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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsWoTLK Friends and Family Alpha Patch Notes leaked
by Daniel Whitcomb 
May 17th 2008 at 5:50PM
MMO-Champion has just posted what appears to be the patch notes for the WoTLK Friends and Family Alpha. This is an unconfirmed leak, but everything on them would appear to check out as legitimate. They're pretty barebones, but there's some intriguing information to be found:
- Death Knights are playable, although the starting quests and talents are not complete.
- Spells and Talents past 70 are available for the Druid, Mage, Priest, Shaman, Warlock, and Warrior classes
- You can head to Northrend via Menethil Harbor and Theramore for the Alliance, or Undercity and Ogrimmar for the Horde
- The Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, Grizzly Hills, and Dragonblight are the zones currently open for testing.
- Utgarde Keep, Utgarde Pinnacle, The Nexus, and Drak'tharon Keep are currently available for testing.
If they already have talents for quite a few classes past 70, it would seem to suggest that they are further along on the expansion then we think. Hopefully, if these patch notes ring true, we'll hear about those talents soon. You can read the full Patch notes behind the jump.
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- World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King: Friends and Family Alpha
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Welcome to the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Friends and Family Alpha. The list below contains information on the current available content available for testing and general information. This information is subject to change.
General
- The continent of Northrend is now available! To travel there, visit one of four transportation masters in either Orgrimmar, Undercity, Theramore,or Menethil Harbor.
- Transportation between Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra can be found at the Tuskarr villages in those zones.
- NPC Transportation Locations
Horde:
Undercity to Vengeance Landing (Howling Fjord)
Orgrimmar to Warsong Hold (Borean Tundra)
Alliance:
Menethil Harbor to Valgarde (Holwing Fjord)
Theramore Valiance Keep (Borean Tundra)
World Environment Zones
- The following zones are available for testing: Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, and Grizzly Hills
Dungeons
- The following dungeons are available for testing:
Howling Fjord: Utgarde Keep (70-72)
Howling Fjord: Utgarde Pinnacle (80)
Borean Tundra: The Nexus (70-72)
Grizzly Hills: Drak'Tharon Keep (74-76)
Classes
- All Classes are available for play. Spells and talents will be available for testing past 70 for the following classes: Druid, Mage, Priest, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior
- The Death Knight Hero class is now available for play.
Creating a new Death Knight will start you at level 55 in Eastern Plaguelands.
No starting quests are implemented though Death Knight abilities will be available for testing.
Several Death Knight talents, although they will appear on the talent pane, are not yet implemented.
Professions
- The following tradeskills are available to train up to 450: First Aid, Herbalism, Mining, and Skinning.
Filed under: Druid, Mage, Priest, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior, Patches, News items, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 4)
Faux May 17th 2008 10:17PM
I don't think so. Given what we've seen and heard so far I think they're right on track for a Q4/08 release. Don't forget the big endgame content like Icecrown Glacier won't be turned on immediately.
Suzaku May 17th 2008 10:30PM
Burning Crusade's Friends and Family Alpha started August 23rd, 2006, its Closed Beta started September 29th, 2006, and it went retail January 16, 2007.
Given similar development time for Wrath, we *could* be seeing the Closed Beta mid-June, with a released around October.
And yeah, this appears to be legit. People on other forums are posting up texture maps, untextured models, loading screens, a legit Howling Fjord map, etc..
Michael May 18th 2008 2:11AM
MMO Champion have a horrible habit of getting things wrong; very wrong. Think I'll wait for some official "leakage" tyvm...
crsh May 17th 2008 11:42PM
"it would seem to suggest that they are further along on the expansion then we think"
I would agree if this weren't still in alpha stage, where spells/quests aren't complete, etc; this thing, if anything, sounds way behind schedule, so much that they're QAing an alpha instead of a near-complete beta build (skipping steps to shave off dev/testing cycles?).
Suzaku May 18th 2008 10:03PM
This is the exact same thing they did with Burning Crusade.
Internal Alpha -> Friends & Family Alpha -> Closed Beta -> Retail.
The time between BC's F&F Alpha and Closed Beta was less than a month, and then it took about another four months for release. If Wrath has the same development pace as BC and the F&F Alpha is legit, it should be out within 6 months.
Varus May 18th 2008 1:39AM
Not knowing their schedule (since release date is not public yet), it's kinda hard to comment, but I'm just wondering why it does take them so long, in general.
They haven't announced any new revolutionary changes to game mechanics, so there shouldn't actually be too much code revamping taking place, just general level/character/quest/etc design.
With this pace, they're really off the "expansion every year" mark.
Maybe I'm just QQ'ing for nothing, but it seemed reeeaaaally long time ago Blizzard released anything "new" (and they're still behind the curve on some things they've promised, like player/guild housing).
Wonder if this is the type of intel that makes WAR release right after summer? :-)
Markymark May 18th 2008 9:06PM
I rather them take their time and fine tune everything then just release a half assed expansion. People seriously need to learn to be patient... I bet they are rushing just to mee the demands of people who can't wait six months or more. If you can't wait go play WAR or fricken Conan or something I'm pretty sure they'll suck all the same.
VSUReaper May 18th 2008 4:40AM
Wish I could see the new Warrior and Priest talents - specifically a "holy-form" for our priests to replace LOLWell
Vidi May 18th 2008 4:51AM
I believe these notes to be false.
Blizzard was quoted ( By MMO Champion no less ) just last week as saying that Northrend would be accessed through Stormwind. These notes conflict with that.
Michael May 18th 2008 5:09AM
Yes; and if that's the case I don't think it's too much to ask that WOW Insider stop saying "How high?" every time MMO-Champion says to "Jump".
Translation: stop using them as a resource for information.
Vidi May 18th 2008 10:51PM
The notes also contain a grammatical error or two. If it was copy and paste from Blizzard that doesn;t make sense.
If it was typed out them maybe.
I'm still not buying it. Not one week after Kaplan and Chilton gave interviews that directly contradict what these "notes" claim.
darian May 19th 2008 12:23PM
Contrary to popular belief, Blizzard's official patch notes have to be typed out as well.
These seem quite legit to me. Fake patch notes tend to be attention grabbers, citing class changes or more specific instances of things that get people excited or angry. These notes are completely devoid of such things.
For example, rather than just note which classes have had their talents implemented, you'd expect to see sections for the classes with vague pronouncements about certain talents and their functions. That's forum trolling gold, and it's completely absent.
That all said this could be a forgery, but if that's the case it's the finest forgery I've witnessed.
Gurluas May 18th 2008 6:48AM
http://eu.version.worldofwarcraft.com/update/WoW-3.0.1.8303-3.0.1.8334-x86-Win-enGB
There is a patch file for the alpha, it is official.
Killah May 18th 2008 5:31PM
Where did you find that link?
Fauche May 18th 2008 8:17AM
I hear this map is legit, though probably not the "final".
http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/7109/northrendks0.jpg
Autumnbear May 18th 2008 11:15AM
It's good to see that the Deathknights will start at a fair level, where they can still enjoy the benefits of a lower level for rep grinds with the Argent Dawn or even the Timbermaw.
I wonder if the Death Knights will have a form to represent each race, or if the Death Knight class will only have a Human model. Either way, would a Death Knight have racial abilities, like Diplomacy, Warstomp, or Stoneskin?
bub May 19th 2008 5:36AM
Get the quest line that leads to "Return to Jaina"
Never hand this quest in and you get a free port from outside the Stormwind mage tower to inside the Theremore mage tower for as long as you have the quest in your log book.
Oli May 19th 2008 7:42AM
I have heard tell that portals will be made to the ports (Not just mage spells)
It is kinda annnoying that we (Alliance) have to do so much travelling/ HS Usage compared to horde though
http://wowraidguide.blogspot.com
Maerlyn May 19th 2008 8:01AM
Does anyone know if death knights will have all the old world flight paths? I know they start with a mount but it will still suck to have to go running around to get all the FPs.
Jay May 20th 2008 7:06AM
The mmo-champion links don't work