Paragons of the Klaxxi, 5.4 Dev Interviews, Blue Posts, Celestial Tournament, Fan Art

[chaud]

The Hellgates Have Opened on Console, How Soon is Soon for the Itemization Patch, Best Class for Console

Hearthstone Facebook Sweepstakes Over, Blue Tweets

Patch 5.4 - Paragons of the Klaxxi Preview
Paragons of the Klaxxi is the thirteenth boss in the Siege of Orgrimmar. The encounter takes place under Ragefire Chasm in Orgrimmar. As promised, Kil'ruk and the other Paragons stand by Garrosh after he has the Heart of Y'Shaarj

Patch 5.4 Developer Interviews
Convert to Raid recently had the opportunity to interview Ion Hazzikostas. You can find information from previous interviews on our Patch 5.4 Developer Interviews page.

• Siege of Orgrimmar begins in Pandaria so that you don't just end up going back to Orgrimmar in Patch 5.4, but instead experience a story that leads you there.
• Gamon is one of the more notable things in Orgrimmar, so he got an achievement: Gamon Will Save Us!
• Valor gear originally was added to complement normal difficulty raiding and filling in for bad luck. The Valor gear continued to work like that for normal difficulty raiders, but for players that just do LFR, it replaced the gear that dropped in LFR. Most of the gear that was best in slot for players that only do LFR was just purchased off a vendor, which isn't very exciting.
• The devs try to attract players to higher levels of difficulty by adding new things, rather than taking away old things. The new things that are being added aren't essential. People that don't manage to kill Garrosh on Flex, Normal, or Heroic and don't get their heirloom weapon will still be able to level just fine.
• Every spec in the game can get Gold in Proving Grounds for the appropriate role. Not every spec will be able to get deep into Endless. When comparing performance in Endless mode, it may be best to compare yourself to other players of the same class and spec rather than everyone.
• There are some players that won't do Brawler's Guild because they don't want to have other players watching them make mistakes.

Blue Posts

Saylin Battle Banner Disabled in Raids
The Salyin Battle Banner can no longer be used inside of raid instances. The item can still be used in regular dungeons, Scenarios, and in non-instanced areas.

Wow, fast reply. Any reason for the change?
The change was made to address a raid exploit. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Patch 5.4 - Shine Engineering Auction House
Just checked in on this. The removal of the Engineering Auction House NPC's is, in fact, unintentional, and was merely an oversight that occurred along with some of the other changes to the Vale for 5.4.

We're in the process of getting them re-enabled in the faction shrines on the PTR, and they will continue to be available once Patch 5.4 is released. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Battlefield: Barrens Ending Soon
Quick note: Kor'kron supplies (lumber/stone/etc.) will turn gray when 5.4 hits (Sept. 10!) and be sellable. No need to destroy any extras (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets

New Character Models
I'm honestly a little miffed that models are ~25%. Kind of blew my mind in a bad way.
It is not necessarily the case that it will take 3x as long as the elapsed time to finish. Work, yes. Time, perhaps not. (Source)
Even still, it's a complicated task that needs to be done well or not at all, patience from the players is key
TOTALLY. May have tweeted this already, but this would be an easy thing to screw up and spend years trying to earn forgiveness. (Source)

I know new character models take a very long time and need to be perfect, but you talked about them 5 years ago. 25% done? wtf
I don't know when we first talked about them. We didn't start them until relatively recently. (Source)
There is a lesson here about not talking about things too early. (Source)
I think the assumption many made is we have been working on them nonstop and only 25% of the way there. (Source)
I just assumed since we didn't get them in MoP, they would be a major feat. of the next XPac. I think most ppl did
I would not make any assumptions about future expansions since we haven't made any announcements about them at all. (Source)

really? I cant remember the last time I actually saw my character model. Gear hides much and I'm zoomed way out
Keep in mind all the other PCs and NPCs (that use player races) would look better as well. (Source)

Are new character models not priority 1 right now?? /boggled If they are not.
They are *a* priority. I don't think players would be understanding if they saw no new art in the game just to get new models. (Source)
I thought these were expected feature for the next expansion? Guessing I assumed wrong.
You should have no expectations for the next expansion IMO since we haven't talked about a next expansion at all. (Source)

Stretching out new character updates over the next few years on into the next expansion? Art Dept take a budget cut?
We didn't think our players would accept tons of reused SoO boss models or armor sets. (Source)
We're making good progress, but at some point players started expecting it imminently. We wanted to remind them it's a long job. (Source)
Or another way to think of it: this is a really easy thing to screw up and you all deserve better than that. (Source)

PTR
Do you pay attention to PTR numbers dps wise?How much input?Good players showing true performance,not sims.
Yes, we look at PTR nos. a lot. It is a stronger argument when a player can link logs than to argue for buffs based on sims. (Source)

Lore
Made an acc to ask you this, WAS Garrosh behind Stonetalon's bombing? Kosak's answer was really up to interpretation. GJ btw
My assumption is he was, but that's my interpretation and not a canon answer. (Source)

Please stop being skeptical and at least *pause* for a moment to consider how important story is to your player base.
It is important to us as well. But WoW is primarily a game intended to offer fun gameplay. The gameplay for us is always first. (Source)
We care about story w/in that constraint, but story changes that require a lot of work w/out bringing gameplay tough to justify. (Source)
That is the context I am trying to provide to the "re-quest Ashenvale once again" crowd. (Source)
We spent A LOT of effort redoing Ashenvale and other zones for Cataclysm. In retrospect not sure bang for the buck was there. (Source)
Please don't interpret that as story not mattering to us. (Source)

So what was the reason for giving the horde Darkshore, South Shore and allowing them to nuke Theramore?
Those were all motivated by tryingnto provide an interesting leveling / scenario experience. (Source)
Many of these concerns seem motivated by issues like fairness or justice. We're just trying to make playing WoW interesting. (Source)

Pet Battles: The Celestial Tournament

Not far off the southeastern shores of the Jade Forest lies the Timeless Isle, a mysterious place riddled with spirit creatures, challenging encounters, and even a fiery demigod. Explorers who reach its shores enter uncharted territory filled with trials that will test their skills, tenacity, cleverness . . . and Pet Battle prowess.

A Timeless Tournament

Among its many enigmas, the Timeless Isle plays host to a Celestial Tournament where veteran tamers can exercise their skills in an all-new Pet Battles Scenario. Led by Emperor Shaohao and featuring notable figures from Pandaren lore, this legendary event demands the utmost from those who participate—and requires a skilled and varied roster of level-25 pets if you have any hope to survive.

Speaking to Master Li will get you into the Celestial Tournament, where you’ll take on powerful Pet Battle pros like Chen Stormstout, Shademaster Kiryn, and even the imitable Blingtron 4000—and in the end, your skills will be pushed to the limit as you face off against the mighty Celestial Champions.

To the Victor Go the Spoils

Upon completing the quests and your first run through the Celestial Tournament, you’ll be rewarded with enough Celestial Coins to purchase your very own Celestial battle pet. Each additional weekly attempt will continue to reward one Celestial Coin, which can be saved up and used to purchase the other three pets that will be available through a nearby vendor (progress will be tracked at the account level). Caring for these pets is a sacred honor, so each is account-bound and cannot be traded to other players.

To ensure only the best come out victorious, healing and reviving pets during the Scenario is strictly forbidden—so it’s important to come prepared. To win, participants will need to defeat three random tamer teams, along with all four offspring of the August Celestials. Losing a battle from time to time will be inevitable, but that’s not the end of the line. Though your defeated pets will remain down, you’ll be able to restart the fight and adjust who’s on your team before giving it another try. You’ll also be able to switch up your team between battles. Should you happen to leave the Scenario before it’s completed, you’ll be able to return later to restart the event.

Once Patch 5.4 is live and the Timeless Isle is revealed, new pets, new abilities, and exciting new challenges will be waiting . . . so keep practicing, pet battlers. You’re about to be put to the test!

Fan Art
Today we have some nice fan art that was done for the WoW Fan Art Tribute book.

[moveth]

Wish people would just calm down about new models. They will come when they're ready. Don't rush it please.

[Eiffel]

New models will probably be revealed at Blizcon, like keep your pants on.

[Krekko]

I wholeheartedly agree.

The people complaining that they NEED models right NOW will be the same ones complaining when they are not 100% perfect, done right, when things are off and they don't like them, and when we get reused models for current/upcoming content instead.

These people are serial complainers. It's their job, and quite frankly it's getting really old really fast.

[TrollShaman]

I'd let them take their time in the model updates.

[Raugnaut]

Says Malkorak instead of Paragons of the Klaxxi in the Klaxxi boss as the very first word.

[atrixx]

New models apparently will have real hands with real fingers...they can take all the time in the world to get it right. Now just so the hand sizes aren't the size of a character's chest.

[Bawl]

Man that fight sounds like a complete clusterfuck... which could go either way in terms of fun.

[Metaz]

Having tested that fight on normal mode 10man and hc, and normal 25 and hc the Klaxxi fight is a complete joke at the moment. It will go live with so many bugs (no pun intended) in the fight itself let alone the fact the order will be different each week leading to many issues because of that. I have no idea why blizzard decided to do a boss like this after the whole four kings issue they had in Mogu Vaults in HC progress with the random order, this will be even worse. I hope I am proven wrong but I think this fight on the first week or two on hc mode will be an absolute nightmare for any guild which gets to it.

[Tarx]

They have to do more inportant improvement than new models. Fix the game play please.

[Teriael]

Why rush blizzard to make new models when they already said new models have yet to really work in mmos, i rather have blizzard do them right the first time rather then multiple times because they pushed them early and they looked horrible. Not to mention i rather get new content then new models, content keeps me playing. I like that they are doing them on the side so we keep getting new content.

[Somebody]

Gosh, these people demanding new models now are going to be the ones demanding compensation for the loss of their long loved old model. They are also going to be the ones to say "GG Blizz, no old model/new model button /fail" assuming that they don't put that button in (frankly, that would make the game seem awkward).

In all honesty, I'm still sad that the bank roof in Org isn't the central gather point anymore. But those are fond memories that I'm happy to say I have experienced. Likewise, the old models will be happy memories I'd be glad I experienced. This thought makes me think if some stupid FoS would be necessary to ease the crying of aforementioned players, or maybe make battle pets using the old models...

[Nelonsa]

There are some players that won't do Brawler's Guild because they don't want to have other players watching them make mistakes.

Wow, that's totally me :<

[Azrile]

Wow, that's totally me :<

Honestly, I have had the exact opposite experience. I had people whisper me little bits of advice whenever I die.. and certainly the overall tone of the place is very supportive. it is a little intimidating the first few fights thinking of everyone watching you.. but overall, at least on my battlegroup, nobody has been anything but nice.

[Deleted]

"Wish people would just calm down about new models. They will come when they're ready. Don't rush it please."
4 years not enough?
This is just marketing... 3-5 new fish are working on the models and that's all.
I hope they will lose more subs because of this.
My guild is just disappeared because of FLEX... "Why raiding with you? If I could make this with others..." or the worst: "We will do this with less people now! so you can leave freely from the guild. you are useless..."

[Shudder]

"Valor gear originally was added to complement normal difficulty raiding and filling in for bad luck. The Valor gear continued to work like that for normal difficulty raiders, but for players that just do LFR, it replaced the gear that dropped in LFR. Most of the gear that was best in slot for players that only do LFR was just purchased off a vendor, which isn't very exciting."

Hahaha good! LFR heroes shouldn't have normal mode gear anyways. I'm glad they're getting rid of vp gear. If you want normal mode gear join a real raid.

"The change was made to address a raid exploit."

Oh, so vanish and feign death are exploits now? So I should go ahead and report people for using those spells? Will do.

[sociald1077]

Wow, that's totally me :<

I love it when people are watching me. Brawlers guild fighters have been nothing but supportive win or lose. Even if its just a /cheer or /cry.

[nuclearkite]

"Wish people would just calm down about new models. They will come when they're ready. Don't rush it please."
4 years not enough?
This is just marketing... 3-5 new fish are working on the models and that's all.
I hope they will lose more subs because of this.
My guild is just disappeared because of FLEX... "Why raiding with you? If I could make this with others..." or the worst: "We will do this with less people now! so you can leave freely from the guild. you are useless..."

What are you talking about, 4 years? They've only said in the last several months they were actually working on the new models. Why do you even play if slight delays of non-essential free content sets you off and makes you want the game to suffer? If youre so unnecessary and expendable to your guild, maybe you should find a new guild that isnt filled with rude twats, and then MAKE yourself necessary by being a better player.

[l33t]

There are some players that won't do Brawler's Guild because they don't want to have other players watching them make mistakes.

There are lots of players that won't do Brawler's guild because they hate the 30+ min que of plain sitting there and doing nothing. Like me.

[Aesahaettr]

I don't like the Brawler's Guild because of people watching my mistakes.

I played it enough to get to the heirloom claw weapons so I've a little experience there. I've never had a bad experience there, people were occasionally supportive, occasionally helpful and never negative. But I still hate making mistakes in front of people, even if they're non-judgemental. I don't like being the centre of attention at the best of times.

I might be one of the few who doesn't really care about new models, but I'm glad that in a recent interview (linked on MMO) they're referencing the old models and animation a lot, I'd be put off by massive changes to the feel of things.