zarhym
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No nerfs, no lockouts, no consumable restrictions for Challenge Mode dungeons
Blizzard's Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas, a.k.a. Watcher, has taken to the forums a few times lately, along with Community Manager Zarhym, to provide clarification on Challenge Modes. With all the bad air swirling around Blizzard from certain minority groups within the WoW community about catering to casuals, challenge modes are something they seem very keen to stand firm on. When asked if challenge modes would ever be nerfed, Ion replied as follows: Watcher If at all feasible, we're not going to be adjusting the content itself. Persistent leaderboards are the backbone of the system, and if we make the dungeon easier, then your 14:13 time last week might actually be more impressive than my 14:05 clear today, but there would be no way of knowing that. It's conceivable that we might adjust the actual Gold/Silver/Bronze cutoff times slightly if it turns out we were badly off the mark with the tuning, but we're pretty confident in our numbers. source Zarhym also weighed in with his own input on the nerf question.
Best Buy hosting Mists of Pandaria Developer chat on Tuesday, Sep. 18
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. 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!
Reddit AMA transcript now available
Yesterday, several members of the Warcraft development team had a massive AMA on Reddit. AMA stands for Ask Me Anything -- and players responded with a deluge of questions on everything from Cross-Realm zones to story and lore. For the sake of convenience, Blizzard put together a transcript of the entire post on their website earlier today. The questions and answers are separated by the designer who answered them. Game Director Tom Chilton focused on PvP, gameplay systems, cross-realm zones, character models and development timelines. Lead Quest Designer Dave Kosak focused on lore, novels, characters, and quest and zone design. Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas focused on dungeons and raids as well as loot and talent systems and endgame progression. And of course Lead Systems Designer Greg Street focused on classes, as well as gameplay systems, cross-realm zones, and dungeons and raids. There is a ton of information contained in the AMA, including some clarification on the purpose and mechanics of Cross-Realm zones, something that a lot of people have been wondering about. Check out the full transcript for an information overload of Warcraft goodies. 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!
Reddit AMA with WoW developers today
Community Manager Zarhym will be hosting an AMA (or Ask Me Anything) in /r/WoW on Reddit this evening at 5:30 p.m. PDT (8:30 p.m. EDT). Joining him will be Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street, Dave Kosak, Tom Chilton, and Ion Hazzikostas. For those who don't know, an AMA is where you post questions for the people participating and they are supposed to answer them all -- or as many as possible in the time allotted. Because this will be a heavily attended session, they will be answering the questions that are upvoted the most. WoW Insider will be monitoring the AMA, so we'll keep you posted on any important news items that arise. Zarhym's post with all the details is after the break.
Zarhym wins Community Manager of the Year at Dragon*Con 2012
Jonathan Brown, a.k.a. Zarhym, a.k.a. that lovable floating skull at Blizzard HQ, won Community Manager of the Year at the Dragon Slayer Awards at Dragon*Con 2012. This was the inaugural edition of the awards, presented by Guild Launch, and had over 250,000 votes cast. Zarhym was unable to accept the award himself, since he was on the other side of the country at PAX, but Game Designer Jonathan LeCraft was able to accept on his behalf. You can read what Zarhym had to say about winning the award over at his Tumblr, and The Daily Blink weights in on the award as well. We here at WoW Insider extend our congrats to Zarhym, and hope you'll join us in doing so. He's been a great part of the community for a long time, and is wonderful to work with. Cheers!
Visit Blizzard CMs at PAX Prime
No, Blizzard doesn't have a booth of its own at PAX Prime in Seattle, but that doesn't mean you can't catch up with some of our favorite CMs there. There will be four -- count them, four -- Blizzard CMs making an appearance at the con. Nethaera and Vaeflare will be at the NVIDIA booth, and Zarhym and Bashiok are hanging out at the Intel booth. So if you're at the con, there is absolutely no reason you shouldn't head over and say hi. Just check out the testimonials. You don't get that kind of floating skull satisfaction without doing something right, people. With there being no BlizzCon this year, how many chances are you going to have to meet cool folks who work on the game? 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!
World of Warcraft Facebook takes 12-day journey into Mists of Pandaria
If you're on Facebook, for 12 days starting Sept. 12, you can catch exclusive content for the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion. And if you're an artist, you could even see a piece of your art win one of 12 slots as an exclusive cover image. If you're interested, submit your art to promotions@blizzard.com by Sept. 7. Zarhym has the scoop for those of us interested in getting our art included, and also what we'll be able to find on the World of Warcraft Facebook page for those 12 days. Zarhym - Twelve-Day Journey into the Mists of Pandaria It won't be long until the adventure through the exotic land of Pandaria begins. To count down the moments before you arrive at this new frontier, we'll be sharing exclusive content on our World of Warcraft Facebook page every day for 12 days until Mists of Pandaria launches. Beginning September 14, visit our Facebook timeline for exclusive music, videos, behind-the-scenes interviews, Warcraft hero bios, desktop wallpapers, and more. To give our Facebook timeline a little extra flavor during the 12-day countdown, we'll be featuring exclusive cover images from the artists among you! Just follow the formatting instructions below and submit your artwork to promotions@blizzard.com by September 7 for a chance to be featured as one of the twelve World of Warcraft cover images of the day. Cover Image Guidelines: Artists should submit pieces in the optimal cover image resolution (851 x 315 pixels), place the World of Warcraft logo in the top right corner, and preferably sign their name in the bottom right corner. Use our current cover image as a reference for logo placement. Our standard fan art terms apply to all submissions we receive. We look forward to seeing what you create! Prepare yourselves... the journey begins soon. source 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!
Vote for the community in the Dragon Slayer awards at Dragon*Con
World of Warcraft has a large presence in the online gaming community, and that presence is you guys, the people playing the game, reading about it and discussing it. Now, our friend Zarhym the floating, burning skull reminds us all that we can vote for WoW in the Dragon Slayer awards. You can even vote for yourselves in the Most Passionate Fan Base category. As someone who writes about this game and has spent years interacting with you, I think you guys definitely count as passionate. You should totally vote for yourselves. Also, vote for Zarhym for Community Manager of the Year, since he asked nicely and he reminds me of Morte from Planescape: Torment. Community spirit isn't something WoW players lack, in my opinion. With the Dragon Slayer awards being aimed directly at community, here's a chance to show it off. The awards will be presented Sept. 2 at this year's Dragon*Con, which runs from Aug. 31 to Sept. 3. 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!
Blizzard lists external resources for WoW players
If you're just getting back into WoW or are looking at the patch 5.0.4 tsunami heading our way next week and wondering what to do, our friend Zarhym has a list of popular resources, fansites and other websites for you to peruse. None of these are run by Blizzard, but they are all sites that focus on the World of Warcraft in one way or another, be they databases like Wowhead or helpful strategy guide sites like Learn to Raid. If you're looking for a site, the complete list is below so you can see if it matches your needs. I especially like that WoW Insider site. They're so dreamy. Zarhym - World of Warcraft Fansites & Other Resources For those of you seeking to enhance your World of Warcraft experience, connect with your peers; quickly search vast quest, item, and achievement databases; and much more, we've put together a list below of popular external resources operated by your fellow members of the community. These are quality content-driven sites that we feel are very beneficial to you as a player. Keep in mind that these websites are not owned or operated by Blizzard Entertainment, and we don't control or endorse all information found on them. This list is also not exhaustive. We'll be expanding on this list as necessary over time to provide you with the best, most up-to-date community resources. /r/WoW - official reddit community Arena Junkies - PvP gameplay & strategy BlizzPlanet - news; editorial Curse - news; UI addon database GuildOx - guild ranks & stats How to Priest - priest gameplay & strategy Learn to Raid - news; strategy MMO Champion - news; database TankSpot - news; strategy Ten Ton Hammer - news; editorial WarCraft Pets - pets & companions database Wow Achievements - achievements database & ranks WoW insider - news; editorial WoW Interface - UI addon database Wowhead - news; database Wowpedia - wiki database source 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!
No Spirit of Competition reward this year
Zarhym broke the news to us via his usual gentle tweeting: There's no Spirit of Competition for this year's Olympics. It's understandable that pretty much all companion pet development time has gone into things like Mists of Pandaria's pet battles, a whole host of new tameable pets for said system, and so on. It's understandable that people would be bummed, as the Gold Medallion is no longer available within the game -- and thus, if you don't have the Spirit of Competition, you won't be getting one. Perhaps the Spirit of Competition can be brought back as a prize for being the very best, which up to this point no one ever was. 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!
Blizzard soliciting Pandaria class balance feedback
Community Manager Zarhym has posted a thread over on the official forums soliciting player class balance feedback based on their experiences and number crunching in the beta. Mind you, this is not meant to be a simple thread for pleading for buffs to your favorite ability. Blizzard's looking for serious theorycrafters slinging serious math to justify their positions. In addition, while this thread does mean the dev team feels numbers are in a solid place right now, it does not mean beta class balance is done or that further issues won't be addressed. Right now, the devs want to give player beta testers a chance to run wild, crunch numbers, and reconcile their data with Blizzard's data. Read on after the break for the full text of Zarhym's post, and if you have some serious analysis to share, go post in that thread.
Zarhym clarifies the Mists Black Market Auction House
If, like many people, you're looking forward to the Black Market Auction House in Mists of Pandaria, Zarhym has a post for you. Zarhym points out that the BMAH is not intended to be a reliable means to gear up a character. Zarhym - Black Market is starting to go too far No one should count on this even being close to a viable option for gearing up a character. If you can raise that kind of gold in the game, you're going to have much better success paying your way into raids for gear than hoping the right items appear for you in the black market AH (which doesn't include set pieces), hoping you can afford to outbid everyone else on your realm, and hoping you're the last one to bid before the auction ends. Sure, it'll have some of the best rewards for sale. But that doesn't mean it'll be remotely reliable for one person to gear up quickly. It's the black market, after all. :) Ultimately the system is going to benefit the extremely wealthy and the extremely lucky. But in all likelihood the benefits won't at all be consistent, even for those who can pony up the gold. source This is a gold sink, plain and simple. It's a way to bleed off the vast amount of gold some people are acquiring, because when you buy an item from the BMAH, your gold doesn't go to anyone. It's a fancier, more random vendor, and if you're trying to use it to gear up your character, you'd probably get better results with the actual AH. Blizzard seems fine with this not being something designed to benefit most players, and I think that's the best way to approach it. 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!
Thrall may not be the next warchief after all
Zarhym has thrown a spanner in our preconceptions with the following post to the forums, reproduced in its entirety here. Zarhym - Anduin goes Neutral - Really? Posted by Levinthar Erm...He's going back to being warchief of the horde. Which apparently isn't supposed to bother all the alliance that have been working with him for the last few years. I know what was said during the press tour, but don't be so sure yet that you know who the next warchief will be. The information provided during the press tour was... not entirely accurate. source This is very interesting because it creates an entirely new future direction for the Horde. We saw tensions rise between the various factions in Cataclysm, and with Garrosh's ultimate fate not terribly rosy, this leaves us with a potential power vacuum and several individuals who might seek to fill it. Will Sylvanas make a power play? Will Baine, who is seen stretching his muscles in Mists sending missions to Pandaria, repeat his father's course and challenge Garrosh for the throne? Will Vol'jin seek to rule? Will everyone show wisdom and beg Rexxar to become warchief? Time will tell. But for now, get your best crazy speculating hat on. 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!
Latest beta patch raises level cap, opens new dungeons
Earlier today, Mists of Pandaria beta realms were taken offline to deploy a new build -- not terribly exciting information on its own. Test realms are updated all the time. However, Quality Assurance Representative Sapperwix confirmed on the beta forums that today's patch will increase the currently available level cap to 88 and introduce two new dungeons that we haven't yet had an opportunity to test. Pet Battles, however, have not yet been re-enabled. According to a tweet by community manager Zarhym, the dungeons opening up this afternoon are Mogu'shan Palace and the Shado-Pan Monastery. Keep an eye on WoW Insider -- we'll supply you with all of the details as they become available. 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!
Raiding: Weighing the benefits of 25-man raids vs. 10-man raids
According to Wowtrack.com, the number of 25-man raiding guilds is several orders of magnitude smaller than the number of 10-man raiding guilds. Why is Blizzard spending so much effort balancing both the 10- and 25-man raid formats when the 25-man raiding community contains an incredibly low percentage of the raiding population? Blizzard Community Manager Zarhym recently posted this on a forum thread about the subject: Zarhym We'll continue making adjustments as necessary to keep 10- and 25-player raids within a relative alignment, in terms of time investment, difficulty and rewards. It may never be perfect, but we still see interest in both raid sizes for different reasons. And ultimately we'll continue designing 25-player raids as long as there are a decent number of guilds interested in the format. We've seen no evidence as of yet that such interest is waning to any degree that should cause us great concern. We tend to begin raid design around 25 players anyway before tuning for the various sizes and difficulties. That, when combined with our intent to carry on with 25-player Raid Finder group sizes, makes it very much worth our time to continue designing 25-player raids. Regardless of what players' personal preferences or opinions are regarding the varied raid formats in World of Warcraft, we don't see removing options as a smart choice in the foreseeable future. source
Humans and orcs are just the pillars upon which the Alliance and Horde were built
Zarhym hit the forums to clarify an important point that is being lost in recent lore discussions around the internet. Chris Metzen was quoted in a PC Gamer interview: ...the pillars of the franchise are orcs and humans; it really is the Alliance and Horde by extension, and it really is those two groups beating the brains out of each other for an extended period of time. That's always gotta be what Warcraft is about... And as Zarhym entirely correctly points out, it's not just the orcs and humans that are all that matters now, but the entire Alliance and Horde factions that have developed over the course of the franchise's life. Warcraft started with them but has expanded unto everything else. This is also a good opportunity to place front and center the fact that the Warcraft universe is an evolving story. It's not like Lord of the Rings, where everything that is has and (likely/hopefully) ever will be in the universe is already written in stone. Gandalf isn't suddenly going to join forces with the factions of darkness beyond the great sea while Frodo becomes the next Gollum -- but Thrall? Maybe he'll defect to the Alliance some day.* No one knows; it's evolving and ever changing. Zarhym's full statements, after the break.
Raid Finder loot rules changing in patch 4.3.2
Zarhym hit the forums to respond to posts discussing the problems and concerns with the current loot system in the Raid Finder. The Raid Finder loot system currently grants a bonus on need roles to classes that could use the item the best, allowing the right loot to go to the right classes. The loot system also does not currently account for whether a player has the item already equipped or has already won the same item on the same boss, resulting in one player winning two of the same item. Coming up in patch 4.3.2, it will no longer be possible to win two of the same item from the same boss. New loot rules coming so quickly seems to be indicative of Blizzard's position on the Raid Finder and its rules -- fluidity is a good thing. With the Raid Finder, more people are seeing raid content then ever, and these players need a different set of rules and a varied approach opposed to classic raiding. As time goes on, you'll be sure to see more tuning to the Raid Finder rules. Hit the jump for the full post.
Enter to win a World of Warcraft iPhone clip case
How many of you remember the Alliance and Horde iPhone covers community manager Zarhym showed off on his Twitter? Remember how he wasn't sure what to do with them? Good news: On behalf of Blizzard Entertainment, he's given them to us here at WoW Insider to give away to you, our readers. We have four Horde and four Alliance cases to give away. For a chance to win, you need to declare your allegiance in the comments below. Decide which case you'd like to win, and comment with either For the Horde! or Glory to the Alliance! You can only enter once, so choose carefully! One week from today on Wednesday, Nov. 30, we'll pick four random comments from both factions to win their corresponding cover. There are a few other rules, of course. To be eligible to win, you must be 18 years old or older and a legal resident of the United States or Canada (excluding Quebec). See the complete official rules for details.
Class balance questions answered by WoW developers
In just a few moments, Blizzard's second developer Q&A hosted via CoverItLive will begin. Last time around, players were invited to ask questions about all things Mists of Pandaria, and it really went quite well. This afternoon, in a session timed to fit European players' schedules, the Q&A will sharpen its focus and discuss class balance and design. The Q&A will be hosted and moderated by Blizzard Entertainment community managers Zarhym and Bashiok with developers Celestalon, Ghostcrawler, Koraa, Watcher, Wradyx, and Xelnath in attendance as panelists. If you wish to attend the event, the CoverItLive client has been embedded behind the cut below. To participate, you can log into CoverItLive with your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or OpenID credentials. If you don't want to use any of those, you are allowed to sign in as a guest. If you're unable to attend to event at all, don't fret: we'll have a transcript for you right here on WoW Insider once the panel has concluded. Update: The Q&A is now live! Update #2: The Q&A has ended and our transcript will be available shortly. Update #3: Here's our transcript!
Rumored "mass layoffs" at Blizzard never happened
Yesterday, a handful of gaming news sites reported that a senior designer working on the new Titan MMO had gotten laid off by Blizzard Entertainment. In the hours that followed, the internet began conducting an "investigation" via Facebook that revealed tens, if not hundreds of Blizzard employees were just laid off. There's only one problem with the information said investigation dredged up: It's not true. There are no massive layoffs at Blizzard. So says Blizzard itself, via Community Manager Bashiok: mass layoffs at blizz Hey guys, out of respect for their privacy, we don't discuss individual employees, but the speculation circulating about 'massive layoffs at Blizzard' is just a rumor. source Fellow Community Manager Zarhym confirmed the lack of layoffs on his own personal Twitter account, saying that there's "tons of speculation based on false evidence." He went on to explain that the vast majority of people rumored to have been laid off showed up to work today. So rest assured: The sky is not falling. Blizzard employees still have their jobs. Project Titan has not been cancelled. Ghostcrawler is still in the building. And despite what you may have heard from Mr. Feeney's grocer, Cory and Topanga are not adopting a 14-year-old Chinese boy. Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
