Bidding for Good, Blue posts, Fan Arts

[Boubouille]

Bidding for Good - World of Warcraft Collector Basket
Blizzard Entertainment is selling a pretty nice basket of World of Warcraft collector Games / Goodies on BiddingForGood.com

This World of Warcraft Basket includes the following:

• World of Warcraft Collector's Edition (Signed by the Development Team);
• World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Collector's Editions (Signed by the Development Team);
• World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Edition (Signed by the Development Team);
• World of Warcraft TCG Etheral Plunderer Loot Card;
• World of Warcraft TCG Spectral Tiger Loot Card;
• World of Warcraft TCG Spectral Kitten Loot Card;
• World of Warcraft 1 year Subscription Card;
• World of Warcraft Gryphon Hatchling Plushie with In-game Companion;
• World of Warcraft Wind Rider Cub Plushie with In-game Companion.

Proceeds go to Peninsula Education Foundation in order to support PVPUSD. If you have some money lying around and planned to spend an insane amount of money on a WoW Collector Edition on EBay, you might want to do it for a good cause!


Blue posts

Mastery System and PvP Balance
First, it's a powerful new tool, but it's by no means the only tool in the toolbox.

Second, higher health pools and survivability relative to damage means damage output won't be balanced on the same razor edge in Cataclysm as it is now. When increasing damage by 5% means you knock off 90% of a health pool in five seconds instead of 86%, that's pretty risky. When it means you knock off 40% of a health pool instead of 38%, that's not a real big balance changer. Numbers made up, but that's the general principle.

Third, a greater focus on large-scale PvP will also probably help moderate the effects of changes like this.
This.

Pretty sure PvP gear will have mastery.
And this. (Source)

Tanking is (not) hard!
'm just reading a lot of "tanking is so hard" threads, and A) we don't really agree, and B) if it's any less challenging I fear a lot of tanks may get bored and move on to other classes. There are some annoying parts of tanking we need to fix, and we definitely want to fix the threat scaling problem and any major disparities in AE tanking. But if you're looking for an experience even easier than tanking Naxx, I'm not quite sure how to provide that given my A and B above. (Source)

Faction equality on servers
The average alliance to horde ratio for Trollbane is 1.08:1. That doesn't take into account things like player participation, character level, interest in certain activities such as world PvP, etc. but the actual ratio is pretty much even.

We do what we can to encourage faction equality though. If any situations arise that require our intervention we do so. We've had realm transfers that only allow one faction to move, we've shut down character creation for a single faction. We have methods to help balance realms or even battlegroups and we do use them, for all US realms at current and especially in this case though I wouldn't characterize it as needing that level of intervention. (Source)

Arena Tournament in Europe
We will very soon be opening registration to a brand-new service for players with a European World of Warcraft account. The Arena Pass will give access to our special Arena Pass realm, designed to give you the perfect platform to prove your competitive abilities.

Players on this realm will have the freedom to equip pre-made level 80 characters with PVP gear of their choosing, including the latest Wrathful Gladiator Season 8 items.

Successful teams will be rewarded! Face enough challengers and you will receive the Murkimus pet, which can be shared with all other characters on your World of Warcraft account. The very best teams will also receive the exclusive Vanquisher title, which can be shared with your high-level characters. All will know of your mighty achievements!

Stay tuned for more information, including pricing, availability and other details, later this week! (Source)

Upgrading the original backpack
We think about this one all the time, be it an upgrade to the backpack, or making it replaceable by larger bags. We'd just have to be careful to not make it possible to have no bags equipped at any given time, because that would get messy. No guarantees on this one, but do know we're considering it. (Source)

Celestial Steed scaling
We acknowledge that the Celestial Steed can seem a little out of proportion when especially some of the bulkier races are riding it, and this is something that is being looked into. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Talent Calculator)
AE Tanking in Cataclysm
I didn't mean to imply that blowing Intimidating Shout is a swell idea on every AE pull. The context was a scenario that apparently comes up all the time where the warrior has recently used Thunder Clap and Shockwave and a whole lot of Morogrim-style adds pour into the room, leaving the hapless warrior without an AE button to push and solve the whole problem. I was pointing out that there are a lot of things you can do in that situation. Yes, if someone is about to die and you can't wait for Thunder Clap to come back up, then by all means use Intimidating Shout. That's what it's there for.

We're just not crazy about the sound of any of these ideas that have the warrior able to use Thunder Clap and have it tick away on the mobs or on the ground to make sure things will stick to you no matter what.

Warriors tanked for years without Shockwave and with a pretty wimpy Thunder Clap that only hit four adds. Yet, they still managed to handle a variety of fights, including this staggered adds situation that is the current hot topic button for this forum. I played a warrior tank a lot in that time period, and yeah, sometimes you lost aggro and sometimes you wiped. It's a lot easier today. I'm not trying to use one of these "back in my day, we tanked uphill in the snow" arguments, but I am trying to get a sense for how easy you really want tanking to be and still have fun doing it.

(Again, I'm totally bought into the argument that AE tanking on live may not be as easy for warriors as paladins and druids. I'm trying to establish how AE tanking should feel in an absolute, not a relative sense.) (Source)

Fan Art
The American and European Blizzard Fan Art Section have been updated with 4 Fan Arts. Warning: You might want to delete all your Horde characters and reroll Alliance after that.

[DaLeetPawner]

Im not appealed by the spectral kitty

[Kathrine]

1400 dollars lol

[Dubhailt]

Sounds pretty awesome to me. Spend money on all the WoW goodies (signed as well!) you'd ever want, and they're guaranteed to be authentic!

WTB some rich old geezer's credit card.

Nah, least it's going to a good cause!

[Scratchee]

Yay bigger backpack. And I hope they fix more than just the scaling on the Celestial Steed. It runs like it's being squished into the ground and is about to fall over.

[Nakriel]

That art reminds me why I rolled male draenei in the first place. Then I realise that male draenei don't look that good in game.

[Manchaku]

Love the Fan art! and i love the charity...i dont have that type of monnies tho

[Deleted]

awsumness fan art.

EDIT: Is that a goblin? Oo

[Deleted]

Oh look, it's Varian stealing our kill. Git should find his own raid imo.

That is a sweet basket though, wish I had the money to bid. Although if I did, I'd probably have it all already.

[Deleted]

wut your problem with the orc, boub?

she is very feminime.. and beats the crap out of anyone, who disagrees

[Avatar]

This never ending ae tanking debate.
Fact: Try to ae tank in an actual gear equiped group as a warrior. Have fun.... It will in no means work !

As a Paladin or druid or Dk it will work with no effort. Now Blizzard explain that to me. I don´t want tanking to be ridiculous but for ridiculous trash it should be a piece of cake. That simpel...

[Ma_shed]

Wow....Blizzard really wants to get rich on selling imaginary pixels - I think they need the money because they're planning something costly, like a 2nd generation MMO that revolutionize the gaming industry.

"Proceeds go to Peninsula Education Foundation in order to support PVPUSD. If you have some money lying around and planned to spend an insane amount of money on a WoW Collector Edition on EBay, you might want to do it for a good cause!"

Derrr...

[Joniebonie]

wut your problem with the orc, boub?

she is very feminime.. and beats the crap out of anyone, who disagrees

I have to agree with boub here. What's up with her face?
All other fan arts are awesome though

[IngoDent]

> Someone draw some effing badass Hordes and make Boub post them. We can't let those slackjawed squids'n'humans get the better of us!

[Tygor]

Wow....Blizzard really wants to get rich on selling imaginary pixels - I think they need the money because they're planning something costly, like a 2nd generation MMO that revolutionize the gaming industry.

Activision really isn't doing very well, if you haven't been reading the news. I bet WoW is literally keeping the entire empire afloat.

[Gilian]

The context was a scenario that apparently comes up all the time where the warrior has recently used Thunder Clap and Shockwave and a whole lot of Morogrim-style adds pour into the room, leaving the hapless warrior without an AE button to push and solve the whole problem.

This is not a problem at all. The players make this a problem.

You could just use intimidating shout/taunt and tab single target mobs untill thunder clap or shockwave is off cooldown. If the dps keeps hitting mobs you don't have agro on then that's their mistake and their problem. They could at least stop hitting a mob they pull agro on if they don't have omen (people have it but don't use it) and maybe use a threat dropping skill. And if they are not stupid they can even help you to keep mobs on you with MD and keep them of their selves with crowd control.

This game becomes more boring if they keep changing things for bad players or new players to make it easier for them. It's the wrong way, they should just learn how to deal with these situations by doing them or by help from others. Blizzard is better off by giving more tips ingame or on the website for new players than giving classes talents or skills that solve mistakes of other players.

[phai]

Best draenei male ever drawn. Period.
And the little draenei girl looks so adorable :3 <3

[Nirron]

1400 dollars lol

If you look at all the stuff you getting 1400 dollars is nothing. All these items together go for loads more then that.

* World of Warcraft Collector's Edition (Signed by the Development Team)
- Price for this on Ebay is above $1000 (not even signed by Developement team)

* World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Collector's Editions (Signed by the Development Team);
- Price for this on Ebay is above $100

* World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Edition (Signed by the Development Team);
- Price for this on Ebay is above $100

* World of Warcraft TCG Etheral Plunderer Loot Card;
- Price for this on Ebay is above $20

* World of Warcraft TCG Spectral Tiger Loot Card;
- Price for this on Ebay is above $800

* World of Warcraft TCG Spectral Kitten Loot Card;
- Price for this on Ebay is above $100

* World of Warcraft 1 year Subscription Card;
- Price for a 180 days gamecard in the Blizzard Store is 77.94 (Year = ?)

* World of Warcraft Gryphon Hatchling Plushie with In-game Companion;
- Price for this in the Blizzard Store is $24.99

* World of Warcraft Wind Rider Cub Plushie with In-game Companion.
- Price for this in the Blizzard Store is $24.99

Total worth between $2400 - $2500 (+ another $250-500 because of Sealed CE's that will only go up in price)

Edit: Noticed the "Estimated Value $2,500.00 " part.. god I'm good 8)

[sneaky7]

Faction equality on servers
The average alliance to horde ratio for Trollbane is 1.08:1. That doesn't take into account things like player participation, character level, interest in certain activities such as world PvP, etc. but the actual ratio is pretty much even.

We do what we can to encourage faction equality though. If any situations arise that require our intervention we do so. We've had realm transfers that only allow one faction to move, we've shut down character creation for a single faction. We have methods to help balance realms or even battlegroups and we do use them, for all US realms at current and especially in this case though I wouldn't characterize it as needing that level of intervention. (Source)

God sake... Are they REALLY thinking that the situation is not critical? People report a "6 to 1 ratio" and they reply "no, its "1.6 to 1 ratio". Well then, how the fuck does this explain, that on my realm the entrance to the ICC is crowded with horde in all times of the day? Its like you can come there at 05.00 morning and even then there will surely be some horde. And in same time, there are like 3 or maybe 4 Alliance guilds that are able to periodically collect 25 people online for a raid.
And people keep transferring to the horde side on this realm. Is this REALLY under control and just supposed to be like that?

[treston323]

The picture with King Varian taking on Onyxia is BADASS