Posts with tag crithto

In response to a forum thread started this weekend, Blizzard Community Manager and pug aficionado Crithto clarified Blizzard's thoughts on a Tome of Pandaria Flying. The Tome of Cold Weather Flight was an item introduced in Wrath of the Lich King, which permitted players to avoid buying Cold Weather Flight -- the flight training required to fly in Northrend -- for their alts. Rather than re-purchasing the skill on every character at max level, you could use the tome and begin flying in Northrend a couple of levels earlier than it could ordinarily be acquired. The Tome of Cold Weather Flight was removed from the game in patch 4.0.1.

Crithto's comment is as follows:

Crithto

We're not sure if we'll be doing this. The tome worked out well enough for Wrath of the Lich King as an experiment, but so much of the experience we spent a lot of time and effort shaping in Pandaria is negated by flying. In addition to the upcoming reputation changes for alts (when a character on the account hits Revered), we'll consider other methods of potentially speeding up the leveling process for alts, but we don't think "allow flying" is necessarily the best answer.

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While it is clear to see why players feel differently, given how much easier flying makes questing, WoW Insider largely agrees with Crithtos's opinion. Certain achievements, for example, Legend of the Brewfathers, are hugely enhanced by riding rather than flying. Exploration of the world Blizzard has created in Mists of Pandaria is essentially two new experiences when undertaken first from the ground, and later from the air.

Crithto's assertion that Blizzard's developers are looking into methods of speeding up alt leveling may bring considerable comfort to players for whom the leveling experience has been enjoyable but overwhelming. The adventure through Pandaria, while thrilling, may start to lose its shine with subsequent playthroughs, so changes may be needed. Would you welcome methods to level alts at greater speed? Or, like the pandaren, do you believe that players should slow down, that Pandaria is to be savored?

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Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.

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Blizzard CM Crithto has temporarily abandoned his laps of Stormwind Keep to lay down a challenge in the forums. A few days ago, player Carianate posted a great thread discussing all the Easter eggs and little surprises they'd found while out exploring Pandaria as they waited for their queues to pop.

CM Crithto then popped his head into the thread to lay down a challenge to its readers:

Crithto

Any of you explorers find the in-game reference to something that happened in the Mists of Pandaria trailer?

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WoW Insider is way ahead of the game on this little challenge, which even has an achievement associated with it, Restore Balance. Our very own Anne Stickney wrote a guide to completing the achievement, so huge detail here isn't necessary, and I don't want to completely spoil Crithto's challenge for those who haven't found this yet! Suffice it to say that it's well worth doing, it's a wonderful view, and it's really fun to head up there and see Pandaria just as it was in the trailer.

What cool little things have you found? What fun little easter eggs have surprised and delighted you? If you're looking for pop culture references, and aren't the sort to go exploring the world without a map, the lovely Panser put a video guide together for people just like you.

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Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.

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Best Buy Unboxed, the forum community for Best Buy stores, will be holding a Mists of Pandaria developer chat on Tuesday, September 18 beginning at 6pm CST. Included on the developer panel are a few familiar faces from the recent Reddit AMA -- Lead Systems Designer Greg Street, Lead Content Designer Ion Hazzikostas, and Lead Quest Designer Dave Kosak. Also included on the panel is Lead Content Designer Cory Stockton and Community Managers Zarhym and Crithto.

To participate in the chat, all you need do is visit the official page on Best Buy's forums when the chat itself goes live. If your question wasn't addressed in the Reddit AMA, or if you simply missed the opportunity to ask, this is an excellent chance to get all your questions answered. It's nice to see the developer community so active, particularly on the eve of a new expansion's launch. Be sure to hit up Best Buy Unboxed on September 18 whether you've got a question to ask, or you just want to watch the show.

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It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

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Now, don't get overexcited. This isn't for Mists proper, simply yesterday's patch applied during the maintenance period. It incorporates all of the recent class balance changes as well as some bug fixes for existing content.

For those of you who thought today's patch may bring the arrival of the Theramore scenario, I'm sorry, these patch notes seem to be bringing naught but disappointment. There's a bunch of fixes to spells, and I'm afraid that the time of being a holy paladin one-shotting people in lower level battlegrounds with Holy Shock is over, unless you can get your hands on a lot of spell power. There's also some fixes to things like the teleport bug in the Molten Front, and an amusingly worded fix to make the size of the Arcane Bomb during Queen Azshara's encounter more reasonable! Stop making your friends' spell effects so unreasonable, Azshara. It's unfitting for a woman of your stature.

Lastly, and almost certainly most importantly, Crithto is now attackable by both Alliance and Horde. The hunt for the cutest of Community Managers is on, people!

Head on over the break to see the full patch notes.