Not too long ago, Arenanet recently made an update to Guild Wars 2. One of the included features is a set of guild missions that organized guilds can go out and complete. To be fair, World of Warcraft does have its own set of guild challenges:

• Complete 15 scenarios
• Complete 1 raid encounter
• Complete 3 PvP battlegrounds
• Complete 7 heroics
• Complete 3 challenge mode dungeons

Throne of Thunder has added raid challenges within the instance itself. Every week, there's a quest that you'll encounter at random assigning you to kill specific trash.

It seems more of a laundry list of guild chores for gold than anything else. It's a cool way to help fund the guild bank and it does encourage players to do various activities together. But can we take it a step further? Let's look at the guild missions recently introduced in Guild Wars 2 and how they might translate into WoW.

There is some scaling technology in the game. The targets could get scaled up based on the size of your current raiding party. Or to make it even more interesting, every player's item level gets scaled down).

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion

Blizzard has bought the technology and other assets related to the IGN Pro League. The future of IPL was up in the air due to IGN layoffs back in February with 1UP, UGO, and Gamespy closing shop. Now we know what the fate of IPL will be. Some members of the team will be moving over to San Francisco to work on "high-quality web and mobile content in support of Blizzard games" but it appears that the actual operations of IPL will be coming to a close. Other members will be joining Blizzard's existing eSports team and possibly assisting them with the recently announced Starcraft 2 World Championship Series.

Personally, I've enjoyed watching the League of Legends and Starcraft 2 tournaments that IPL held. I'm quite sad to see them go as I was impressed by the level of quality in their productions. Best of luck to everyone involved!

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Filed under: Blizzard, News items

In anticipation of patch 5.2 tomorrow, the servers will be brought down for a full period of maintenance while the patch is deployed. For North America, maintenance begins at 1 AM PST, Tuesday, March 5th and should last 8 hours. For Europe, it starts at 1 AM CET. Keep in mind, there's always the possibility that maintenance may get extended due to unforeseen issues.

Start your client before you head out to start your day so that when you get home the patching process is already complete. In addition, don't forget to update your addons!

Are you ready for the Isle of Thunder?

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Filed under: News items, Mists of Pandaria

We're almost there! I'm not sure if this is the last batch of testing to occur but over the next few days, a flurry of 25-player heroic raid testing will be available for players on the PTR. The current build on the PTR has reached release candidate status which certainly means we're getting closer and closer to the patch 5.2 being deployed on to the live servers. Be sure to grab yourself a full suit of tier 15 gear before storming these heroic bosses though. Expect your gear to scale up to help you in your efforts.

WoW Insider Throne of Thunder boss impressions

• Jin'rokh, the Breaker
• Horridon
• Iron Qon
• Lei Shen, the Thunder King
• Tortos
• Megaera
• Twin Consorts
• Ji-Kun
• Durumu the Forgotten
• Dark Animus
• Council of Elders
• Primordius

Today's blue post with full details can be found behind the cut below.

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Filed under: News items, Mists of Pandaria

Your raid will run into Primordius in the later stage of the Throne of Thunder. Poor Primordius seems to be a saurok of some sort. The Dungeon Journal indicates that this is the chamber where the mogu first created or modified them. Check out the Know Your Lore column that Matt Rossi wrote a while ago about the subject.

I always thought these guys were annoying. Now you've got another chance to put one of the main saurok fellas to rest for good. Expect to be overwhelmed the first few times you try this. It'll end up being a little confusing simply because of all the different abilities, buffs, and debuffs involved.

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Filed under: Raid Guides, Mists of Pandaria

Thought you saw the last of Gara'jal in Mogushan Vaults, did you?

Yeah, so did I. Mogu'shan Vaults was merely a setback!

The Council of Elders is the third encounter in the Throne of Thunder. I surmise it's the whole leadership of the Troll empire right there looking to stop your raid team from progressing any further into the compound.

As you can guess, this encounter is the first council-type encounter of the raid. They'll have to handle the various abilities and spells that the Council is dishing out while slowly whittling them all down. They don't have a shared pool so you do you have your work cut out for you. Now there are going to be a ton of things going on but your raid should be able to pick up on the different abilities without too much of a hassle.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Raid Guides, Mists of Pandaria

WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Matticus is now a panda. He wields shadowy powers as well as his chopsticks but continues to play supportive healing roles in challenge modes. Stop by the World of Matticus for more!

Greetings my brothers and sisters!

It has been too long since I've donned my healing robes. I've been predominantly shadow this whole expansion. I will be spiritually guiding you this week at Dawn's request and we are getting ever closer to a patch 5.2 drop. With the PvP season ending soon, you can bet your trinkets that a release is imminent. The final stages of patch development are winding down. Most of the new abilities or talent changes have been overhauled. Now it's all about tuning and numbers. There's been some fundamental patch changes recently since the last time the PTR changes were reviewed.

To summarize:

• Divine Aegis reworked
• Mastery: Shield Discipline reworked
• Power Word: Solace updates
• Shadow buffs

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance

Starting today, the public test realms will be open to the test of 25-player Normal raid encounters within the Throne of Thunder. They're definitely trying to jam as much testing as they can. Four bosses will be tested per day. Get yourself a set of tier 15 gear from the Flaskataur NPC near the valor vendors in Niu-Zao temple. Not sure how to find the raid zone? Here's how you can get into the Throne of Thunder.

WoW Insider Throne of Thunder boss impressions

• Jin'rokh, the Breaker
• Horridon
• Iron Qon
• Lei Shen, the Thunder King
• Tortos
• Megaera
• Twin Consorts
• Ji-Kun

The blue post with additional information on the upcoming tests can be found behind the cut below.

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Earlier today, we mentioned Bashiok's patch 5.2 release date estimate of late February. However, the blog post in which this tentative release date was mentioned contains a lot of great information on preparing for the patch which should not be missed.

Some of the topics covered include:

• How to reach the Isle of the Thunder King and entering the new raid instance.
• Throne of Thunder normal difficulty available in the first week, Heroic difficulty opens the week after
• Throne of Thunder on Raid Finder opens the same week as Heroic raids (Week 2) with a new section each week after that
• 480 item level needed to enter Throne of Thunder on Raid Finder
• All Valor points will be reset and converted down to Justice points
• Current Valor items will have their costs reduced (25-50% reduction)
• Valor item upgrades won't be available in patch 5.2
• Recapping the Legendary meta gem and what will happen to your Sha-Touched weapons
• Ability to champion select reputations for the first Heroic and Scenario queue of the day
• The Tillers can also help your reputation by issuing you work orders from the various factions.
• 5.2 Valor items are tied to raid reputation from boss kills and not dailies (which can be earned via Raid Finder)

If you're still looking for ways to prepare for patch 5.2, our very own Kristin wrote up some excellent points to get yourself ahead of the pack.

Filed under: News items, Mists of Pandaria

I can't remember the last time I've fought a beholder. The earliest ones were seen during Burning Crusade right? The last time would've been on the prisons of Tol Barad. It's a giant eye which shoots laser beams and Durumu isn't an exception. I would have never guessed Lei-Shen would keep one of these around. This encounter specifically is going to stress on your raid's capabilities to think and move on their feet.

Anyone else hate fighting giant, floating eyes?

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, Mists of Pandaria