WoW Insider http://wow.joystiq.com WoW Insider http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogobig.gif WoW Insider http://wow.joystiq.com en-us Copyright 2015 AOL, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. View our terms of service here: http://legal.aol.com/terms-of-service/full-terms/ Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/ <![CDATA[Blizzard on raid design evolution]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/28/blizzard-on-raid-design-evolution/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/28/blizzard-on-raid-design-evolution/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/28/blizzard-on-raid-design-evolution/#comments
Lead Game Designer Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas has written a very extensive blog on the evolution of raid design, the first installment of which went live this morning. In this first part, Watcher covers the history of raiding, from the launch of the game in 2004 all the way through to the end of Icecrown Citadel in 2010.

For many, these were the glory days of raiding and World of Warcraft alike, well, if you believe the forums at least. Watcher talks about the developers' aims to make raiding more accessible, and to improve the gameplay of groups by reducing them in size -- one healer in a group of fifteen healers can't have as big an impact as one healer in a group of five or two. He also discusses the introduction of varying difficulties in raiding, and looks back over all the patches of some of the game's greatest raids.

Hit the break for the full post.

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Blizzard on raid design evolution originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 28 Apr 2014 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> ahn-qirajiccion-hazzikostasmolten-coreraidingtrial-of-the-crusaderulduar (Olivia Grace) Mon, 28 Apr 2014 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[WowCraft episode 3: Profession Obsession]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/24/wowcraft-episode-3-profession-obsession/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/24/wowcraft-episode-3-profession-obsession/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/24/wowcraft-episode-3-profession-obsession/#comments
Carbot Animations, the creator of the StarCrafts series of cartoons, as well as the Heroes of the Storm trailers, has released the latest episode of his World of Warcraft series, WowCraft. After the first episode dealing with character creation, and the second one handling the joke about toothless dogs that's almost as old as the game itself, this one is diving into professions, and the perils of gathering herbs around higher level characters.

While the episode doesn't detail the corpse camping and judicious use of the /sit command that would likely have taken place in reality, the juxtaposition of the angry orc and warlock and their delightful baskets of pretty flowers is entertaining, and the Imp really steals the show for me! I liked the episode, and am hoping the series will develop into something really fun, just like Starcrafts.

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WowCraft episode 3: Profession Obsession originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 24 Apr 2014 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> videoworld-of-warcraft-comicwowcraft (Olivia Grace) Thu, 24 Apr 2014 15:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Further MMR adjustments for Rated Battlegrounds]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/24/further-mmr-adjustments-for-rated-battlegrounds/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/24/further-mmr-adjustments-for-rated-battlegrounds/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/24/further-mmr-adjustments-for-rated-battlegrounds/#comments
You may recall that, a little while back, WoW Insider posted about the changes being made to MMR tolerance in order to repair the ladders after a bug. It seems, unfortunately, that these changes did not go far enough to rectify the issues for players of Rated Battlegrounds. It makes sense that, for this far less played discipline, MMR issues have not self-corrected.

As a result of this, matches played are still resulting in 0 point rating gains with wins, which is disheartening at best. So Blizzard has come up with a simple solution that might have been a faster and more popular fix to the initial issue -- increase everyone's rating to get it closer to their current MMR. If these terms are confusing, I made a fair attempt at explaining them in the last post.

This, coupled with the initial increased tolerance in MMR to rating parity, should result in everyone gaining points for wins. Hit the break for Lore's full post.

Continue reading Further MMR adjustments for Rated Battlegrounds

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Further MMR adjustments for Rated Battlegrounds originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 24 Apr 2014 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> breakingMMRpvppvp-ratingrated-battlegrounds (Olivia Grace) Thu, 24 Apr 2014 11:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[New WoW Source: PvP and Class Changes]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/22/new-wow-source-pvp-and-class-changes/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/22/new-wow-source-pvp-and-class-changes/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/22/new-wow-source-pvp-and-class-changes/#comments
WoW Source has made a return, with Senior PvP Designer Brian Holinka Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas, and Lead Class Designer Kris Zierhut. They're talking PvP and Class Design.
  • Diminishing Returns categories have been cut from thirteen to five.
  • Fear's PvP duration has been reduced from eight seconds to five.
  • CC needs reduction, but without it the game would be boring.
  • In WoD every PvP item will have two item levels, e.g. 550 for PvE and 590 for PvP. This will be effective in the world too.
  • We saw an early map and description of Ashran -- looks like a League of Legends style ARAM-esque back-and-forth with other activities around the main central run.
  • There was some more information on Skirmishes, they may drop Conquest gear, and will drop bags containing Honor, Honor gear, or gold.
  • Tanking will not go back to being about Threat
  • Button Bloat has focused on redundant or duplicative abilities
  • Sometimes cutting or simplifying buttons has made class flavor/fantasy better.
  • They do want to give players new things where appropriate, but they need to free up some space to do so.
  • The devs do their best to avoid different spell behaviors in PvP.
  • The devs endeavor to make classes fun to play without affecting their numbers.
  • The devs are listening to feedback and nothing is final.
You can view the video above or on Battle.net.

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New WoW Source: PvP and Class Changes originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> ashranbrian-holinkaion-hazzikostaswarlords-of-draenorwarlords-of-draenor-pvpwow-source (Olivia Grace) Tue, 22 Apr 2014 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Breakfast Topic: What would you do in WoW if you were immortal for a day]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/21/breakfast-topic-what-would-you-do-in-wow-if-you-were-immortal-f/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/21/breakfast-topic-what-would-you-do-in-wow-if-you-were-immortal-f/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/21/breakfast-topic-what-would-you-do-in-wow-if-you-were-immortal-f/#comments
Just for one day, in WoW, you can't die. You can't be killed by anything. Not by magic, not by bosses, not by falling, not by anything at all. So what do you do? Now, you have to remember that, on this day, everyone else is immortal too. PvP is right out, because there would just be really crazy long bouts of PvP where nobody ever died. I mean, that might actually be a ton of fun, who knows?

So what do you do? I strongly suspect a lot of you are going to say Siege of Orgrimmar progression, but that's a little dull. Challenge Modes would be made easier for sure, so maybe those too, especially given that your tanks could pull as much as they liked with no risk of death. I mean, so could your DPS, they wouldn't be in any danger either. But you'd still have to kill the mobs in time to get the medals, so it might be a little more entertaining than slowly whittling Heroic Garrosh down to 0 health.

Personally, I'd go exploring. No fatigue risk means unlimited flight range, and something about seeing the edge of the world appeals to me. And maybe I'd find the mythical GM Island... What would you do?

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Breakfast Topic: What would you do in WoW if you were immortal for a day originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 21 Apr 2014 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredgame-discussiongamer-discussionworld-of-warcraft-discussionworld-of-warcraft-topicswow-discussionwow-hot-topicswow-issueswow-topics (Olivia Grace) Mon, 21 Apr 2014 09:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Warlords of Draenor: Wowhead digs up Garrison models and more]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/17/warlords-of-draenor-wowhead-digs-up-garrison-models-and-more/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/17/warlords-of-draenor-wowhead-digs-up-garrison-models-and-more/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/17/warlords-of-draenor-wowhead-digs-up-garrison-models-and-more/#comments
As a new alpha build hit servers last night, the datamining began again. Wowhead has already turned up a plethora of new models, weapons and more, and has now turned to one of the most hotly anticipated features of Warlords of Draenor, Garrisons.

They've put together a detailed list of 70 buildings, along with what exactly all of them do, and what size plot they go on. There's a lot of interesting information one can glean from this data, such as how follower gearing might work and what mission rewards might be, as well as how you get various vendors into your Garrison. Of course, this is datamining, so shouldn't be taken as 100% fact, but it's still really interesting stuff.

There's also information showing off small images of the Garrison buildings, and a map. It seems like these may be UI elements that allow you to design your Garrison and set up its layout, but of course, this is just inference from the data that's presented. There is, however, even more information on each building type, that ties in with the aforementioned list. We're slowly getting an idea of what the Garrison progression might look like.

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Warlords of Draenor: Wowhead digs up Garrison models and more originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 17 Apr 2014 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> breakinggarrisongarrison-buildinggarrison-designgarrison-uigarrisonsgarrisons-progressiongarrisons-specialization (Olivia Grace) Thu, 17 Apr 2014 19:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Warlords, models, and performance]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/17/warlords-models-and-performance/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/17/warlords-models-and-performance/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/17/warlords-models-and-performance/#comments
We all know that Warlords of Draenor is bringing a much-desired and long-awaited feature in new character models, and understandably, there's concern about the impact on PC performance. WoW Insider reported on EU Community Manager Taepsilum's post on the forums, which has since been updated to indicate that there is no requirement to run the game on Low settings to use the old models. Instead, the toggle which has been seen in the Alpha is set to remain.

Taepsilum's assertions that you won't need a new computer are, perhaps, bold. Gamespot has picked up on them for an article, and asserts that you "probably" won't need a new machine. This is accurate, with the key word being "probably". If you're currently only able to run the game at 8FPS on Low settings, it's pretty likely that Warlords of Draenor will push your system over the edge.

Let's be realistic here. World of Warcraft has pretty amazing performance on older machines. A little while ago I asked on Twitter about players running it on low-spec systems, and it will let you run the game on some pretty archaic specs. Performance is about what you can do with the game, and is subjective. I'm happy with the graphical quality I get out of WoW on my machine, but to friends with higher level systems, it looks awful.

Continue reading Warlords, models, and performance

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Warlords, models, and performance originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 17 Apr 2014 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> character-modelsnew-computer-for-warlordssystem-performancesystem-requirements (Olivia Grace) Thu, 17 Apr 2014 17:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Warlords of Draenor: Flight path reassurance]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/16/warlords-of-draenor-flight-path-reassurance/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/16/warlords-of-draenor-flight-path-reassurance/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/16/warlords-of-draenor-flight-path-reassurance/#comments
Community Manager Bashiok has posted on the official forums in an attempt to calm players' fears about the enforced dependence on flight-paths that will come with Warlords of Draenor.

Bashiok
We're going to be making sure flight paths and other forms of travel are quick and efficient, with a goal of getting you to the places you want to go. Flight paths in the past have always been "the scenic route", lazily listing from side to side and around waterfalls to the intended oohs-and-aahs of the transportee. The flight paths in Draenor are not going to be loop-de-loop sightseeing tours, and we're going to be looking to our beta testers to let us know if any are less than tip-top.

The key to his point here is the directness. Especially in Mists, flight paths were gratuitously looping and indirect. The Horde shrine from the PvP vendor, for example, does a series of completely arbitrary tours around the shrine before actually landing. Hopefully this will not be the case in Warlords.

Continue reading Warlords of Draenor: Flight path reassurance

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Warlords of Draenor: Flight path reassurance originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 16 Apr 2014 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> bashiokflight-pathsflyingflying-in-draenor (Olivia Grace) Wed, 16 Apr 2014 19:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[PAX Beta keys temporarily allowed Warlords of Draenor access]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/14/pax-beta-keys-temporarily-allowed-warlords-of-draenor-access/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/14/pax-beta-keys-temporarily-allowed-warlords-of-draenor-access/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/14/pax-beta-keys-temporarily-allowed-warlords-of-draenor-access/#comments
Matthew Rossi posted on Friday about Blizzard's handing out Beta keys to people who played Warlords of Draenor at PAX East. Those keys were supposed to be for a later phase of the beta, but, as Bashiok elucidates on the official forums, a few of them actually worked during the PAX weekend itself.

This meant that a few of the players who took their key home and applied it to their account were able to access and play the beta well in advance of when the keys should have allowed them to. Blizzard has taken steps to revoke those players' access, but it would explain some of the streams seen on Twitch over the weekend. Where players have legitimately accessed Warlords with PAX keys, no action appears to have been taken. However, it seems that the Twitch warning is still in place for anyone streaming the alpha outside the select few who had accessed it legitimately with keys.

Those players no longer have access to the beta, and will need to re-redeem the same keys again at a later stage. No comment has been made by Blizzard so far about keys appearing on Ebay, but based on previous betas, they will be taken down as soon as they can be. Hit the break for Bashiok's full post.

Continue reading PAX Beta keys temporarily allowed Warlords of Draenor access

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PAX Beta keys temporarily allowed Warlords of Draenor access originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 14 Apr 2014 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> pax-eastpax-east-2014pax-east-beta-keyswarlords-of-draenor (Olivia Grace) Mon, 14 Apr 2014 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Heroes of the Storm: First account wipe this Tuesday]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/14/heroes-of-the-storm-first-account-wipe-this-tuesday/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/14/heroes-of-the-storm-first-account-wipe-this-tuesday/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/14/heroes-of-the-storm-first-account-wipe-this-tuesday/#comments
The first account wipe for the alpha of Heroes of the Storm is coming this Tuesday, April 15. Players in the Alpha have received an email, which you can see after the break. It's working a little differently to the usual wipes, so let's lay out what you're losing and what you're keeping.
  • All purchases made with real money will be unaffected. This does not mean future wipes will be the same.
  • Your account will be reset to level 1
  • All experience points, all quest progress and leveling progress will be reset
  • All in-game gold you've earned, and purchases you've made with that gold, will be reset.
You will also receive some rewards for your hard work, to compensate you for what you're losing:
  • Starting after the wipe on Tuesday, April 15, all players will gain access to every single hero until Thursday, April 17 at 3:00 p.m. PDT.
  • You'll get in-game gold as a reward based on your leveling progress:
    • Levels 1 - 19: 10,000 Gold
    • Levels 20 - 39: 30,000 Gold
    • Level 40: 30,000 Gold and an exclusive Heroes of the Storm lanyard
Hit the break for the full email I received.

Continue reading Heroes of the Storm: First account wipe this Tuesday

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Heroes of the Storm: First account wipe this Tuesday originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 14 Apr 2014 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> account-wipeaccount-wipe-rewardsheroes-of-the-stormtechnical-alpha (Olivia Grace) Mon, 14 Apr 2014 12:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Four new Heroes revealed at PAX East]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/11/four-new-heroes-revealed-at-pax-east/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/11/four-new-heroes-revealed-at-pax-east/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/11/four-new-heroes-revealed-at-pax-east/#comments
Heroes of the Storm's PAX East panel has unveiled four new heroes, from left to right, Brightwing, Zagara, Li li and Murky. There's already a trailer for Brightwing, and the Heroes of the Storm official post supplies more information on the new heroes.

While it's surprising that iconic characters which appear on the main screen of the game, such as Chen Stormstout, are not yet in the game, while these other heroes are. Nonetheless, they're really exciting additions, as the official post elucidates their roles in the game we can really see how interesting and varied the hero roles and abilities are thanks to the different playstyle.

Hit the break for their abilities and information.

Continue reading Four new Heroes revealed at PAX East

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Four new Heroes revealed at PAX East originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 11 Apr 2014 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> brightwingheroes-of-the-stormlilimurkyPAX-East-2014zagara (Olivia Grace) Fri, 11 Apr 2014 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[The Heartbleed bug and its effect (or lack thereof) on Battle.net]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/10/the-heartbleed-bug-and-its-effect-or-lack-thereof-on-battle-ne/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/10/the-heartbleed-bug-and-its-effect-or-lack-thereof-on-battle-ne/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/10/the-heartbleed-bug-and-its-effect-or-lack-thereof-on-battle-ne/#comments
The Heartbleed bug, as it's been dubbed, is certainly hot news lately, with various sites being impacted and password reset advice abounding. But Blizzard has some good news: Battle.net was unaffected. However, the advice is to change your password if you used the same one elsewhere.

This is especially true if you're using the same email and password combination as you use for your Battle.net account on other sites. A big way that players get hacked, especially those without authenticators, is that their guild forums get hacked, or their email gets hacked, or their Facebook. Once those username and password combinations are known, it's possible for hackers to try them in various different places, one of which might be your Battle.net account. So be careful, mix up your passwords, and in light of these recent security issues, consider changing your passwords.

It's also a good idea, again as a general rule, to get into the habit of changing your passwords fairly regularly, for everything. So now might be a great time to start, even though Battle.net is unaffected by the recent issues. Hit the break for Blizzard's full post.

Continue reading The Heartbleed bug and its effect (or lack thereof) on Battle.net

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The Heartbleed bug and its effect (or lack thereof) on Battle.net originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 10 Apr 2014 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> Account-Securityaccount-security-guidebattle.netbreakingbughackhackingheartbleed (Olivia Grace) Thu, 10 Apr 2014 19:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Garrosh Heirlooms have Bad Luck Protection]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/10/garrosh-heirlooms-have-bad-luck-protection/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/10/garrosh-heirlooms-have-bad-luck-protection/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/10/garrosh-heirlooms-have-bad-luck-protection/#comments
Garrosh has been killed captured many times over, thanks in part to the heirlooms that he drops. Everyone wants one, and players are frustrated at what is seen as a very low drop rate. I am among those players, so Lead Encounter Designer Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas' tweets are music to my ears:


This is great news, and indeed, on my tenth kill of Garrosh on my shaman, my 14th kill across all characters on that account, my bad luck was finally protected, and I got my first heirloom. The message to keep at it is a good one, and maybe in time, as the expansion wears on, the game's tolerance for bad luck will be adjusted. Or people will have killed him so many times that they're drowning in heirlooms.

I'd love to know a little more about how bad luck protection works, too. How unlucky do you have to be, does getting one drop completely reset its count no matter how long that drop took to happen? How's your luck? For clarity, these heirlooms only drop from Flex and above.

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Garrosh Heirlooms have Bad Luck Protection originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 10 Apr 2014 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> breakinggarrosh-heirloom-drop-rategarrosh-heirloomsgarrosh-hellscreamsiege-of-orgrimmar (Olivia Grace) Thu, 10 Apr 2014 15:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Warlords of Draenor: New mount and NPC models discovered]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/09/warlords-of-draenor-new-mount-and-npc-models-discovered/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/09/warlords-of-draenor-new-mount-and-npc-models-discovered/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/09/warlords-of-draenor-new-mount-and-npc-models-discovered/#comments
AdriaCraft are at it again, digging through the data and powering up the Model Viewer to bring us images of some of the new NPC and mount models in Warlords of Draenor's Alpha. There's a couple of mounts like the Raven Lord that we've seen already, but a few that are new, like the Clefthoof, who also comes in various different colors. There's also a Giant Boar mount, also in red, and a Draenor Wolf, who also comes in three other color schemes.

Apart from the mounts, there are various NPC models apart from Thrall, some of which have surfaced already, some of which haven't. Velen, Grommash, Durotan and Blackhand are all there. There's several varieties of Iron Horde machinery that have been found, as well as some pale orcs, new Talbuks and Sporebats which we heard about following the recent press event, and Elekk, Goren and Hippos. All of these come in a variety of colors, so do check out the original post for more info.

But my favorite new model by far is the Draenor Ancient. Like all the models, he's in a variety of colors, but look at his grumpy face! What has you excited from this recent datamine?

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Warlords of Draenor: New mount and NPC models discovered originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 09 Apr 2014 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> BlackhandbreakingDurotanGrommashmodelsmountsnew-mountsthrallvelenwarlords-mounts (Olivia Grace) Wed, 09 Apr 2014 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Warlords of Draenor Beta Installer appears on Battle.net]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/08/warlords-of-draenor-beta-installer-appears-on-battle-net/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/08/warlords-of-draenor-beta-installer-appears-on-battle-net/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/08/warlords-of-draenor-beta-installer-appears-on-battle-net/#comments
WoW Insider was alerted to the presence of this installer on battle.net. It's apparently there for every account, even starter editions with no World of Warcraft license. Its presence should not, therefore, be taken as any indication of alpha invitations being sent out or access granted.

Nonetheless, the installer is downloadable, and runs, as can be seen below. It appears to be a 24.48GB download, so the CASC file system's smaller size will likely not be seen at the install stage.
This definitely is not a mis-labelled PTR, either, as it doesn't replace them on the game list in the launcher, and launching it from the desktop app gets you to a set of servers that just don't seem to work, so it looks like access is not set up just yet. Closing that window will put you back to the Warlords of Draenor alpha-style Dark Portal login screen. There is not access to the game at this point.
[Thanks for the tip, @Spazzo!]

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Warlords of Draenor Beta Installer appears on Battle.net originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 08 Apr 2014 20:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> breakingwarlords-of-draenorwarlords-of-draenor-alpha (Olivia Grace) Tue, 08 Apr 2014 20:02:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Blizzard registers "Overwatch" trademark?]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/08/blizzard-registers-overwatch-trademark/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/08/blizzard-registers-overwatch-trademark/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/08/blizzard-registers-overwatch-trademark/#comments
We've heard from various recent news sources that Blizzard has registered a new trademark. Of course, we recognize the scepticism, following last years incidents with The Dark Below and the associated silliness, but let's take a cautious look at this one.

The trademark is "Overwatch", a term usually used to denote small, supporting military units. Blizzard hired Left 4 Dead developer Michael Booth last year, and it seems like he is directing a small project, with a similar team size to Hearthstone, that isn't Titan. There have been various job listings for positions with this new project, some of which talk about multiplayer experiences and maps. Now this might all be nonsense, but perhaps it points to a new military-styled game coming out of Irvine.

There has long been speculation that Blizzard's next franchise would be a shooter, but with Titan ostensibly on the shelf for now, could this new small team production be that game? We're understandably cautious in our presentation of this information, but it's certainly interesting.

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Blizzard registers "Overwatch" trademark? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 08 Apr 2014 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> blizzardblizzard-overwatchblizzard-shooterblizzard-titanbreakingoverwatch (Olivia Grace) Tue, 08 Apr 2014 17:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Interview: Technical Game Designer Chadd "Celestalon" Nervig talks Warlords of Draenor]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/05/technical-game-designer-chadd-celestalon-nervig-talks-warlords/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/05/technical-game-designer-chadd-celestalon-nervig-talks-warlords/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/05/technical-game-designer-chadd-celestalon-nervig-talks-warlords/#comments I was lucky enough to head over to Blizzard Campus this week to talk to Technical Game Designer Chadd "Celestalon" Nervig. Chadd is a huge part of the class design team, key to a lot of the changes we saw in the recent Warlords of Draenor patch notes, which is just what we discussed. We were also joined by Senior Community Representatives Zarhym and Lore. You can also find a much-abbreviated summary on Wowhead.

Olivia: First up, is there anything you really wanted to clarify and get out there?

Celestalon: I've tweeted about pretty much everything. This was the first version of the patch notes, there have been more changes since then, those patch notes are about a week old or so?

Zarhym: Yeah it's like, tons of changes. [Rygarius] said he had a huge list of changes.

Celestalon: There's another five thousand words that aren't up there yet, which [Rygarius] is working on now.

There have been different amounts of patch notes released for different classes. Paladins have been complaining that they haven't got enough, rogues have been really happy that not much has changed. Is it safe to assume there's more to come? This is just step one?

There's definitely more coming. Like, for example, paladins had relatively few patch notes, and a lot of that is we were relatively happy with how things played out, at least for ret and prot, with the exception of a few things we can solve with tuning - changing numbers. So a lot of what you see in the patch notes now is what we call design changes, so the mechanics that we want to change so we can get to some design that we like.

Continue reading Interview: Technical Game Designer Chadd "Celestalon" Nervig talks Warlords of Draenor

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Interview: Technical Game Designer Chadd "Celestalon" Nervig talks Warlords of Draenor originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 05 Apr 2014 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> ability-bloatability-squishblizzardCASCcelestalonchangesdamagedamangedataminingDPSfeaturedhealinginterviewinterviewslow-level-balancelow-level-battlegroundsprofession-changesprofessionsresolvestat-squishtankingwarlordswarlords-of-draenorwod (Olivia Grace) Sat, 05 Apr 2014 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Blizzard clarifies Challenge Mode Realm Best titles [Updated]]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/03/blizzard-clarifies-challenge-mode-realm-best-titles/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/03/blizzard-clarifies-challenge-mode-realm-best-titles/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/03/blizzard-clarifies-challenge-mode-realm-best-titles/#comments Challenge Mode Entrance
Lead Encounter Designer Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas has taken to the official forums to provide more clarity on the removal of Realm Best Challenge mode titles. As ever, you can read the full post after the break, but in summary, if you're really unhappy about the removal of the titles, it's not good news.

Watcher explains the various options they considered, giving a title to everyone who'd ever been realm first, which was dismissed as too problematic for the next season. He also explains how leaving the titles with those who held them at the end of the season would not work because if those players changed servers they'd lose the server-tied titles. Response has been largely dissatisfied.

It seems to me, and I may be wrong, I am not a WoW dev after all, that it would not be so huge a feat to create a new title for those players at the top of the ranks at the season end. Challenge Modes have been compared to arenas before, and this could work exactly the same. A title like "Mystical Challenger [Name]" could be applied in the week following the end of the season, attached to the character not the server, just like they do for arena Rank One. And just like arena, players would have to vy for those realm-best top spots right up to the last weeks. The Arena comparison makes a lot of sense to me, so let's keep it going.

Hit the break for the full post, and an update posted after time of writing!

Continue reading Blizzard clarifies Challenge Mode Realm Best titles [Updated]

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Blizzard clarifies Challenge Mode Realm Best titles [Updated] originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 03 Apr 2014 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> breakingchallenge-modeChallenge-mode-dungeonschallenge-mode-rewardschallenge-mode-seasonchallenge-mode-warlordschallenge-mode-wodchallenge-modeschallenge-modes-faq (Olivia Grace) Thu, 03 Apr 2014 17:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[World Bosses no longer tap to faction]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/02/world-bosses-no-longer-tap-to-faction/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/02/world-bosses-no-longer-tap-to-faction/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/02/world-bosses-no-longer-tap-to-faction/#comments
Lead Encounter Designer Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas has posted on Twitter confirming what some players thought was a bug. Several players have noticed that, when an opposing faction group is attacking a world boss, like the Celestials, they are able to hit it and still get loot and credit. Watcher confirmed via Twitter that this was not a bug, and actually a hotfix that went in recently. That hotfix, he also notes, caused the boss health scaling with larger groups to break. This, in turn, has been fixed.

He also later added that this was not just applicable to Timeless Isle bosses, but to all of them. So presumably, that's every boss from Galleon and the Sha of Anger, through Nalak and Oondasta, right to the Celestials, and Ordos.

What this means is just as explained above -- if the opposite faction pulls a boss, you can punch it and still get credit and loot. You'd have to be a little brave or foolhardy to do so alone on a PvP server, unless you're a stealth class, but the opportunity remains. It'll be interesting to see whether this change has an impact on the use of the Raid Finder and oQueue for Celestials groups, or not. Given the convenience of those methods for finding a composed group, I suspect they'll prevail.

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World Bosses no longer tap to faction originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 02 Apr 2014 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> breakingcelestialsgalleonion-hazzikostasnalakoondastaordossha-of-angerwatcherworld-bosses (Olivia Grace) Wed, 02 Apr 2014 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Hearthstone releases on iPad in Australia, New Zealand and Canada]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/02/hearthstone-releases-on-ipad-in-australia-new-zealand-and-canad/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/02/hearthstone-releases-on-ipad-in-australia-new-zealand-and-canad/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/02/hearthstone-releases-on-ipad-in-australia-new-zealand-and-canad/#comments
The Hearthstone iPad roll-out has begun! The game is live on the app store in Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Other regions of the world are "coming soon" with the reason given in the official blog being as follows:
Blizzard
Launching Hearthstone in a limited set of countries allows us to focus on the end-to-end player experience and make sure it's awesome before we move on to the rest of the world. If you don't live in Australia, Canada, or New Zealand, you don't have much longer to wait to get your hands on Hearthstone for iPad-Murloc Scout's honor.

It's also worth noting that everything is shared across all devices, so your collection linked with your account on your PC or Mac will be available on your iPad too. This is really exciting for people in those territories, and the rest of us will look forward to it landing on our local app stores soon.

Hit the break for the full blog post.

Continue reading Hearthstone releases on iPad in Australia, New Zealand and Canada

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Hearthstone releases on iPad in Australia, New Zealand and Canada originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 02 Apr 2014 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> hearthstonehearthstone-on-ipad (Olivia Grace) Wed, 02 Apr 2014 19:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Challenge mode rewards clarified for "end of season"]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/02/challenge-mode-rewards-clarified-for-end-of-season/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/02/challenge-mode-rewards-clarified-for-end-of-season/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/02/challenge-mode-rewards-clarified-for-end-of-season/#comments Challenge Mode Entrance
Blizzard has posted a blog detailing changes to the proposed "end-of-season" challenge mode rewards. They had previously posted a rather firm policy, detailing how this season's rewards would remain limited to those who'd previously earned them, and not be account wide. However, it seems they've changed their mind. Hit the break for the full post, as ever, but let's summarise the key points here:
  • The "Undaunted" title for all bronze medals will be account wide, so useable on any character.
  • The Pandaren Phoenix mounts earned with a full set of Silver medals will become account-wide.
  • If any character on your account has a full set of Silver medals, all four of the Pandaren Phoenixes (Crimson, Ashen, Violet, and Emerald) will become available to all characters.
  • Cosmetic sets will not be account wide. If you have all nine Gold medals, you can still buy the sets after the season ends on the character that earned the medals.
  • The "Challenger's Path" spells will be retained.
  • Realm Best titles will be permanently removed.
Hit the break for the full post.

Continue reading Challenge mode rewards clarified for "end of season"

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Challenge mode rewards clarified for "end of season" originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 02 Apr 2014 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> breakingchallenge-modeChallenge-mode-dungeonschallenge-mode-rewardschallenge-mode-seasonchallenge-mode-warlordschallenge-mode-wodchallenge-modeschallenge-modes-faq (Olivia Grace) Wed, 02 Apr 2014 15:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Rating issues for Arena and RBG wins]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/01/rating-issues-for-arena-and-rbg-wins/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/01/rating-issues-for-arena-and-rbg-wins/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/01/rating-issues-for-arena-and-rbg-wins/#comments
There is a strange issue taking place at the moment with rating. Rating itself is a tricky thing to wrap your head around, especially as it's recently gone thorough something of a shift. Right now, your character has two ratings for every bracket of arena, and for RBGs. One is the MMR, the matchmaking rating. This is the rating the system uses to match you up against similar level players. It's shown at the bottom right of the scoreboard after every match, as an average of your group's character MMRs.

The other type of rating is CR, Current Rating. This is the rating that your character earns by winning and losing matches, the one that's shown in green and red letters in the main part of the scoreboard. It's also the rating that gets you titles and mounts. Every season CR is reset to 0, while MMR remains what it was last season. So, if you ended season 14 on an MMR of 1800 and a CR of 1880, you'd have begun season 15 with an MMR of 1800 and a CR of 0.

What happens next is that as you win games, your CR increases towards your MMR. You should expect it to stabilize as you reach a CR that's near your MMR. As you win and lose games, your MMR will also shift. Your MMR aims to give you a 50/50 win-loss rate, as when that's achieved you're being pretty evenly matched.

Continue reading Rating issues for Arena and RBG wins

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Rating issues for Arena and RBG wins originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 01 Apr 2014 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> arenaarena-ratingCRcurrent-ratingholinkaMatchmaking-RatingMMRpersonal-ratingratingrating systemrating-inflationrating-systemwow-arena (Olivia Grace) Tue, 01 Apr 2014 15:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[April Fools: Patch 6.0 notes revealed]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/01/april-fools-patch-6-0-notes-revealed/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/01/april-fools-patch-6-0-notes-revealed/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/04/01/april-fools-patch-6-0-notes-revealed/#comments
In what can only be a completely serious and legitimate forum post, Community Manager Bashiok has shared the first set of patch notes for Warlords of Draenor. As ever with patch notes, we've pulled some of the most notable ones here, and the full list is after the break.
  • Warlock -- All spells and abilities have been significantly revamped. Again. You'll figure it out.
  • Warriors have been nerfed because reasons.
  • Due to recent acquisitions, The Oculus is temporarily inaccessible.
  • Despite concerns over workers' rights violations due to unreasonable weather conditions, Arthas has stated that people should let it go, and that he will indeed remain the final boss of Icecrown Citadel. The cold never bothered him anyway.
  • We give up. Shaman is now spelled "Shawmun."
  • Monk -- The amount healed by Healing Sphere has been increased by 1000%, because RUN OVER THE HEALING SPHERES.

Continue reading April Fools: Patch 6.0 notes revealed

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April Fools: Patch 6.0 notes revealed originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 01 Apr 2014 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 6.0-patch-notesapril-fools (Olivia Grace) Tue, 01 Apr 2014 13:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[How to stop clicking]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/31/how-to-stop-clicking/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/31/how-to-stop-clicking/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/31/how-to-stop-clicking/#comments
Before we get started, let's make one thing very clear. I'm not saying there's anything inherently wrong with clicking. If you want to click, that's just fine, this article isn't for you. If you're someone who clicks and is perfectly happy about it, then skip over all this and tell me about it in the comments. But, if you are a clicker who wants to change, then read on. As an aside, now's a great time to make the switch, we've got a while without new content...

So what is a clicker?

Without this key piece of information, the above won't be that relevant. A clicker is a term for someone who uses mouse-clicks to hit their abilities rather than keybinding them. There is an assumption made that people who are clicking their abilities are also using their keyboard to move. Their mouse is tied up with moving around the screen to hit abilities, and therefore only occasionally has the time to move their character. It's not necessarily true, but it seems a reasonable position.

Why does clicking get a bad reputation? Well, a couple of reasons. Firstly, it's slower. It is slower to move your mouse across your screen and hit different abilities than it is to move your hand across a keyboard. If you don't believe me, here's an experiment: head over to this keyboard site, and type a simple sentence by clicking the keys. Now try it with your keyboard. Unless there's something else at play, the latter should be faster. What's more, turn a full circle on the spot with your keyboard, and do the same with your mouse. One's a lot faster than the other.

Continue reading How to stop clicking

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How to stop clicking originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 31 Mar 2014 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> clickerclickingguidekey-bindkey-binderkey-bindingkey-bindingskey-bindskeybindingkeyboundstop-clickingwow-guide (Olivia Grace) Mon, 31 Mar 2014 19:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Wowcraft Episode 1]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/27/wowcraft-episode-1/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/27/wowcraft-episode-1/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/27/wowcraft-episode-1/#comments
CarBot Animations, the creator of the StarCrafts series and the recent Diablols episode, as well as the Heroes of the Storm cartoon trailer, has turned his hand to World of Warcraft cartoon creation. And, as you can see from the video above he began at the beginning of the character's life, with the inevitable issue of name creation.

CarBot is well-known in the Starcraft II community for his video work, and the Blizzard gear store even sells his designs with official Blizzard branding. They're adorable, and I can only hope that the same trend emerges with his WoW work, so I can have cute cartoon WoW characters on a t-shirt!

What did you think of the video? It seems like a great introduction, and made me chuckle. Orcs and Gnomes don't seem to mix. But maybe we'll see more gnomish participation in CarBot's video work than we usually do in Blizzard's!

Wowcraft Episode 1 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 27 Mar 2014 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> breakingcarbotcarbot-animationcarbot-animationswowcraft (Olivia Grace) Thu, 27 Mar 2014 19:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Diablo III: Reaper of Souls book and Blizzard's Augmented Reality app]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/26/diablo-iii-reaper-of-souls-book-and-blizzards-augmented-realit/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/26/diablo-iii-reaper-of-souls-book-and-blizzards-augmented-realit/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/26/diablo-iii-reaper-of-souls-book-and-blizzards-augmented-realit/#comments
Blizzard makes amazing art books, and the Diablo III: Reaper of Souls Collector's Edition book is no exception. But, it comes with a little something extra, too. If you head to the Android Play Store, running Android 4.0 or higher, you can download the Blizzard AR Viewer. It's on the iOS App Store too, requiring iOS 6.0 or later, still called the Blizzard AR Viewer.

Once you have that, you'll need to search through the book, and maybe even images of the book pages, for the little mask symbol shown to the right. Then use the viewer to scan the page. No need to push buttons, on Android at least, it recognizes the pages automatically. And then enjoy as the beautifully drawn images are converted to animated 3D models with sound in front of your eyes! Amaze your friends with your desk full of monsters! Poke them with your finger... carefully. I was wide-eyed with childish wonder at this, and maybe I'm behind the times, but this is a very cool feature. I hope to see it for many more art books in future!

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Diablo III: Reaper of Souls book and Blizzard's Augmented Reality app originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 26 Mar 2014 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> blizzard-ar-viewerreaper-of-soulsreaper-of-souls-CEreaper-of-souls-collectors-edition (Olivia Grace) Wed, 26 Mar 2014 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Heroes of the Storm: Senior Designer talks Tyrael]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/26/heroes-of-the-storm-senior-designer-talks-tyrael/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/26/heroes-of-the-storm-senior-designer-talks-tyrael/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/26/heroes-of-the-storm-senior-designer-talks-tyrael/#comments
Tyrael, Archangel of Justice, is under the spotlight for Heroes of the Storm this week. Senior Game Designer Richard Khoo sat down with Community Manager Trikslyr to discuss this Hero's not-so-angelic leanings. It's a great interview, touching on the importance of using the Heroes game world and mechanics to create a hero that fits with the traits and feel of well-known lore figures.

Tyrael, as the Archangel, is a hybrid between a warrior and a support class, meaning he can charge in and flatten his foes, but also assist his allies with powerful shields, even sacrificing his own health to help them. The designers felt this was fitting with his righteous, angelic qualities in the Diablo universe. He also caters to the angelic "speed of light" idea with his teleportation abilities that base themselves off his sword. They also comment on the post-mortem gameplay that Tyrael, along with a couple of other heroes, features.

Hit the break for the full interview!

Continue reading Heroes of the Storm: Senior Designer talks Tyrael

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Heroes of the Storm: Senior Designer talks Tyrael originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 26 Mar 2014 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> designer-interviewheroes-of-the-stormrichard-khootyrael (Olivia Grace) Wed, 26 Mar 2014 17:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Diablo III: Reaper of Souls launch party]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/26/diablo-iii-reaper-of-souls-launch-party/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/26/diablo-iii-reaper-of-souls-launch-party/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/26/diablo-iii-reaper-of-souls-launch-party/#comments
Central LA venue Vibiana, a converted chapel, played host to the Diablo III: Reaper of Souls launch event on Monday night, and I was lucky enough to be invited along. The venue was incredibly well-done, eerie red lighting shifting in color through the evening, and key quotes from the game's opening monologue projected onto the vaulted ceiling, along with the circular motifs you see above.

The evening began with activities, guests were issued with Bounty cards, where they could collect Blood Shards -- a new Reaper of Souls currency -- from visiting the art gallery, having their photo taken, getting a caricature or a temporary tattoo. All the activities were completely free, and handing in Blood Shards rewarded a poster, t-shirt or backpack.

Along with the activities were cos-players, specially re-named versions of classic drinks, and at 9pm a toast with Game Director Josh Mosqueira, which then turned into a live stream as Day 9 took to the stage. Those of us who were attending as Influencers were then offered a free Collector's Edition, which could be signed by the developers from the team. Hit the break for more images.

Continue reading Diablo III: Reaper of Souls launch party

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Diablo III: Reaper of Souls launch party originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 26 Mar 2014 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> reaper-of-soulsreaper-of-souls-launch-party (Olivia Grace) Wed, 26 Mar 2014 15:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Patch 5.4.7 Hotfixes for March 25]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/25/patch-5-4-7-hotfixes-for-march-25/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/25/patch-5-4-7-hotfixes-for-march-25/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/25/patch-5-4-7-hotfixes-for-march-25/#comments
A small but perfectly formed set of hotfixes have just been published on the official World of Warcraft website. There's just a few minor fixes, but significant bug fixes to boosted level 90s and to priest healing in PvP.
Blizzard

Character Boost

  • Resolved an issue where some boosted characters were unable to see the portal to Pandaria in capital cities.

Classes

  • Priest
    • General
      • Resolved an issue where the amount of healing received from Prayer of Mending was not benefitting from PvP Power.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

  • Throne of Thunder
    • Reduced the health and damage of Gurubashi, Amani, Drakkari, and Farraki adds during the Horridon encounter by 20% on Raid Finder difficulty.

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Patch 5.4.7 Hotfixes for March 25 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 25 Mar 2014 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredhotfixespatch-5.4.7patch-5.4.7-hotfixeswow-hotfixwow-hotfixes (Olivia Grace) Tue, 25 Mar 2014 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Heroes of the Storm Balance Updates and Hero Rotation]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/25/heroes-of-the-storm-balance-updates-and-hero-rotation/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/25/heroes-of-the-storm-balance-updates-and-hero-rotation/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/25/heroes-of-the-storm-balance-updates-and-hero-rotation/#comments
This week, in celebration of the launch of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, two new skins have been added -- demonic Tyrael and Angelic Valla. What's more, the free-to-play hero rotation has some of the most exciting heroes available for free to players, including the recently added Tychus. The rest of the heroes are as follows:
Week of Tuesday, Mar. 25 - April 1, 2014:
  • Tyrande
  • Stitches
  • Diablo
  • Tychus
  • Kerrigan
  • Nova
Along with the latest free-to-play hero rotation, we're getting some balance changes to certain heroes. There aren't a huge number of changes but many are significant, including a lot of nerfs to Uther! Hit the break for all the changes.

Continue reading Heroes of the Storm Balance Updates and Hero Rotation

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Heroes of the Storm Balance Updates and Hero Rotation originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 25 Mar 2014 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> balance-changesfree-to-play-heroesheroes-of-the-stormkerrigannovapatch-notestychus (Olivia Grace) Tue, 25 Mar 2014 17:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[No plans to make Motes or Spirits of Harmony account wide]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/21/no-plans-to-make-motes-or-spirits-of-harmony-account-wide/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/21/no-plans-to-make-motes-or-spirits-of-harmony-account-wide/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/21/no-plans-to-make-motes-or-spirits-of-harmony-account-wide/#comments
Thanks to Chaos Orbs in Cataclysm, which began life as a BoP item, but became BoE with the last patch, and Wrath of the Lich King's Frozen Orbs, many had assumed that Spirits of Harmony would lose their soulbound status towards the end of the expansion. Community Manager Lore has confirmed once and for all that there are no plans to make this change with Spirits of Harmony.

We're not entirely sure on the reasoning behind this decision, but it might be something of an annoyance for players. Although, with previous expansions at least, the item was largely completely irrelevant by this point. Spirits of Harmony, in so much as they can be traded for items in the Shrine, have at least held some value. So don't stockpile them for an alt's crafting, on the basis that they might become BoA, or for an auction house bonanza that may never come.

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No plans to make Motes or Spirits of Harmony account wide originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 21 Mar 2014 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> account-wideboemote-of-harmonysoulboundspirit-of-harmony (Olivia Grace) Fri, 21 Mar 2014 17:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[How to fix the Censer of Eternal Agony]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/20/how-to-fix-the-censer-of-eternal-agony/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/20/how-to-fix-the-censer-of-eternal-agony/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/20/how-to-fix-the-censer-of-eternal-agony/#comments
The Censer of Eternal Agony has been an interesting piece of game design. If you're not aware of just what the Censer is, it's an item purchased on the Timeless Isle for 1,000 Timeless Coins that makes you hostile to all players, including your faction. If you kill players while the Censer is active, you get a currency, Bloody Coins, one per kill, that can be traded for a mount, a pet, and some other items.

So what's the problem? What needs fixing? Well, the Timeless Isle is home to three types of character. First up, you've got the intended audience -- new level 90 characters. They're there for the catch-up gear, the easy boost to ilvl 496. There's an influx of them at the moment, thanks to the boosts. The second group is people who are there for the Celestials. They zone in, grab their kill, and leave. Then, there's the third group -- high-geared players who are there with the specific purpose of using the Censer to kill other players.

That third group is mostly targeting the first group. Entering the Celestial Court with the Censer up will get you some attention from the guards, so the Censer people are roaming the island, in search of low-geared players to kill. Some servers have it worse than others, and before you dismiss it, this problem caused the devs to hotfix the boosted 90 spawn-in to be the Shrine instead of the Timeless Isle.

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How to fix the Censer of Eternal Agony originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 20 Mar 2014 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> censer-debuffCenser-of-Eternal-Agonytimeless-isle (Olivia Grace) Thu, 20 Mar 2014 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Warlords of Draenor: New female dwarf images added]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/20/warlords-of-draenor-new-female-dwarf-images-added/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/20/warlords-of-draenor-new-female-dwarf-images-added/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/20/warlords-of-draenor-new-female-dwarf-images-added/#comments
The Warlords of Draenor site has just been updated with some new images of the female Dwarf character models, as Senior Art Director Chris Robinson tweeted:



What's your take on their new look? The face does look more proportionate than before, but it's no doubt helped by them having drawn her with her mouth closed, and with less overly open eyes.

All the new images are in the slideshow below!

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Warlords of Draenor: New female dwarf images added originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 20 Mar 2014 15:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> (Olivia Grace) Thu, 20 Mar 2014 15:27:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Warlords of Draenor: Low level Battlegrounds to drop dungeon-style satchels]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/20/warlords-of-draenor-low-level-battlegrounds-to-drop-dungeon-sty/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/20/warlords-of-draenor-low-level-battlegrounds-to-drop-dungeon-sty/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/20/warlords-of-draenor-low-level-battlegrounds-to-drop-dungeon-sty/#comments
Senior PvP Designer Brian Holinka tweeted something yesterday that will be music to the ears of any player who wants to level via PvP.


Leveling via PvP is a hard-fought battle in WoW, XP gains are unpredictable, and unless you're using heirlooms you risk falling behind in gear gains and gold gains. So this change, put in place by Reward Systems Designer Russ Petersen, allows those players to keep up with their PvE-ing counterparts. It's fantastic news! I'd love to see some improvement to XP gains from battlegrounds, too.

And let's not forget that Holinka has previously hinted at Skirmishes being potentially available for leveling, which would be an incredible change. Certainly, the rewards would need to be ironed out, but that they're even thinking about it gives me hope for PvP leveling becoming something that more than just the dedicated or foolhardy undertake.

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Warlords of Draenor: Low level Battlegrounds to drop dungeon-style satchels originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 20 Mar 2014 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> holinkawarlords-of-draenorwarlords-of-draenor-battlegroundswarlords-of-draenor-gearwarlords-of-draenor-gearingwarlords-of-draenor-levelingwarlords-of-draenor-pvp (Olivia Grace) Thu, 20 Mar 2014 15:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Heroes of the Storm glossary]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/19/heroes-of-the-storm-terms-and-terminology/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/19/heroes-of-the-storm-terms-and-terminology/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/19/heroes-of-the-storm-terms-and-terminology/#comments Heroes of the Storm is not categorized as a MOBA by its creators, but as a Hero Brawler, and there are definitely big differences between Heroes and other popular MOBAs. Nonetheless, a lot of the players you're going to be seeing in-game will have played MOBAs before, and thanks to the similarities to MOBA play, you're going to be seeing a lot of MOBA jargon. And you might not understand it all, but we're here to help. We're not going to go into every individual phrase that might ever be uttered, but we're going to spell out some of the more common ones.

Let us know if there are other things you've heard that you haven't understood, and hit the break for the Glossary!

Continue reading Heroes of the Storm glossary

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Heroes of the Storm glossary originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 19 Mar 2014 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> (Olivia Grace) Wed, 19 Mar 2014 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Heroes of the Storm dev Q&A]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/19/heroes-of-the-storm-dev-qanda/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/19/heroes-of-the-storm-dev-qanda/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/19/heroes-of-the-storm-dev-qanda/#comments The latest Heroes of the Storm dev Q&A is here, and you can watch it above when it goes live at 11am Pacific. This week, as the Tech Alpha runs on, the developers are talking about the talent system. Joining Kevin Johnson this time, we will have Dustin Browder, Game Director, Richard Khoo, Senior Game Designer, and Matt Cooper, Game Designer.

As the talent system is a key part of the game that separates it from the Item Shop methodology of other MOBAs, it will be interesting to see the insights and design challenges that the developers have faced. You can send in your questions to the developers on Twitter at @BlizzHeroes by using the hashtag #HeroesQA.

Following the dev Q&A, there'll be a live match, shoutcasted by Dustin Browder and Kevin Knocke.

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Heroes of the Storm dev Q&A originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 19 Mar 2014 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> developer-q-and-adustin-browderheroes-of-the-stormheroes-talent-system (Olivia Grace) Wed, 19 Mar 2014 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Poll: RNG gearing or points-based gearing?]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/18/poll-rng-gearing-or-points-based-gearing/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/18/poll-rng-gearing-or-points-based-gearing/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/18/poll-rng-gearing-or-points-based-gearing/#comments
There seems to have been something of a shift of late in Blizzard's gearing philosophy. We've moved from a heavily points-based system, where players had to earn currency -- specifically valor -- to buy items. They also had to earn reputation, which was another thing we can compare to points, although they're not a currency you can spend. Now, we've got Valor only used as an upgrade system, players are reliant on drops for the initial item to upgrade. The Timeless Isle does award currency, but you're more likely to rely on RNG-based drops to get gear from there. Not to mention the RNG nature of Warforged gear.

And it looks like this is only going to move more towards RNG with Warlords' removal of currencies, removal of reforging, and the addition of sockets and tertiaries as RNG elements on top of the Warforged system. PvP gear remains mercifully points-based, and in a play system where gear equality is so important, we can only hope it remains the case. But in PvE, what's the good and bad of each?

Well, points-based gearing is predictable. It gives you certainty and goals to work towards. Just so long as you keep grinding points, you know categorically that you will get that piece of gear. You can see your points build up, and it's satisfying. On the downside that predictability makes it less exciting. In PvP, that's no bad thing -- you certainly don't want the opposition to get their weapon and 4-set first while you get 2 rings, a neck and some bracers!

Continue reading Poll: RNG gearing or points-based gearing?

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Poll: RNG gearing or points-based gearing? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 18 Mar 2014 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> gearinghonor-pointsjustice-pointslong-tail-gearingrngvalor-pointswarforgedwarforged-seal (Olivia Grace) Tue, 18 Mar 2014 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Breakfast Topic: The Real Money Auction House is gone forever, will you miss it?]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/18/breakfast-topic-the-real-money-auction-house-is-gone-forever-w/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/18/breakfast-topic-the-real-money-auction-house-is-gone-forever-w/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/18/breakfast-topic-the-real-money-auction-house-is-gone-forever-w/#comments
If you haven't been marking out the hours, it's March 18. That means that today's the day that the Real Money Auction House in Diablo III closes its doors forever. It's been an interesting feature, for sure, and arguably one that did more harm than good. It's been controversial from the out, causing a rating hike in South Korea. Then there were the days of gold devaluing by the second, of duping bugs running rampage, shutdowns and resets.

It seems pretty clear that the RMAH wasn't much of a success. And the community reaction to its then-impending removal, and to loot 2.0 has been overwhelmingly positive. So, will you miss it? I know I won't. In a game like Diablo where there's so much emphasis on loot, being able to fork out real dollars to get your hands on the best bits seemed to cheapen the experience, to use a rather ill-fitting turn of phrase. Now that it's gone, and indeed in the months leading up to its departure, I've felt a sort of freedom with my loot. I'm no longer thinking in terms of trade, instead in terms of fun. And that's a good thing.

What's your take on the RMAH experiment? Will you miss it?

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Breakfast Topic: The Real Money Auction House is gone forever, will you miss it? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 18 Mar 2014 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredgame-discussiongamer-discussionworld-of-warcraft-discussionworld-of-warcraft-topicswow-discussionwow-hot-topicswow-issueswow-topics (Olivia Grace) Tue, 18 Mar 2014 09:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Blizzard unveils its PAX East plans]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/17/blizzard-unveils-its-pax-east-plans/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/17/blizzard-unveils-its-pax-east-plans/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/17/blizzard-unveils-its-pax-east-plans/#comments
Blizzard has revealed their PAX East schedule, and for attendees of the Boston-based convention, it's going to be quite a weekend. There's something for almost every game the company makes, all to be found at booth #848 from 10am to 6pm Friday through Sunday. On offer at the booth will be:
There's also developers standing by to talk to fans, a Heroes of the Storm presentation at the Albatross theatre on Friday, April 11 at 10:30 a.m. EDT, as well as giveaways, prizes and more! We wouldn't be surprised to see some new merchandise debuting, as has previously been the case for PAX conventions. It promises to be an exciting weekend all round!

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Blizzard unveils its PAX East plans originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 17 Mar 2014 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> pax-eastpax-east-2014 (Olivia Grace) Mon, 17 Mar 2014 19:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[PvP-Live Armageddon Tournament]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/17/pvp-live-armageddon-tournament/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/17/pvp-live-armageddon-tournament/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/17/pvp-live-armageddon-tournament/#comments
Followers of official Blizzard Twitter accounts will certainly have heard about the well-publicized WoW arena "Armageddon" tournament, hosted by PVP Live, that took place this weekend just passed. It was great to see Blizzard get behind a WoW PvP tournament in such a big way, after years of other, less recognized tournaments.

After some early issues with audio, which were mostly repaired by the Sunday, the tournament kicked off in style on the Friday night with a face-off to see which of the newer teams would claim the eighth "seed", by which they meant place in the tournament. Following that, the tournament continued, in a bracketed structure, commentated by the ever-outstanding Isaac "Azael" Cummings-Bentley and Jared "vhell" Coulston. They were joined by PvP-Live's "Mackaw" on a beautifully-crafted set to lead viewers through the tournament.

Continue reading PvP-Live Armageddon Tournament

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PvP-Live Armageddon Tournament originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 17 Mar 2014 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> armageddonpvp-tournament (Olivia Grace) Mon, 17 Mar 2014 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider