Posts with tag patch-5.2

Bashiok adds to his post, explaining how, in Mists, Blizzard is essentially trying to strike a happy medium between previous expansions' attitudes to gear progression. Cataclysm's gearing model devalued old content progression too quickly, allowing players to effectively jump straight into the current raids, while previous expansions had been criticized for their linearity.

Mists retains an element of that linear nature, with Bashiok saying that new characters will have to go through Mogushan Vaults, Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Spring, but that drop rates will be increased and the content made easier. He does note, however, that this 10% nerf is currently slated as a one-time reduction, rather than step one of a set of progressive nerfs.

What do you think of this? Hit the break for Bashiok's full post, explaining the philosophy behind the changes.

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

I've officially reached the point where I'm tired of messing around with patch 5.2 on the PTR and just want it to launch. That doesn't mean everybody has reached that point, but I certainly have.

sergel92 asked:

Are the Zandalari good trolls, bad trolls, or just your normal trolly trolls? They seem to show different levels of morality, but I'm wondering what direction they are heading in now with Mists. Also, do ou think we'll ever see their leader Rastakhan one day, or even know where he is?

Three bosses will be available for Throne of Thunder testing today, all on the 10-man difficulty. If this is your first time testing, your gear will automatically be scaled up to meet the ilevel required in this raid zone. Tier 15 gear should also now be available from the Flaskataur NPC in front of the faction shrines so consider picking up a set and testing those out in addition to the encounters! Not sure how to find the raid zone? Here's how you can get into the Throne of Thunder.

WoW Insider Throne of Thunder boss impressions

• Jin'rokh, the Breaker
• Horridon
• Iron Qon
• Lei Shen, the Thunder King
• Tortos
• Dark Animus
• Megaera
• Twin Consorts

The blue post announcing today's testing can be found behind the cut below.

5.2 island server progression is weighted based on your faction's participation. Small-pop factions shouldn't be at a disadvantage.

- Dave Kosak (@DaveKosak) February 5, 2013

WoW Insider's Anne Stickney recently described the War Effort as the "return of the unlockable isle", an accurate turn of phrase, as by advancing their War Effort players will literally unlock different zones, including one of the two new world bosses, and the Treasure Room.

Given that cross realm zones remain inactive on Pandaria, players on realms with large faction imbalances quickly resigned themselves to never advancing the War Effort and unlocking these areas. Dave Kosak's tweet serves to reassure these players, apparently implying that participation will further the War Effort alone, and that the actions of players of a minority faction should effectively count for far more than those of players of a majority faction.

While Kosak doesn't clarify exactly how this weighting will work, it will come as a comfort to those players on unbalanced servers to be told that their efforts will not be in vain.

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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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From PTR reports, we knew that patch 5.2 was bringing the dinosaurs in the form of Direhorn pets for hunters and Primordial Direhorn mount drops from rare mobs. However, the latest build of the PTR introduces even more Direhorn goodness: Wowhead reports that the Primal Crimson Direhorn (for Horde) and the Primal Golden Direhorn (for Alliance) will be available as rewards for enterprising players who reach Exalted with the Kirin Tor Offensive or Sunreaver Onslaught, depending on your faction.

There's no word on when 5.2 might be going live, so for now there's not much to do but wait -- or hop on the PTR.

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• There's now a Blacktalon Quartermaster in the Tavern of the Mists for players who need to get a previous legendary quest reward (such as a gem for a Sha-Touched Weapon) for a new item.
• Several mage changes - Blazing Speed drops to the level 15 tier (with a whole lot of changes to the tooltip, it seems), and Flameglow, a new talent replaces Blazing Speed at the level 30 tier, and more. Scorch is now baseline, available to all fire mages. There seems to be a significant amount of reverted changes here.
• Light's Hammer now applies a 50% snare for 2 seconds.
• Evangelism's stacking buff now applies to Penance as well.

For the complete patch notes you can look at the official site, and we'll place a compiled list of the changes below the cut for convenience sake.

During his reign, Lei Shen labored to build a mechanical servant that would defend his citadel without fear. When this experiment failed, rage took hold of the Thunder King. He poured this negative emotion into his next, amd most successful creation: the Dark Animus. To this day, the ornate construct observes its duty, empowered by the mysterious substance at the heart of all the Mogu flesh-shaping experiments.

I find myself logged onto a different character every time I'm doing a round of pet battle dailies. It shouldn't be an issue, because pets are account bound, but there's just one little thing: Battle Pet Bandages. I never earn any on my main character -- maybe it's bad luck. It's very frustrating to end up with a defeated team, Revive Battle Pets on cooldown, and no stable master nearby. Oh, and no bandages!

Well, it feels like the devs really have been listening to the battle pet community, because they released a few quality of life updates on the PTR that (mostly) will make pet battlers happy campers.

• Battle Pet Bandages now stack and are Bind to Account.
• Level-capped players will now have a chance to earn Lesser Charms of Good Fortune after winning a pet battle versus a pet within 5 levels of the highest level pet on their team. Higher-level pets will offer a better chance to earn a charm.
• Winning a pet battle versus a team within 5 levels of the player's highest-level pet will now award player experience.

I'm so happy to see that pet bandages will be Bind to Account. Being able to funnel every precious bandage to one character will make things much easier -- especially for the altoholics out there. And three huge huzzahs to earning stuff while battling pets! It takes quite a bit of time to grind every pet battle achievement, even with power leveling newbie pets. So, earning rewards normally reserved for playing through PvE content turns pet battling into time well spent. I'm tempted to level a character solely through pet battles, now that winning one will grant player experience!

You can check out the full list of updated pet battle patch notes at the official site, but to make things easier we've compiled the complete list of notes after the break.

Lu'lin and Suen are rumored to be the only known female mogu that exist. These two are the last bosses that stand between you and the Thunder King himself. In the spirit of attempting to badly pronounce boss names, I believe Suen is pronounced "Swen" (and not Sue-n).

Interestingly enough, our iLevel was scaled up to 517 for this test. In many of the previous test encounters, we were at 502. That should offer some idea of what the group's gear progression should be at when they challenge the Twin Consorts.

Read on for more!

WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make gold on the Auction House. Check out Basil's gold making podcast, Call To Auction, and email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail!

The PTR for patch 5.2 has a real treat in store for people who want to powerlevel Blacksmithing: you will now be able to get to 500 skill without having to wait for those rare old-world materials to show up on the Auction House! If you are level 85 and up, all you have to do is visit your Blacksmithing trainer in your faction's shrine (the same one that sells recipes for Spirits of Harmony), and they will offer you a fast-track path straight to 500 skill.

The way it works is that you will be able to train patterns that take only Ghost Iron Bars to make grey items, and once you get up to 500 skill, there's a quest to make a Ghostly Skeleton Key. At the time this article was written, the data-mined recipes on the Wowhead.com PTR site seem to indicate that it will take a lot of ghost iron to complete. Of course, this might receive a rework before it hits live.

Megaera is the fifth boss in the the new patch 5.2 raid instance Throne of Thunder. Some of the players who have witnessed this boss have deemed it "Magmaw 2.0". The story of Megaera is a tragic one. Lei Shen took a young cloud serpent, turned it into a multi-headed hydra, then stuffed it somewhere in the depths of Lei Shen's throne. She's actually not that far off from Tortos. Those two should hang out more often.

Anyway, have you ever heard of the Lernaean Hydra that Hercules killed as a part of his 12 Labors? Like the hydra in that story, when one of Megaera's head is destroyed, two more heads will then spawn in it's place. Her body takes damage that's equal to the head's maximum health.

Bad news? You can't seal off the heads when you kill one.

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat, bear, restoration and balance druids. Welcome to our DPS edition, brought to you by Chase Hasbrouck, aka Alaron of The Fluid Druid blog. This week, we discuss the future.

Happy New Year!

Hmm. I guess I'm a little late for that. Anyway, my no-notice household move is mostly complete, and I've finally had a chance to start breaking down the new changes for druids in 5.2. With the exception of Feral PvP, things look pretty positive across the board, so let's dive in!

Cyclone a-no-no

Cyclone is the crowd-control effect that everyone loves to hate. Unlike the vast majority of other CC effects in the game, Cyclone does not share a diminishing return category with other effects, meaning you could couple it with another CC from a teammate to lock down an enemy target for a long period of time. By itself, this wasn't the end of the world. While a "clone" was powerful, it had a short range and a cast time, making it difficult to land in the first place.

Who would've guessed Lei Shen kept a pet tortoise in his caverns? This is one of the bosses available for testing in patch 5.2's Throne of Thunder raid. Tortos isn't an ordinary tortoise. It's a massive tortoise with a bunch of mini ones behind him. Naturally, what's a cavern without some bats around for good measure, right?

Out of all the encounters tested, this ranks high up there on the fun scale. How often do you get to punt turtle shells around?

With patch 5.2 slowly getting closer to a release on live servers, a minor quest has been added for both factions to help send players to the Isle of the Thunder King. You'll see a quest discovery on the side where you'll be summoned.

Your help is needed.

Warning: Spoilers for patch 5.2 content incoming! Don't hit the link if you don't want to know what happens or why the Alliance and Horde are here!