PTR By The End of the Month, 10.000 Legendaries Infographic, Skeleton King Polymer-Clay Statue
Zagara - Hero Trailer, Details; New Model and Skin Previews, June 24th Hero Rotation Update
Warlords of Draenor - Hunter Tier 17 Armor Set
Today we are taking a look at the Hunter Tier 17 armor set, which was added in the latest alpha build.
Warlords of Draenor changes things up slightly by using one set of art for Raid Finder, one set of art for Normal and Heroic, and one set of art for Mythic difficulty. You can find the Raid Finder armor sets in our Raid Finder armor sets preview.
Alpha Realms Update - June 25
It looks like the alpha isn't coming back online just yet, but it did come back for a short while tonight, allowing us to check on the Dark Portal.
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We're working on creating a build that's not only stable, but ensures that alpha participants are able to fully test the latest Warlords content -- such as the Shadowmoon Valley Alliance quest and Garrison content, and the Tanaan Jungle introductory Draenor experience. That said, we don't currently expect that a new build will be ready for release today. Our goal remains to release a solid build as soon as possible, and we'll provide further updates once we have a more solid timeframe for bringing the alpha realms back online.
We can't wait to give you an early opportunity to step through the Dark Portal into Tanaan Jungle and break ground on your Alliance Garrison in Shadowmoon Valley! Thank you for bearing with us during this time.
MMO-Champion Forums Moderator Recruitment
Good news everyone! We're recruiting moderators for the forums again! The amount of users and posts keeps increasing and we reached the point where we need some help before the trolls take over and play Whack-a-Mod in the Darkmoon Faire. I know it sounds fun, but I'm going to assume we don't want that.
Please be sure to read the entire post before applying!
Post count requirements have been lowered for many forums, so if you were short on posts and interested in applying, please check again!
Patch 5.4.8 Hotfixes - June 24
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Battlegrounds and Arenas
Deserter debuff
Deserter debuff now lasts 5 minutes (down from 20 minutes). New applications of the Deserter debuff within a 20-minute rolling window extends its duration by 5 additional minutes each time, up to a maximum of 20 minutes.
The Deserter debuff is applied under the following conditions:
Arena or Rated Battlegrounds: Leaving the queue, ignoring the prompt to enter when the match is ready, or leaving the match before anyone has entered combat.
Battlegrounds: Leaving before the match is over.
Additional information on the change to the Deserter debuff can be found in the forum thread titled Upcoming Deserter Hotfixes for Rated PvP.
Upgrade to the Battle.net Desktop App
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
In the coming weeks, the World of Warcraft launcher will be automatically upgraded to the Battle.net® desktop app. After this date, every Blizzard game that previously had its own separate launcher will now be launched directly from one place. But why wait? You can upgrade now!
Download the Battle.net App
What does this launcher upgrade do? You can use the app just like the previous World of Warcraft launcher, but Battle.net offers some handy additional features and functionality. You’ll be able to install games and patches directly from within the app and—if you choose to leave the app running on your desktop—keep them up-to-date automatically even when you’re away from your computer. It’s entirely up to you if you want to leave the app running, and you can exit it at any time. You’re also able to manage each update manually by pause and resuming again when you’re ready.
Log In Once to Play Any Blizzard Game
The new single sign-on functionality allows players to log in to the desktop app once to access World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III, Hearthstone, and the upcoming Heroes of the Storm. This way, you can play any of your Blizzard games directly from the desktop app without having to enter your login credentials every time you want to start a game. In addition, you also have the option to stay logged in for up to 30 days, so you won’t need to re-verify your credentials every time you start the app.
Keep Up with the Latest Community News
It’s easy to keep up on all of the latest developer insights, previews, community news, and more in the News section right within the Battle.net app. The app allows you to see all game news or sort by the game you’re most interested in.
Friends and Social
You’ll also be able to chat with your Battle.net friends directly from the desktop app for Battle.net. To get started, simply look for the Friends icon in the upper-right of Battle.net the next time you log in. Clicking the icon will open up your Battle.net friends list, where you’ll be able to see their status and access a number of handy communication tools, including:
Chat with Battle.net friends. Open a chat window on your desktop. Your messages will show up in any Blizzard game your friend happens to be playing at the time.
Send and accept friend requests. Click the Add a Friend button and enter your friend’s BattleTag or email address to send them a friend request, or use the new People You May Know list. You can also right-click a friend’s name for more options.
Add Favorite Friends. Drag a friend’s name to the new Favorites section of your friends list, keeping your closest friends even closer.
For more information, check out the FAQ and read the Battle.net EULA.
*Please note that after this upgrade, all Blizzard games will be launched exclusively through the Battle.net desktop app.
Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Classes
Mastery: Deep Healing is underwhelming now and looks to fall off with the new WoD Healing Mentality. Thoughts on revamping it??
The new WoD healing world actually significantly increases the value of Deep Healing, since people spend more time at lower health. (Celestalon)
This 5% bonus to a particular stat is an awful idea. You're going to end up balancing around it, and all other stats will suck.
We definitely will be balancing around it (that's the point). That doesn't make the other stats suck, at all. (Celestalon)
What if I want to play survival in PvP, and multistrike is garbage for me and I'd rather have crit?
Then, A) Multistrike will not be garbage for you. We're adding hooks to Multistrike for a bunch if specs, including Survival, ... (Celestalon)
Any better hooks for Protadins? So far it seems the least desirable, along with crit. Was hoping for difficult choices
Multistrike is not the attuned stat for ProtPallies, but MS is still quite strong. It's a neat effect. (Celestalon)
I agree it is neat, just hard to quantify. Are those heals 'from the paladin'? Do they benefit from resolve?
Yes. Yes. (Celestalon)
Will show up as being cast by the ProtPally, for ease of quantifying via logs. (Celestalon)
Isn't an absorb functional healing, by that logic?
Absorbs and heals are indeed very similar. The biggest thing is that absorbs exceed MaxHP. (Celestalon)
You could say that heal-absorbs bypass 0HP, I suppose, but that rarely happens, and bad when it does (Celestalon)
So, we get a new glyph slot at 25, 50 and 75. Another one at 100 would be sweet, thoughts?
There's too little competition for good glyph slots as it is. Sure, it'd add character power, but is less interesting choice good? (Celestalon)
wording on the new secondary attunements is odd. As far as I can tell in alpha it's just a flat additive bonus?
No, the wording difference is intentional. It's meant to be taken literally. It's a 5% multiplier on how much of that stay you have. (Celestalon)
Hmm, how come my blood elf MM hunter ends up with 16% crit naked, instead of 11.55% then?
Agi users get 10% extra crit. It's in the patch notes. (Celestalon)
I'm aware of that. Not sure I can be clear on twitter...
it's all sources of the combat rating. We normally refer to that as 'from gear' in tooltips, even though thats not precisely accurate (Celestalon)
Oh, how about mastery? Mastery raid buff, unlike the others, technically gives rating.
Yes. It is inconsistent, but that's the price we pay for not having a single Mastery %. (Celestalon)
Death Knight (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Necrotic Strike removal feels like a heavy pvp nerf for UnH DK in pvp. Is this going to be compensated elsewhere?
It's purely a damage change; we haven't fine tuned damage yet; we will. (Celestalon)
Necrotic strike is not redundant in PvP. But I guess you don't care
In terms of gameplay it was. There is no point that you'd use NS if it didn't do more damage. (Celestalon)
How is it no gameplay? Added a unique mechanic that made DKs work in pvp. Just dark paladins now.
What gameplay do you see? A heal absorb is strictly worse than damage, with no usage difference. (Celestalon)
and not for nothing, you're wrong saying that necrotic and scourge were redundant. They're 2 totally different spells
How are they different, gameplay-wise? Virtually nothing; one corner case made SS better, actually. (Celestalon)
SS is the unholy version of frosts obliterate....so it's just a heavy hitting strike....totally different from necrotic
No, that's not what it does. It absorbs the next X healing, which is functionally identical to deals X damage. (Celestalon)
(except it can't actually kill, so is strictly worse) (Celestalon)
doesn't ns add to the skillcap of DKs? Like knowing when to NS and when to deal actual damage?
One does a tiny bit more damage at Celestalon)
to counter NS stack. It's not stupid STUN MS CS SLAM SLAM SLAM gameplay.
There's no more cast speed debuff. It's just a heal absorb, which is functionally damage. (Celestalon)
so then get rid of ms debut abilities across the board according to that logic
A heal absorb is *not* a mortal strike debuff. Very different functionality. (Celestalon)
I can understand feedback that you liked the interaction of Necrotic with Soul Reaper. (holinka)
But I find the argument that this hurts DK's competitiveness lacking. (holinka)
Why does blood and unholy have frost fever and frost have blood plague? They do nothing synergetic with the spec
Diseases are a strong defining characteristics of Death Knights as a whole, not just certain specs. (Celestalon)
2h frost ignores blood plague ? Will it just be continuously buffed to stay in the rotation
2H Frost's use of Blood Plague (or lack thereof) is something we're watching for, and will adjust if necessary. (Celestalon)
that is fair, but why? What ultimate goal does having blood plague up as frost. It's just simply damage.
Adds rotational depth; another ball to juggle, but an easy one. (Celestalon)
Druid (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
"Mastery will work regardless of form." Bear form thrash gets benefit then? Do we still have that?
Unless it turns out to be a problem (like if it became worth it to maintain that for max DPS or something silly), yes. (Celestalon)
If that ends up being optimal, we'll fix it. Don't worry, we won't make it optimal to form-dance for Thrash. (Celestalon)
figure some other interesting gameplay mechanic to take snapshots place for specs like that.
But Eclipse snapshotting is the whole point of having DoTs on moonkin. Removing with that would remove timing mattering. (Celestalon)
Not loving the newest resto druid changes, especially wild mushrooms. Just my grain of salt.
The thought with Mushroom is that it fills the same burst AoE healing roll as Genesis. (Celestalon)
Q on the Shooting Stars change: If I have a MF on a target then cast SF on same, do my MF ticks still have a chance to proc SS?
Yes. It's triggered by most recent Moonfire and most recent Sunfire. (Celestalon)
Have you considered removing the GCD off Incarnation:Tree So we can use defensive cds & return to healing immediately?
It has a GCD because it conveys the benefits of shapeshifting. (Celestalon)
Hunter (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Would you consider reducing the spawn timer for tameable rare mobs? The Evalcharr has a 32-48 hour spawn timer for some reason..
They were reduced significantly in Cataclysm, it's not that long anymore (Muffinus)
Some Gyreworm's are labeled as "Beasts" and are apart of the worm family, might we see them made tame-able in the future?
I could get on board with that (Muffinus)
Any chance for L90 Hunter talents to be rebalanced so Glaive Toss is not the obvious best talent anymore?
Tuning like that will come later. (Celestalon)
Mage (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Will Unstable Magic proc Ignite for Fireball? If not, worried it will be near useless for Fire due to low DPET of Fireball.
Not sure yet, but we'll tune it to not be useless. (Celestalon)
Where is the mage Self-Sustainability? We keep getting the short end of the stick so far In WoD...
Mages already have enough in that realm. Several talents/glyphs, and the obvious Conjure Food. (Celestalon)
Conjure Food is far from lackluster at this task. Mages didn't need help in this regard. (Celestalon)
Why are Mages missing from the self-sustainability section despite us having crap soloing ability outside of Frost?
Several appropriate talents, glyphs, and Conjure Food. (Celestalon)
Seriously, no. "Self-Sustainability" section is about ten classes getting buffs to baseline skills. Where's mine?
Mages needed no changes in this regard. (Celestalon)
Even after the removal of Glyph of Evocation and the Healing Touch from Symbiosis? I'd just want replacements
a Glyph of Evo wasn't removed; was changed to Ice Block. (Celestalon)
What is the intent behind removing direct damage of combustion?
Simplify. It's the same damage, and the DD wasn't important. More pure purpose. (Celestalon)
Monk (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Increased Crit for Brewmasters? Crit still doesn't have a real defensive value for Brewmasters in serious progression...
Elusive Brew is of massive value, especially in progression. (Celestalon)
Paladin (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
If Multistrike doesn't proc mastery why would you want the stat as Ret? It would be a worse version of Mastery.
Because Mastery can proc Multistrikes. It isn't underpowered, it just doesn't double-dip. (Celestalon)
Can Multistrike procc vom Censure, Light's Hammer and Execution Sentence?
If it can crit, it can Multistrike. Everything single-dips (not double-dips) on Multistrike. (Celestalon)
triggers from should be able to trigger it (HoL) even if it's a MS. This can easily make MS bad for rets.
That's exactly how it works. (Celestalon)
Wait, which is it? MS from CS/TV/etc trigger HoL or HoL can MS but MS CS/etc don't trigger HoL. Confused.
TV. TV-HoL. TV-MS. TV-MS-HoL. TV-MS. TV-MS-HoL. That's what a double-multistriking TV looks like. (Celestalon)
re: Judgments of Bold removed. Is Judgments of Wise still in? Prot will still get HoPow from judgment, yeah?
Both still get HoPo from Judge. It's just baseline to their Judge. (Celestalon)
Still wondering what place HoW has in protection paladin kit.
Extra damage and HoPo in execute range. (Celestalon)
A) Will there be a better hook for crit/parry for paladins? Grand Crusader working off 60% parry vs 30% since dodge is dead?-c-
Grand Crusader will proc from any avoid. (Celestalon)
Oh so 100% parry unlike 30% in MoP? That is considerably better!
No, I'm not talking about the proc chance, just what can proc it. (Celestalon)
Avoids being..parry and dodge? Is nothing changing regarding Grand Crusader? If so very sad face. The dodge part seems misplaced
And miss too. The ability to raise dodge/parry was replaced with crit->parry. What's your concern? (Celestalon)
Priest (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Power Word: Shield castable in shadowform yes/no?
Yes. (Celestalon)
Shaman (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
figures I hear this after stating it'd be close to unanimous with people disliking a big focus on auto attacks
Unleash Elements and Windfury both still give you the flurry of white attacks. Flurry was mostly passive. Usually up. (Celestalon)
Did you consider the interation between ES and Stormstrike before making the shock change to enhancement?
Yes, we did. We'll adjust damage as necessary. (Celestalon)
Will Frozen Power remain unchanged with this change to Frost Shock?
Currently, yes. (Celestalon)
Warrior (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
If Glad Stance is a forgoing of Tank, why can't we switch at least into it? Will it be a true DPS spec in that stance? dont get
It's a true DPS spec, yes. (Celestalon)
and crit is neither of our 'promoted stat'. Not to mention propose tier bonuses, keeping GC 'up' seems unlikely vs 25% Slam
1) Which is why I said we'd likely change it to avoid. More consistent and recognizable that way. (Celestalon)
2) Yes, a chance on a chance can feel bad; we don't do it often, and prefer not to when we have alternatives. In this case it's best (Celestalon)
Character / Items
BMAH is ineffectual. It was a good idea, but has too few goods with huge prices.
If the prices are huge, doesn't that mean that it's working effectively, by definition? (Celestalon)
any chance of adding items at random intervals through the day with random end times, instead of 12am-ish?
Yes, that's something we're looking into. (WatcherDev)
So about that old-LFR loot: will the class restrictions remain on e.g. spirit gear? Would like to xmog on my Mage. Not allowed.
We're removing the equip restrictions on old LFR Dragon Soul gear, yes. (WatcherDev)
Any chance PVP MH/OH and staves will give same stats in WoD? Prefer staves, but 165 int is better than a graphic.
I believe we aren't planning to do an OH enchant anymore. So yes. confirm? (Celestalon)
Warlords of Draenor Stats
Versatility=good shared stat on my gear so i can share between say holy and ret? Not top dps but good for every spec?
Yup. (Celestalon)
In WoD if a multistrike procs off a crit, does it do 30% of the crit? Can a MS proc crit? Or is it 30% of base no crit chance?
The triggering attack's damage, and whether it crit, has no impact on the damage of the MS, or whether it crits. 100% separate (Celestalon)
PvP
"enhancements to Arena and Rated Battleground enemy unit frames designed to relay key information more clearly." still planned?
unfortunately no (holinka)
Hey Holinka, is there any possibility of adding a "tome of the honorable" to allow us to honor farm for alts using our mains?
There really isn't. We prefer you play the character that you want gear on. (holinka)
You should remove the you can't gain points if your mmr isn't in range of your cr for RBG's. +0's are common for top players
Then boosting exploits would return. No thanks. (holinka)
that's true but I'm sure there is room for improvement
Yes there is. (holinka)
Garrisons
What is a follower prestige level? Is it just a placeholder?
Followers, like battle pets, can be common, uncommon, rare, etc. They get more abilities/traits with prestige level. (Muffinus)
Cool. Also any chance you could give us an example what a gold chest rewards?
Gold chests contain the best stuff. (Muffinus)
Any chance one of our garrison outposts or garrison can have a Watch Tower or a Cannon tower?
Actively discussing active defenses during invasions, def. want to fulfill some of these fantasies! (Muffinus)
Fan Art Update
Blizzard recently featured some fan art by Ken Liu.