Rising Speed - Commander Vo'jak focuses his will and determination, increasing his attack speed by 15% every 2 sec. This effect stacks.
  • Dashing Strike - Commander Vo'jak charges a random enemy player, inflicting 71,250 Physical damage to all enemies passed through. The Strike also knocks back his current target, inflicting an additional 190,000 Physical damage.
  • Thousand Blades - Immediately after using Dashing Strike, Commander Vo'jak begins to spin around and send blades outward, inflicting Physical damage to all targets within 8 yards. Thousand Blades also removes the Caustic Tar effect.
• Heroic Difficulty - Siege of Niuzao Temple is only available on Heroic Difficulty.

General Pa'valak

• Blade Rush - General Pa'valak throws his sword at a random player's location, inflicting 150,000 Physical damage to all players within 4 yards on impact. Once the sword lands General Pa'valak then charges to it, inflicting 300,000 Physical damage to all players within 4 yards and knocking them back.
• Tempest - General Pa'valak unleashes a tempest, inflicting 90,000 Nature damage to all players within 60 yards and negating the next 45,000 points of healing on the target.
• Call Reinforcements - When General Pa'valak reaches 65% and 35% remaining health, he shields himself in a Bulwark and summons reinforcements.
  
  • Bulwark - General Pa'valak surrounds himself in a shield, absorbing 1,500,000 damage.
  • Aerial Bombardment - General Pa'valak summons Sik'thik Amber-Sappers to bomb players.
    
    • Siege Explosive - Sik'thik Amber-Sappers drop Siege Explosives that arm themselves after 3 seconds. Then after an additional 3 seconds pass they explode for 300,000 Fire damage in a 7 yard radius. The explosion causes players to take 5% additional damage for 15 sec. This effect stacks.
    • Throw Explosive - Players may attempt to throw Siege Explosives back at enemy Mantid before they arm. Thrown Explosives inflict 300,000 Fire damage to all Mantid within 7 yards of the targeted area and increase their damage taken by 5% for 1.5 min. This effect stacks.
  • Ground Assault - General Pa'valak summons waves of Sik'thik Soldiers to defend him in battle.
    
    • Sik'thik Soldier
      
      • Serrated Blade - Sik'thik Soldiers slice a player, inflicting 7,500 Physical damage every 3 seconds for 12 sec. This effect stacks.
• Heroic Difficulty - Siege of Niuzao Temple is only available on Heroic Difficulty.

Wing Leader Ner'onok

• Hurl Brick - Ner'onok throws rubble from the damaged bridge at his target, inflicting Physical damage equal to 100% of his weapon damage.
• Caustic Pitch - Ner'onok throws a glob of Caustic Pitch at a random location. The glob inficts 40,000 Nature damage every 1 sec. and reduces the movement speed of players touching it by 50%.
• Quick-Dry Resin - Ner'onok sprays a target with heated resin. As the resin hardens it inflicts 7,500 Fire damage every 1 sec. If this process completes the target becomes encased in resin and cannot move or act for 6 sec. Jumping counteracts this effect and if the target breaks free they become Invigorated, increasing casting and movement speeds by 15% for 30 sec.
• Treacherous Winds - Twice during the fight Nero'nok lifts off and flies to the other end of the bridge. Upon landing he periodically channels Gusting Winds until interrupted.
  
  • Gusting Winds - Ner'onok beats his wings fiercely, creating a powerful gale that pushes enemies away from him at high speed.
• Heroic Difficulty - Siege of Niuzao Temple is only available on Heroic Difficulty.

Faction Description Updates
Several of the NPCs which have friendship levels got new descriptions in this patch.

• Jogu the Drunk - Jogu's easy to find - gazing into the bottom of a bottle of the cheapest Stormstout Brewery has to offer.
• Ella - Ella aspires to be a great brewer, but she has a long road ahead of her!
• Old Hillpaw - Old Hillpaw is the canniest chicken raiser around.
• Chee Chee - If you've ever had a question about sheep, Chee Chee will know the answer.
• Sho - A stout, proud defender of the farmlands, Sho is always there when you need a strong fist.
• Haohan Mudclaw - The respected leader of the Tillers, Haohan Mudclaw is swamped with responsibilities.
• Tina Mudclaw - Tina Mudclaw is fond of the delicate things in life.
• Gina Mudclaw - Managing the Halfhill Market makes Gina Mudclaw one stressed lady!
• Fish Fellreed - Fish Fellreed's found out more about the history of this land than the rest of the town's forgotten.

More Pet Battle Music
The latest beta patch added some more pet battle music!

New Pet Battle Skills
The past few beta patches have added a few new pet abilities as well!

Name	Type	Power	Cooldown	Duration	Accuracy
Blitz	Humanoid	8			50%
Build Turret	Mechanical	0		4 rounds	100%
Clone	Magic	0		100 rounds	100%
Damned	Undead	1		1 round	100%
Failsafe	Mechanical	25		1 round	100%
GM Revive	Humanoid	100		20 rounds	100%
GM Unkillable	Humanoid	0			100%
Mudslide [NYI]	Critter	0		3 rounds	100%
Railgun	Elemental	20			90%
Recovery	Humanoid	5		1 round	100%
Slippery Ice	Elemental	0			0%
Turret	Mechanical	1			90%

Blue Posts

Troll Moonkin Model
Why did they change our Moonkin form's antlers to horns like Tauren Moonkin?
Antlers are back. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Rogue (Forums)
Rogue Class Design
Ghostcrawler, I know you probably won't make your way this deep in the thread, but I just wanted to say thanks for all of this great information and feedback. I really appreciate the openness you've shared with us in these posts. Kudos.
We read everything. We just can't always respond to it all. But if you make good points, I promise we will consider them.

GC, I’d say thanks for the posts you’ve made, but they confuse me. Not the content of the posts, but that you take the trouble to post them yet the content of them is generally dismissive.
I understand your point of view and I sympathize, but it is something of a no win scenario for us. If we agreed with any particular feedback and there weren't compelling reasons to not make a change, then we would do it. Everyone is happy. That happens sometimes. More often, we disagree or we agree but there is some other reason we aren't going to make a change. The way this comes across to players more often than not is that ideas were suggested and ignored or dismissed. They are never ignored or dismissed.

It would be great if it was possible for us to debate those issues every time they come up, but I don't know a reasonable way to do that. Sometimes I find a bit of spare time to make a forum post or a blog to try and explain our design intent so that at least you have some frame of reference, and the other developers and the community team do likewise.

As I said in one these recent posts, it often feels like the only kind of post from us that is going to be acceptable to some players is "Yes! You are spot on! Buffs and / or changes incoming!" But imagine what the game would be like if we did that every time a suggestion came up. Yes, we should only make the good changes and not the bad ones, but we have yet to find a litmus test to easily detect good from bad. (Let us know if you know of one!) Instead we use our judgment, which is a mix of gut instinct, experience and feedback.

Realize that some of the time we choose to post nothing at all it's because we want to avoid the "But you just dismissed all of our concerns" responses. It's a bummer for players to read a post that says "We disagree" or even worse, "we agree but we have a good reason not to make the change." I get that. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blizzard Games News Update
Pico is back with an update on the news in WoW, SC2, and D3!

[medievalman1]

Am I the only one who thought that her hands are placed in a very... interesting manner?

[Dasn]

inb4 people say the toy trumpet part is pokemon

[FeliciaMarie]

Am I the only one who thought that her hands are placed in a very... interesting manner?

LMAO. First thing I thought as well!

[Primernova]

Interesting picture of Pico there. >.>

[Cyriaa]

OOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

I can't believe they put the WC2 music in the game (Human)
Fuck ya, super excited now <3

[Amyllia]

inb4 people say the toy trumpet part is pokemon

It does sound a lot like Pokemon music, but I don't think it's like a "rip off" kind of thing. I'm pretty sure they were going for that kind of thing.

[Nexsa]

Siege of Niuzao Temple looks very interesting. Looking forward to the new dungeons more and more.

[Tyrathius]

Damn Rogues, getting all the attention.

[Zoulz]

Love the warcraft 2 music for pet battles!

[greyghost]

Love the warcraft 2 music for pet battles!

This this this this.

Great retro music. Fits in well with the 16/32-bit type of music that people normally associate with handheld games (coughpokemoncough).

[Deleted]

Uhh, aren't NPC friendship descriptions a bit too cheesy?


Seriously, Blizzard's writing sucks more and more in the recent years.

[Deathwhite]

LMAO. First thing I thought as well!

True true!

[Tierbook]

hmm... Mudclaw... mudclaw.. mudclaw.. skyrim... what

[Deleted]

WC2 OST ftw! I will play those pet battles just for the music.

[Tmeister]

u know no matter how hard they will fail with pvp or pve in mop i know i atleast can comfort myself with PET BATTLE SYSTEM OH YEA!

[Korru]

**** yeah retro music!

[Sidone]

Damn Rogues, getting all the attention.

When people take blue posts out of context, and when the rogues complain yeh...
If your class gets less attention then it thinks it deserves you will have had done the same, and we would have had another person replying just like you.

[Babytaco]

No offense to Pico, but she is absolutely awful in front of a camera. Why is she still doing these boring, lifeless videos?

[Tarx]

Anyone know if Gostclawer is bachelor?