World Of Warcraft

No swimming through lava is needed; you can fly inside Blackrock Mountain.

You can talk to an NPC inside Blackrock Mountain or jump through the window behind him, since Classic ...

Blizzard is going to be at gamescom.

Possible cinematic release and launch date announcement?]]

Double post: Updated Beta notes:

Crowd Control and Diminishing Returns

• Shaman
  • Tremor Totem is no longer usable while under the effects of Fear, Charm, or Sleep.

Classes

• Druid
  • Talents
    • Dream of Cenarius
      • Balance: The talent has been redesigned for Balance Druids and now causes Moonfire and Sunfire casts with Lunar or Solar Peak to also heal a random injured ally. Casting Healing Touch no longer increases the damage bonus of the Druid’s next Eclipse. Eclipse now causes the Druid’s next Healing Touch to become instant cast and reset the cooldown on Starsurge.
• Mage
  • Frost Changes
    • The Brain Freeze effect now increases Frostfire Bolt's damage by 25%, and can now stack up to 2 times. It also no longer triggers from the Bomb Talents, and instead has a 10% chance to trigger from Frostbolt casts. Each Multistrike of Frostbolt increases that cast's chance by an additional 25% 45%. (Total of 60% 100% on double-Multistrikes).
• Priest
  • Talent Revisions
    • From Darkness, Comes Light has been split into two abilities depending on the Priest's specialization.
      • Surge of Darkness (Shadow) now has a maximum of 3 charges (up from 2) and can now also trigger its effect from Devouring Plague, but its chance to trigger has been reduced to 10% (down from 20%) to compensate.
    • Solace and Insanity has been split into Power Word: Solace for Discipline and Holy, and Insanity for Shadow.
      • Insanity has been changed to cause consuming Shadow Orbs to transform Mind Flay into Insanity for 2 seconds per Shadow Orb consumed.
    • Twist of Fate now only triggers from healing for Discipline and Holy Priests, and only triggers from damage for Shadow Priests.
• Shaman
  • Elemental Overload and Molten Earth
    • One of the new secondary stats Multistrike, functions very similarly to Elemental Overload. We wanted to keep Mastery and Multistrike feeling distinct, but also know how iconic and important Elemental Overload is for Elemental Shaman. So, we decided to merge the two together with Multistrike driving Elemental Overload, and give the Elemental specialization a new Mastery. For the new Mastery, we wanted to strengthen the Elemental Shaman’s connection to earth energies, and added damage that continues while the Shaman is moving. The summary of all this is that if you liked Mastery before, favor Multistrike instead for the same effect. Or try out the new Mastery: Molten Earth. Chain Lightning was also improved significantly to offset the fact that Elemental Overload was a massive buff to it, but Molten Earth is not.
      • Chain Lightning’s damage has been increased by 50%.
  • Restoration Changes
    • Elemental Blast now also grants increased Spirit for Restoration Shaman, in addition to the random secondary stat. Spirit amount granted is equal to double the random secondary stat amount.
    • Riptide’s healing has been adjusted to put significantly more of it into the initial heal. The initial heal amount has been increased by 70%, while the periodic healing amount has been reduced by 20%.
• Warrior
  • Ability Consolidation and Refinment
    • Thunder Clap now costs 10 15 Rage, and also reduces the movement speed of nearby enemies by 50% for 6 sec.
  • Stance Changes
    • Wild Strike now requires Battle Stance.
  • Arms Changes
    • Battle Stance for Arms Warriors now generates 67% 140% more Rage from auto-attacks and Critical Strikes now generate double Rage.
    • Colossus Smash now costs 20 30 Rage, deals 225% increased damage, and no longer increases the damage of Slam.
    • Execute for Arms Warriors now costs 10 Rage, and consumes up to 30 40 additional Rage to deal additional damage.
    • Mortal Strike now costs 20 30 Rage (instead of generating 10 Rage).
  • Talents Changes
    • Piercing Howl has been removed and replaced with a new talent, Sudden Death.
      • Piercing Howl is now available to all Fury Warriors as a baseline ability.
    • Disrupting Shout has been removed and replaced with 3 new talents that vary by specialization.
      • Arms: Slam: Slam an opponent, causing 100% weapon damage. Each consecutive use of Slam increases the damage dealt by 50% and Rage cost by 100%. Requires Battle Stance.

edited 29th Jul '14 4:57:58 PM by tclittle

Artcraft: Updated Facial Customization

It's Blizzard's intention to get all the custom faces in the game by the expansion's launch, and they'll be patching them into Beta incrementally as they're done. Shown are some of the ones they're working on.

Awesome.

Updated Blood Elf models not going to be done by launch.

Just get those space goats looking good and finally truly integrate them into the setting and faction.

Double post with a couple of things:

First off: Alliance Chopper will also be added to the game, but will probably cost a fortune and the bikes will only be able to be used by their respective factions.

Beta notes updated again for August 1st:

Crowd Control and Diminishing Returns

• Paladin
  • Evil is a Point of View Blinding Light has been removed and replaced with Blinding Light.

Classes

• Death Knight
  • Ability Pruning
    • Rune of Cinderglacier has been removed.
  • Frost Changes
    • In Mists of Pandaria, Frost Death Knights suffered from rotations that were designed to allow flexibility in ability usage, so that you could pool some resources in order to make decisions about which ones you spent and in which order. Dual Wield vs Two-Handed had different rotational priorities, with different strengths and weaknesses. However, tuning ended up such that you reached a point where you just had to spend all of your resources as fast as possible to avoid wasting any, and all of that depth went out the window. For Warlords, we’ve adjusted the tuning of several abilities and passives, to ensure that that doesn’t happen again, and the rotational decisions and skill are maintained.
    • The goal is that Two-Handed Frost Death Knights favor their physical damage, slicing through their enemies with heavy Obliterates, whereas Dual-Wielders favor blasting their foes with frost damage, but both overlap considerably to maintain a cohesive specialization.
      • Frost Strike’s damage has been increased by 100%, but its Runic Power cost has been increased by 5 (up to 25 Runic Power in Frost Presence, and 40 Runic Power in other Presences).
      • Might of the Frozen Wastes now increases the damage of Obliterate by 50% (up from 40%) while wielding a two-handed weapon, and increases the damage of Frost Strike by 50% (up from 35%) while dual-wielding.
      • Razorice now deals 4% additional weapon damage (up from 2%), and increases Frost damage by 4% per stack (up from 3%).
      • Obliterate's damage has been increased by 30%.
  • Miscellaneous
    • Level-60 rune regeneration talents can now be triggered by all Runic Power spenders. the following abilities at a rate proportional to their Runic Power costs: Breath of Sindragosa, Conversion, Dark Simulacrum, Mind Freeze (glyphed), Outbreak (glyphed), and Raise Ally (unglyphed).
      • Blood Tap now generates one charge for every 15 Runic Power spent.
      • Runic Empowerment now has a 1.5% chance to trigger per Runic Power spent.
      • Runic Corruption now has a 1.5% chance to trigger per Runic Power spent.
• Hunter
  • Hunter Pet Abilities
    • Hunters may now tame beasts from 3 new pet families.
      • Rylak Hook Wasp (Exotic)
    • Abilities unique to each hunter pet family has been revised to provide a standard buff, debuff, or ability.
      • Increased Haste buff: Rylak Hook Wasp, Hyena, Sporebat, Wasp
      • Increased Stamina buff: Bear, Goat, Rylak Hook Wasp, Silithid
      • The following pet families provide an additional ability.
        • Rylak Hook Wasp - Updraft Flutter]]: Slows the fall speed of both itself and the hunter for 30 seconds.
• Monk
  • Ability Consolidation and Refinement
    • Uplift now follows standard area-of-effect capping rules, diminishing in effectiveness beyond 6 targets.
• Rogue
  • Ability Consolidation and Refinement
    • Burst of Speed now costs 20 Energy (up from 15 Energy).
• Shaman
  • Elemental Overload and Molten Earth
    • One of the new secondary stats Multistrike, functions very similarly to Elemental Overload. We wanted to keep Mastery and Multistrike feeling distinct, but also know how iconic and important Elemental Overload is for Elemental Shaman. So, we decided to merge the two together with Multistrike driving Elemental Overload, and give the Elemental specialization a new Mastery. For the new Mastery, we wanted to strengthen the Elemental Shaman’s connection to earth energies, and added damage that continues while the Shaman is moving. The summary of all this is that if you liked Mastery before, favor Multistrike instead for the same effect. Or try out the new Mastery: Molten Earth. Chain Lightning and Earthquake were also improved significantly to offset the fact that Elemental Overload was a massive buff to it, but Molten Earth is not.
      • Earthquake’s damage has been increased by 33%.
• Warrior
  • Ability Pruning
    • Mocking Banner is now available only to Protection Warriors.
  • Stance Changes
    • Hamstring now requires Battle Stance or Gladiator Stance.
    • Intervene now requires Defensive Stance or Gladiator Stance.
    • Mass Spell Reflection now requires Defensive Stance or Gladiator Stance.
    • Mocking Banner now requires Defensive Stance or Gladiator Stance.
    • Rallying Cry now requires Defensive Stance.
    • Safeguard now requires Defensive Stance or Gladiator Stance.
    • Shield Slam now requires Defensive stance or Gladiator Stance.
    • Spell Reflection now requires Defensive Stance or Gladiator Stance.
    • Sweeping Strikes now requires Battle Stance.
    • Thunder Clap now requires Defensive Stance or Gladiator Stance.
    • Vigilance now requires Defensive Stance or Gladiator Stance.
    • Whirlwind now requires Battle Stance.
    • Wild Strike now requires Battle Stance.
  • Arms Changes
    • Battle Stance for Arms Warriors now generates 115% 67% more Rage from auto-attacks and Critical Strikes now generate double Rage.
    • Arms Warriors now generate Rage from taking auto-attack damage. Each 1% of health taken as damage will generate 1 Rage, up to 5 Rage per hit.
    • Rend is a new ability for Arms Warriors.
      • Rend causes bleed damage over 18 seconds, and a final burst of bleed damage when the effect expires. Costs 5 Rage.

edited 1st Aug '14 11:25:23 PM by tclittle

Special Warlords Release Date announcment and Cinematic showing at 9:30 am PDT on August 14th.

Beta key for anyone who goes to the showing in LA.]]

edited 4th Aug '14 9:43:45 AM by tclittle

Triple post:

Beta Build 18663

Nagrand zone preview

World of Warcraft is down 800k subscribers to 6.8 million.

edited 5th Aug '14 2:36:44 PM by tclittle

I... don't get it.

The changes to Death Knight, their goal was to make it flexible. So they make Frost Strike slightly more expensive which would overall reduce the number of Frost Strikes you do, which makes sense to this goal. Then they added damage to all of the Frost DK's rotation?

Quote from that comment thread on the drop in subs numbers tickles me somewhat.

"And single player games don't last long."

Yeah, that's right. Single player games like Skyrim, Oblivion, Morrowind, Fallout 3, New Vegas and Human Revolution don't last long. Oh wait. Yes they do.

I've put many more hours into World Of Warcraft than any of those...

But that statement is still wrong, since 100 hours into New Vegas isn't what I would categorise as something that "Don't last long..."

I think I have put months of actual time into World Of Warcraft. Scary. It's what terrifies me the most about resubbing this fall, that and the "I might actually have something else worth doing" thing to worry about.

...I think I have one year played on my main.

Not sure if I will resub when warlords come out, The changes to my main class are enough to make me question playing my favorite class again.

Death knights got utterly screwed by ability pruning.

I change mains every expansion! So I've actually got about 60 days played each on about five characters (probably a hell of a lot more on the first few mains).

Ability pruning is my favorite thing ever.

The pruning doesn't bother me at all. My action bars are packed to the brim even with macros on all my toons; clearing out some of that junk is badly overdue.

>Yeah, that's right. Single player games like Skyrim, Oblivion, Morrowind, Fallout 3, New Vegas and Human Revolution don't last long. Oh wait. Yes they do.

A few hits get a cult following that just doesn't give up. But otherwise, the TES series have succeeded each other, leaving the previous part dead sans a tiny dedicated portion.

Vast bulk of the players just do the game's main plot (and sidequests that are just on their way along) and then drop.
Completionists and modders are a very, very tiny portion of the millions that bought the game.

edited 5th Aug '14 10:02:32 PM by Adannor

People actually play through Skyrim's main quest line?

Yeah, I did. Several times. On the Xbox (let's not let folks mod the game, it might pollute our mighty console)360 version and on the PC. It's rude not to.

This is what happened to Admiral Taylor. It's not pretty.

TL;DR version with spoilers:

Admiral Taylor set up a Garrison in the Spires of Arak. A sorcerer commanding the undead turned Taylor's followers against him leading to everyone dying. Said sorcerer then combined Taylor's soul with a bunch of bodies to create an undead abomination with Marrowgar's model. After defeating the Marrowgar clone, you also kill the sorcerer. Taylor's ghost is then lead back to your Garrison outpost where he becomes a follower.

edited 6th Aug '14 9:04:48 AM by tclittle