Filed under: News items

Community manager Nethaera hit the official forums this afternoon to notify players of a known display issue with pet collections. The notice reads as follows:

Known Pet License Issue

We are currently aware of an issue in which upon logging into the game, it may appear that some pets are missing. A fix has been applied to address this issue, though it may take a few hours before pets appear on the pet list again properly.

source

In other words, while your pet pane may display that you're missing some pets you've previously acquired, they haven't actually been lost. By the time you read this, the issue may even have been resolved already. In either case, don't panic: your pets will return soon.

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Patch 5.3 has arrived, and there are a truly staggering number of changes to the game, many of them with significant effects to gameplay. You can check out Blizzard's complete patch notes on their blog, but for the sake of brevity, WoW Insider has compiled a list of the top five changes that are most likely to be of the biggest interest to the average player. If you haven't been paying much attention, this is the stuff you probably really want to know!

1. The experience required to go from level 85 to 90 has been reduced by 33%

Mists of Pandaria has been called very alt-unfriendly, and while this particular change won't entirely fix that, it does help. Along with the changes to reputation factions -- the Shado Pan and August Celestials dailies are no longer hidden behind the gate of "Revered" with the Golden Lotus -- this will make it easier to get your army of alts up to speed to hop into max-level content.

Patch 5.3 is here. As you read this, the servers should be down to apply the patch. This means you'll want to use this time get caught up on all the latest patch 5.3 news, which, as always, you can find right here. Start off with our patch 5.3 roundup for an overview of everything. You'll also want to check out our exclusive interview with Lead Systems Designer Greg Ghostcrawler Street. Gamebreaker TV also did an interview with Ghostcrawler and Senior PvP Designer Brian Holinka.

You can also check the roundup below for more of this week's WoW news, from patch 5.3 and elsewhere. Realm maintenance begins at 3 a.m. PDT today and is expected to last 8 hours, so you'll have time.

Hot news and features

• Here's what WoW newbies should know about new patches.
• We have a guide to the lore and story of patch 5.3.
• Patch 5.3 will allow you level mining and herbalism exclusively in Pandaria.
• We have a roundup of patch 5.3's battle pet changes.
• We have a preview of some new patch 5.3 scenarios, including The Secrets of Ragefire and Battle on the High Seas.
• Blizzard has posted some patch 5.3 interviews of their with Tom Chilton.
• Check out the final patch 5.3 PTR note updates for March 14.
• Ghostcrawler outlines some Vengeance changes coming to the patch 5.4 PTR.
• Convert to Raid interviews Blizzard's Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas.

The guessing games are over: Blizzard has just announced that Patch 5.3: Escalation will be released this coming week. That makes launch day Tuesday, May 21st for Australian and North American realms and Wednesday, May 22nd for European realms.

If you're not aware, patch 5.3 has a bundle of new content, including new story elements, PvP changes, a new battleground, new scenarios and heroic scenarios, and a lot more. Find the full patch notes after the break.

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TradeChat's Panser returns with this week's WoW Insider news recap, where we look back at the hottest news from the past week and whatever other kickin' rad things may have come our way. This week's topics include:

• Ill-gotten goods go to charity
• Free comics!
• Would you play a WoW Fighter game?
• Level your professions in Pandaria!
• The mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
• Patch notes!
• Is it ready to drop yet?

If you enjoyed the show, make sure to subscribe to TradeChat, leave a comment, and come back next week for the next episode!

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If you're looking to go pro in game design, Blizzard COO Paul Sams has teamed up with the University of Texas at Austin to create the Denius-Sams Gaming Academy. The academy will be led and taught by gaming industry executives and the curriculum will be guided by industry veteran Warren Spector. The 12-month, post-baccalaureate program will guide students through creating a game from start to finish, giving them the experience they need to join the gaming industry when they graduate.

"The University of Texas at Austin has a tremendous track record of building nationally recognized programs that generate the leaders and critical thinkers the gaming industry needs," Sams said. "The program will focus on building the skills required for students to lead teams and develop games from concept to completion, while growing talent for the gaming industry."

The program starts in 2014, but with only 20 spots available, you probably have a better chance of getting into a competitive raid guild.

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You've no doubt heard about Cryptozoic, who makes the World of Warcraft trading card game. But these days, Blizzard is focusing on its home-brewed digital TCG Hearthstone and Cryptozoic is working on a new project: Hex, which they call an MMO trading card game. Hex takes advantage of its all-digital nature to add some MMO elements like characters, gear, and guilds to a traditional TCG game. And, while it's not out yet -- Cryptozoic expects the beta to start this September -- the Kickstarter campaign to fund the game is happening now. With 21 days to go, Cryptozoic has already blown past their $300,000 funding goal with $567,000 raised at the time of this writing. Now they're working on stretch goals which will add new gameplay features for everyone -- and new bonuses for backers -- as they're reached.

If you're interested in a different kind of TCG -- or a change of pace from World of Warcraft -- you might want to check out Cryptozoic's Kickstarter. Contributing $10 will get you into the beta this fall and $20 and up gets you beta access and cards once the game launches -- including some special cards you'll only ever be able to get through this Kickstarter campaign.

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For all you lore fans out there, Dawn of the Aspects Part IV will be available in five days, on May 20th. To tide us over, community manager Bashiok has posted a preview on the story forum, featuring our fearless dragon quintet facing an undead menace. I don't want to spoil too much for those who are waiting to read the whole thing once it's all finished, but as the penultimate addition to the story, there's some name dropping that might come as a surprise if you haven't been following along. The excerpt hints at some tense situations for the soon-to-be Aspects, and Ysera, in particular, plays an important part in this scene. There are even a few hints that she might have some kind of hidden, unexpected power, but we all know that's because Ysera is the best Aspect anyway. The position of my druid as my perpetual main has in no way influenced my opinion on this matter.

Make sure to check out WoW Insiders' reviews of the previous parts of Dawn of the Aspects. The full part four preview is the break, and keep your eyes peeled for Dawn of the Aspects Part IV.

Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. We continue to wait for patch 5.3, with official confirmation coming in yesterday that it won't be going live this week. In the meantime, the test server continues to be updated, and the big news stories are often outside the game, from the news that WoW is down to 8.3 million subscribers to the news Diablo III had to shut down the auction house due to massive gold duping bugs. They've since announced that all money from the illegitimate auctions, including their cut, will be donated to charity.

All this news and more awaits you with our usual roundup below. As of this writing, there is no announced downtime, but even if there isn't, you deserve a break right? Relax and read on.

Hot news and guides

• Check out the latest patch 5.3 PTR patch note updates.
• Blizzard's released an official guide to preparing for patch 5.3.
• Check out this preview of the patch 5.3 Battlefield: Barrens event.
• The Unborn Val'kyr battle pet continues to mystify. It's been captured on the PTR, but no-one can quite figure out how and why it spawns.
• Today is the last day to change attendee information on your BlizzCon ticket.
• Ghostcrawler confirms that the developers have no plans for a talent system overhaul any time soon.
• The new Dark Riders graphic novel is out, and we have a review.

It looks like those of you waiting patiently for valor point upgrades, new scenarios and more will have to wait at least another week. On the one hand, I'd really like to see all the 5.3 content on live servers -- on the other, I'm glad I don't have to worry about a new set of quests and story content to obsessively run through just yet. Whether or not we'll see it next week is up in the air, but given the active state of the background downloader, we can expect patch 5.3 ... soon™.

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At this point we all should be pretty familiar with what happened in Diablo III with the release of patch 1.0.8. The patch contained a bug in the way the auction house functioned that allowed for people to make lots and lots of gold - far more than they were intended to. The bug was fixed very quickly, but for the last few weeks Blizzard's been busy auditing both their code and the accounts of the players who exploited the bug. Late Friday evening, John Hight, the production manager for Diablo III, put up a post on the Diablo forums explaining in detail both what happened and what Blizzard has been doing about it.

The actions taken seem fairly straightforward and sensible - Blizzard has evaluated the necessary code to check for any other potential weaknesses, and they have either banned or rolled back the accounts of players who abused the bug's existence. That seems pretty typical. But, what's nicest to read is the fact that Blizzard is taking any real money generated by these auction house transactions - including their own transaction fees - and donating them to Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. We have no idea as of yet what that amount might be, but it's certainly a nice gesture.

The full blue post is after the break.

Earlier in patch 5.3's PTR cycle, developer Cory "Mumper" Stockton revealed the Unborn Val'kyr, a new wild pet coming to Northrend. That very night, players began scouring the PTR for any trace of it -- to no avail. A few days later, Stockton asked users on Twitter whether or not they'd found it yet. They hadn't, but as it turns out, at the time of those tweets, the pet had not yet been activated on the PTR at all. Whoops!

However, it has been active for quite some time now, and the community at large is still not entirely sure how it works. According to the information we've been given, the Unborn Val'kyr is not a pet that is randomly spawned, but rather only spawns under specific, unique conditions. The pet has now been found and caught, but the conditions under which it spawns to begin with are still unknown.

TradeChat's Panser returns with this week's WoW Insider news recap, where we look back at the hottest news from the past week and whatever other kickin' rad things may have come our way. This week's topics include:

• Diablo 3 bug sees trillions in gold duping, auction houses temporarily shut down
• NetEase releases Mists of Pandaria Mahjong set
• Blizzard's guide to prepping for patch 5.3
• The latest patch 5.3 PTR patch notes
• World of Warcraft down to 8.3 million subscribers
• Breakfast Topic: How do you deal with burnout?

If you enjoyed the show, make sure to subscribe to TradeChat, leave a comment, and come back next week for the next episode!

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If you're itching for a good World of Warcraft story and patch 5.3 is too long to wait for new story content, Blizzard is happy to oblige with the just-released World of Warcraft: Dark Riders graphic novel. Unfortunately, Blizzard's own description of the comic -- talking about an "enigmatic destiny" and "hidden dangers" -- is too vague and generic to grab our interest. But fortunately we've heard about Dark Riders before and expect good things from writer Mike Costa and artist Neil Googe. So what can you expect to find in this tome of lore? More about the mysterious Dark Riders of Deadwind Pass, who have only been alluded to in the game, the secretive wolf cult, and the Scythe of Elune. But if you're not a lore hound, you'll just have to be tempted by the promise of a good World of Warcraft story in graphic novel form.

World of Warcraft: Dark Riders is available today. You can take a sneak peak at the art or buy it directly form Amazon or Barnes & Noble for $16.01 -- though if you prefer digital, it's $12.99 for Kindle and $13.74 for Nook.

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Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. We continue to be in a holding pattern of sorts. Patch 5.3 is still going strong on the PTR, but we have no word on a release date. Luckily, patch 5.2 is still going strong as well, with new secrets being discovered as early as just last week. There's also new stuff outside of WoW, from new short stories, to new merchandise, to some interesting viewpoints on the function of gear in the game.

Our usual roundup, featuring all these stories and more, can be found below. Scheduled maintenance today is expected to begin at 3 a.m. PDT and last for 8 hours, so you have plenty of time to read. Keep it tuned here as well. Whenever the patch lands, we'll be here to report on all the details.

Hot news and features

• The latest patch 5.2 hotfixes include nerfs to the Lei Shen encounter in Raid Finder.
• Firecat form has made a secret return in patch 5.2. We'll show you how to get it.
• Blizzard has published an official preview of patch 5.3.
• Heirloom shields may be coming as soon as patch 5.3.
• Patch 5.3 comes with new achievements for collectors.
• Do you feel pretty? Patch 5.3 brings with it the chance to obtain the Gorgeous title.
• We have a temporary fix to that gold seller calendar invite spam.
• Adam believes gear should be abolished. Rossi argues gear is far too important and useful for it to be removed.