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Patch 4.2 Will Allow Players to Group With Friends Across Realms
One of the more interesting features that's been requested since Real ID was implemented has been a way to actually group with your Real ID friends. It seems that Blizzard intends to make this possible fairly soon as it will be available on the PTR for testing this patch. It's worth noting that some features of the system will require what Blizzard vaguely refers to as a "premium" service, indicating a fee of some sort.
With this feature on the way, you have to wonder if they'll make cross factions available with cross server groups. Right now, the answer seems to a resounding no; the feature will only support same faction groups. So unfortunately, if your friends are Horde and you're Alliance, it will be largely worthless. Of course, with instances like the WotLK faction specific ones, it's probably quite a headache to code and it's development time better spent elsewhere. Still, I'd love to run a ZG/ZA with Perculia for once!
With the continued popularity of the Dungeon Finder, many players have been asking for a way to group up with real-life friends who play on other realms to take on instances together. Today, we wanted to give you a head
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Ask the Devs #7 Answered, Firelands Next Topic
Blizzard have just posted the answers to their latest installment of Ask the Devs focusing on
Professions
! Not a whole lot of definite details, unfortunately, just a bunch of "yes we're going to add more fun stuff" and "yes we know some professions kinda suck and we're looking at changing that." Still, positive notes all around! We may have new profession daily quests to look forward to in the future (including Archaeology ones!) and Blizzard confirmation that
Chaos Orb
will indeed be unbound in a future patch (as most similar tradeskill reagents have been in the past).
The next topic should be an exciting one:
Firelands
! Hopefully we'll find out some awesome new details about the upcoming 4.2 raid!
Check out the full results of Blizzard's seventh Q+A after the break!
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Brand New Hairstyles on the 4.2 PTR
A number of races got additional hairstyles on the PTR this weekend! We’ve taken advantage of the race/faction changing-options to find out what exactly you can get on the PTR: we've got screenshots and names of all the available cosmetic options.
Of course, there’s been hairstyles on previous PTRs that weren’t implemented, but with so many additions, hopefully some will stay--these seem to be generating quite a buzz, so maybe it will even encourage Blizzard to add more. We'll keep updating if more customizations become available.
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Dungeon Journal Preview: All Seven Firelands Encounters Unveiled
The PTR updated this weekend with the encounter journal. The developers at Wowhead have been working on integrating it into our database entries and it's an exciting feature you should see soon. However, in this case, soon isn't enough: you probably want to see it right now. Well, you can! With the help of volunteers ArgentSun, Perculia, and Remnath, I've transcribed the data you care about--
Firelands
!
Below are the encounter journals for all seven bosses in the zone (plus Occu'thar in Baradin Hold), so tread lightly if spoilers scare you. Of course, if you're into seeing what you'll be facing on 4.2, go and indulge yourself. It's worth it. Ragnaros is the best looking fight in particular; it's epic on a level that
Alone in the Darkness (25 player)
was in
Ulduar
and quite similar in design, too. During the fight on heroic mode, you will face an additional stage in which you will be aided by three familiar friends: Cenarius, Arch Druid Hamuul Runetotem, and Malfurion Stormrage. It sounds a lot like the Keepers in Ulduar.
Anyway, if these journals are any indication, this dungeon should cure a lot of burnout players have been facing. And hey, who knows, maybe those ~600,000 subscribers Blizzard "lost" will come back on patch d
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Get Ready for WoW's 7th Anniversary: A Guide to Collecting Tabards
With
WoW's 8th Anniversary
datamined on the PTR, it’s time to give tabards another look. If this goes live, it appears that for this year’s anniversary you can transform the appearance of your tabard, possibly into ones you’ve previously obtained. And even if this goes the way of the dance studio, it’s still a good time to brush up on available tabard options with the new achievement
Thirty Tabards
in patch 4.1.
This guide is organized by tabards that were introduced in each expansion as well as the means for obtaining them. When changing factions, many tabards will convert accordingly as we’ve noted below. Also, if you destroy some tabards (PvP, BC reputation, select achievement rewards), they can be obtained again from
Tabard Vendors
in major cities. Some rare tabards cannot be replaced and we’ve noted them as such. Other common tabards for Wrath/Cataclysm are cheap and you can simply buy them back for a few silver from their respective quartermasters.
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PST - Episode 29
This week:
How can I tell if my DPS is slacking?
Why only dual spec?
Why does Blizzard let new 85s gear up so quickly now?
What defines 'casual'?
Would 'casual legendaries' that are replaced by raiding gear be acceptable?
Has the dungeon finder made recruitment harder?
Why do we have both Dodge and Parry?
How can I know when my guild is ready to start raiding?
Do Conquest points reset with a new patch?
What do the different colors of Tier 12 armor mean?
What's with the staring contest going on behind you?
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4.2 PTR Patch Notes Updated (5/13)
General
All existing Valor Points in the Currency tab have been converted to Justice Points.
Achievements
Bear-ly Made It
(new achievement): Save all four prisoners before they are sacrificed in Zul'Aman on Heroic difficulty.
Classes: General
Players are once again free to dance in combat (without causing graphic errors). Other animations, such as attacks, will take precedence over dancing. The dance animation will be suppressed until the higher priority animation is complete. Fun has been unnerfed.
Druid
Glyphs
Glyph of Ferocious Bite has been redesigned. It now causes Ferocious Bite to heal the caster for 1% of maximum health for each 10 energy used.
Paladin
Talent Specializations
Holy
has been redesigned. It still reduces the mana cost of Exorcism. However, it no longer has a chance on Holy Shock of making Exorcism free and instant. Instead, it has a 50/100% chance to prevent the Exorcism target from causing critical effe
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Patch 4.2 - PTR Build 14107 - Achievements, Spell Changes, Items, and More
Another patch on the PTR just in time for Friday. There's tons of stuff, but the most important thing we have is that we think we've figured out the proc of
Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest
from our spells in our database.
This is purely speculation and is subject to change, so take it with a grain of salt, but I wouldn't be surprised if we're right.
It looks like you gain an aura (
Tarecgosa Legendary Aura
) and it duplicates your harmful spells sometimes:
Wrath of Tarecgosa
. Their damage appears as
Wrath of Tarecgosa
which is arcane damage.
Other notable finds
:
WoW's 7th anniversary might have a little more than just a vanity pet or a feat of strength:
WoW's 8th Anniversary
! You will most likely be able to change the appearance of your tabard so you aren't stuck wearing the same old one for its benefits.
Pet collectors are going to be very happy with 4.2 it looks like.
Menagerie
will introduce the return of
Magical Pet Biscuit
from the TCG. There will also be
Littlest Pet Shop
which will reward a new pet:
Nuts
.
Achievement hunters should be happy, too: from achievements for Zul'Aman that should have existed ([achi
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Patch 4.2: Tier 12 Armor Sets for Shaman and Warlock
Shaman and Warlock tier 12 were just shared with us this morning--the Shaman set has particularly awesome shoulders! Be sure to check out our previews of
the tier 12 color variations
and
the official tier 12 previews
from the past few weeks if you're interested.
Blizzard Entertainment
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News Roundup: New Tier Set Bonuses, Holy Paladin Nerfs, and Dancing
Zarhym's been a busy community manager today, posting in threads about everything from dancing to tier 12 set bonuses. If you recall last week,
we datamined the tier 12 set bonuses from the PTR
, and it generated a lot of buzz. Of course, they weren't balanced; some of them were very underwhelming and others were simply overpowered. As such, Blizzard's been looking into it this week and they have some solid revisions to offer already. They can't possibly be the final ones, though--Holy paladins would have a decent set bonus if that were true and you know Blizzard isn't
that
nice about tier sets for the class! (Kidding. Sort of.)
Other notable threads included a justification for Holy paladin mana changes in 4.2 and a thread about dancing in combat. Because dancing in combat is important.
New Tier Set Bonuses
We've seen a lot of discussion and debate over the new set bonuses. Just so everyone is aware, we're still assessing the set bonuses for tier 12 as we go through more testing and gathering more feedback.
To give you a heads up on what we'r
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Patch 4.2: Lord Rhyolith PTR Strategies and Preview
Today on PTR we got some time with the newly renamed
Lord Rhyolith
. He's a well-tuned encounter and one we preferred to yesterday's boss,
Beth'tilac
. Some of his mechanics were refreshing, particularly in the way you actually controlled him, and we managed to test both phases of the fight thoroughly. If you've done
Supremus
or
Kologarn
, you'll find some elements from those bosses borrowed and rehashed with
Lord Rhyolith
.
Phase one starts out different from most fights as there is no need to tank him. He ambles around slowly and does not attack directly; instead, the real threat is where he intends to walk. Consequently, you'll need to steer him where you want him to path by attacking his left and right legs--applying DPS to the leg in which direction you want him to turn. We found it best to only have two or three melee on him at most communicating on ventrilo where they wanted him to turn and calling out switches. There is also a bar on the screen the indicates how much in the respective direction Rhyolith will be turning to help you out.
Your immediate goal in steering him is to make sure that he stays
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BFF Report - Ep 67 - Spiral Knights
Spiral Knights is a recently released java based hack n' slash/dungeon crawler from Three Rings and SEGA. Last time I played a SEGA game was.. a while ago. Initially, I was a bit of a skeptic getting into Spiral Knights, but now.. pfftt I'm still a skeptic, no game is going to change that :P
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Patch 4.2: Beth'tilac PTR Strategies and Preview
The PTR was open today for testing on Firelands 10-man and we were able to get some time with
Beth'tilac
. Unfortunately the US servers got a lot less time with this boss than EU and we only got eight or so attempts in before the server was shut down.
Beth'tilac
is the spider boss
first previewed by Blizzard
at the end of April. She ended up being a fairly simple fight. Of course, as usual for the PTR, she was untuned and will most likely change in the future. The encounter has two easily defined phases: the first is a kiting phase, the second is a burn phase. For phase one, you split into groups for below her web and on top of it; for phase two, everyone groups up underneath her web and you must kill her before her increasing damage is too high while dealing with a debuff similar to
Gluth
's
Mortal Wound
.
Overall, it's a fun introductory fight and seems to serve well as a gear check for the zone.
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Latest Cataclysm Hotfixes (5/11)
May 5-11
General
There were several situations on transports or moving objects where players were receiving Movement Enforcement Error messaging, which should now be corrected.
Players using Mobile Guild Chat should no longer sometimes receive error messages incorrectly stating they are not in a guild.
Mail sent from the Auction House should no longer sometimes display incorrect information about the transaction. This also applies to those using the Mobile Auction House.
Parties will no longer disband immediately after all members log out. There is now a 5-minute grace period before the group is disbanded.
Classes
Characters who are resurrected by a player on a moving platform should now be transferred to the caster’s world position, rather than the location they were in when the spell was first cast.
Select classes are no longer able to aggro and pull a single enemy NPC from a linked group through various measures of sneakiness.
Druid
Stampeding Roar
(Cat) should always properly
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4.2 PTR Patch Notes Updated - Firelands Testing Now Available, Many Major Changes!
The 4.2 PTR Patch Notes have been updated with some major changes, including a ton of new class changes and some very interesting general changes to some common game mechanics! Also, someone might want to mention the Blizzard that Hysteria was removed... (sillies!)
Highlights include:
Major
Druid
changes including buffs to Feral DPS, adjusting Balance DPS rotation / spell triggering and a new Restoration Mastery!
All pets' Aggressive stance has been removed (yay!) and replaced with the Assist stance, which causes the pet to attack the player's target.
Many
Paladin
healing spells have had their mana costs increased.
Daily and weekly guild experience caps have been increased by 25%.
The Firelands
, a new 10 and 25-player raid, is now available for limited testing!
As always, you can check out the full, Wowhead-linkified PTR patch notes on Wowhead!
http://www.wowhead.com/patchnotes=4.2.0-ptr
Read on for the full 4.2 PTR patch notes update!
Classes
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News Roundup: Dragonwrath Legendary Staff Clarifications, 4.2 Firelands Preview Updated
Just a small handful of Blizzard posts today, as it's the start of the week and we haven't been completely flooded with new info from the Blues (though there have been many welcome additions in the latest PTR patches, as I'm sure you guys have noticed)! As expected, most of the forum discussion has focused around
Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest
since it has finally been datamined (with its datamined stats). I'd like to take this moment to remind you guys that (as always)
everything
that has been datamined from the PTR files is subject to change. All of it. Even the things Blizzard says themselves in their patch notes is subject to change. Remember that the Public Test Realms are just that -
test
realms - and that you may not be seeing the final version of some of these awesome items which are planned to go live. :)
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Maingear's New Tier of Gear Contest Final Winners Announced
A huge thanks to everyone who entered our recent
Maingear's New Tier of Gear Contest
for making a great success, and congratulations to all of our winners! We have the final three winners to announce today, including the lucky users walking away with first prize and grand prize and another great daily prize winner!
Our grand prize winner won a decked-out
Maingear
F131 desktop computer
and better get ready for some hardcore World of Warcraft gaming sessions!
First prize winner won an epic
Razer
combo featuring a
Razer Naga™ Epic Mouse
and a
Razer Megalodon™ Headset
!
Contest winners include:
Grand Prize
[url=
http://www
.
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Druid Tier 12 Preview and Other 3D Models
We have a preview of Druid Tier 12 armor up as well as some more 3D models to share with you from the PTR. Remember to view it in our model viewer through the java option rather than flash if you want to see particle effects and details--this feature recently received an overhaul so they're looking even better than before.
For items, maps, icons and spell changes from this build that hit earlier today, you can
check them out here
.
Druid Tier 12
Other Models
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Patch 4.2 - PTR Build 14040 - New Items, Spell Changes, Icons, and Maps
After an agonizingly slow Monday, Tuesday picks up the pace with another patch for the PTR. The legendary's stats are finally datamined, over fifty new items are in our database (including more tier previews), and we've got a lot of spell changes to show you as well.
Latest Additions
Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest
has appeared, sadly with hit rating and no proc yet (this is intended so we can't spoil ourselves too badly). It also looks like the legendary's other phases--
Branch of Nordrassil
and
Runestaff of Nordrassil
--are very nice items so the staff grows with you as you get into heroic progression like how
Shadow's Edge
was useful.
Avengers of Hyjal
is confirmed as a faction and has some rewards listed! Keep in mind it's likely that each class gets its own rewards and ones haven't been tied in for other roles than tanks.
Durable Flamewrath Greatcloak
Girdle of the Indomitable Flame
Stay of Execution
Adamantine Signet of the Avengers
Engineers get a new gun to make with some awesome flavor text:
Extreme-Impact Hole Puncher
!
If you needed another reason to love Blizzard,
Ragnar-O's
might work.
Tons of [url=http:
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World of Warcraft's Subscribers Decline and Blizzard Promises Quicker Expansions
Today's
Activision Blizzard earnings call
touched on quite a lot of World of Warcraft and its future as well as a little bit of Diablo III news.
During the call, Blizzard Entertainment's CEO mentioned that subscriber levels had fallen down to 11.4 million this March from its former peak of 12 million. Initially, this seems staggering, but it's important to remember that subscriber levels do not decline linearly and tend to fluxuate. Furthermore, it actually makes quite a bit of sense given two factors: RIFT's launch in March and the absense of a major content patch at that point of time. The new and shiny feeling of Catalysm was disappearing by March and we've only just gotten a new patch a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, 4.1 was fairly light on content for a patch--luckily Firelands will be this summer and it looks much beefier, so it's likely a lot more people will resubscribe to check it out at that point.
In response to the declining subscriber levels, Blizzard has
made some promises for WoW development speeds
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