blizzcon-11
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12 Days of Winter Veil Giveaway: Mini Tyrael statuette
12 Days of Winter Veil is under way here at WoW Insider. That means 12 days of giveaways, 12 chances for you to win some of the awesome swag we've accumulated over the year. Whether you've been a good goblin or a naughty night elf, there's a chance that WoW Insider has a holiday gift for you this season. Reaching deep into WoW Insider's swag vault, we came across something we've had squirreled away since BlizzCon 2011: a BlizzCon exclusive Mini Tyrael statuette. How he managed to avoid being snatched up for so long, we'll never know. To enter for a chance to win, leave a comment on this post before 11:59 p.m. ET, Friday, January 4, 2013. You must be 18 years of age or older and a legal resident of the United States or Canada (excluding Quebec). You can only enter once. One winner will be chosen at random and we will contact you via whatever method you've used to comment. Official rules here.
BlizzCon 2011: Crafted wands returning to enchanters
During this afternoon's Open Q&A the topic of crafted wands was mentioned at the mic. Will we be seeing crafted wands again? The answer: yes! Wands were a bit of an itemization gap in early Cataclysm and managed to earn the ire of every caster world 'round. We've discussed the possibility of a return to the days of crafted wands right here on WoW Insider, and we're all pretty glad things will be going that way. The deconstruction of the ranged weapon slot in Mists of Pandaria may have had an impact on Blizzard following through on this. Wands are the only weapon type that doesn't have some crafted item in Cataclysm, but wands becoming a primary weapon option for casters makes it that much more important to have crafted options available. The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!
Blizzard Publishing announces two new Pandaren stories and more
New expansions require new lore, especially if it's something we've never before seen. At the Blizzard Publishing: So What's the Story? panel earlier today, it was announced that there would be two new lore releases. The first, Pearl of Pandaria, is a graphic novel written by Micky Neilson. Neilson should be a familiar name, not only is he Senior Writer and Voice Director of Blizzard Entertainment, he also penned the World of Warcraft: Ashbringer comic, and the short story Unbroken. Pearl of Pandaria is a "before" look at the Pandaren – it takes place before the Shattering that raised the mists that cloaked Pandaria from the rest of the world. The second story is called Quest for Pandaria, a four part novella by author Sarah Pine. It will be released on Blizzard's website much like the leader short stories, and it takes up the story after the Shattering and brings it up to speed. Sarah Pine was the winner of the first Blizzard creating writing contest with her story In the Shadow of the Sun, about Lor'themar Theron, and she's also penned the leader short story Garrosh Hellscream: Heart of War. Other interesting tidbits from the panel include a heads up on the Curse of the Worgen graphic novel by Mickey Neilson and James Waugh, which includes five extra pages of story. Those five pages? They're really important, if you like keeping track of the lore -- they tell the story of Velinde Starsong and the Scythe of Elune, which players experienced in World of Warcraft itself. On top of that, Christie Golden is still diligently working on Tides of War, the Jaina Proudmoore novel which will presumably tie into the Pandaria expansion. It's nice to see that the upcoming expansion will see as much attention to story detail as Cataclysm – and that the precedent set by the leader short stories will continue on with more lore on the official Blizzard website as time goes on. The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!
BlizzCon 2011: Cosplay image gallery
Pandas? Pfft. None of you care about pandas. Nerds in costume? That's where it's at, ladies and gentlemen, and I mean that with all sincerity. The costumes are routinely one of the most fascinating aspects of any convention, and ... uh, I'm sorry, sitting here in front of that costume up above is freaking me right the hell out. Enjoy the pictures. %Gallery-137291% Turn to WoW Insider for all your BlizzCon 2011 news and information. Get ready to kick off the weekend with the WoW Insider Reader Meetup, cohosted by Wowhead and Gamebreaker.tv, and look for our liveblogs of the convention panels, interviews with WoW celebrities -- and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!
BlizzCon 2011: Reader meetup recap
This year's reader meetup was our best yet. We hit venue capacity of 2,200 attendees within the first hour of the event, blowing away last year's attendance record by a wide margin. A little over two hours into the six hour event, over 3,000 attendees walked through the doors. After that, we lost count. We only brought 3,000 wrist bands to hand out at the door. Every single one of us at WoW Insider, Wowhead, and Gamebreaker.tv had an absolutely wonderful time meeting and greeting our fans. We gave away countless prizes, drank endless drinks (as you can tell from our attendees' Twitter accounts), and had a generally great time. As we do every year, the moment BlizzCon comes to a close, we're going to buckle down and get to work on next year's event. Your feedback is absolutely welcome. If you didn't get to attend and our livestream last night simply wasn't enough for you, below is our gallery of the reader meetup. %Gallery-137254% The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!
BlizzCon 2011: Goodbye, ranged slot
If you didn't see this coming, you haven't been paying attention: as of Mists of Pandaria and patch 5.0, the ranged slot is being dismantled. Relics are going extinct, hunter ranged weapons will become their only weapons, and wands? Those are main-hand weapons now, too. To be extra clear: Relics are going away Wands become main hand weapons (and will function as wands do now) Hunters can only equip ranged weapons (and hunter minimum range is going away) This is something we've expected for a long time here at WoW Insider, as it's a topic Ghostcrawler discussed at BlizzCon '10. It's a removal of superfluous stat sticks and that's a good thing. None of us will miss our librams with +10 to Character Sheet Clutter and absolutely no visual, no real effect, and no purpose. The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!
BlizzCon 2011: Overview of PVE Scenarios
Mists of Pandaria will introduce Scenarios to give us instances similar to PVE Battlegrounds as well as staged, instanced group quests to revisit older content. These quests are designed for a few players and are intended to be short instances. In order to enter a Scenario, players will queue in something similar to the Dungeon Finder, but will not have to choose a role -- hopefully making the queues very short. Scenarios are designed so that players won't have to designate a tank or healer and still be successful, much like when questing as a group normally. Remember the days of Alterac Valley when the PVE elements were actually used and it wasn't just a PVP zerg? (I miss those days.) The Scenarios like PVE battlegrounds will be very much like Alterac Valley but without the PVP. The group of players will have staged objectives to complete in order to beat the scenario such as killing a number of enemies and capturing towers. This was designed for players who want to experience Battlegrounds but don't like PVP. There will also be staged quests set in familiar locations, such as the Battle of Goldshire. Players and their groupmates will complete the objective of each stage until coming to the final boss. The example given was that the first stage might be to kill 25 kobolds, then you would rescue 4 children in the second stage and finally killing Goldtooth in the third. These will most likely be the replacement for group quests. The rewards for completing Scenarios would include Valor points, much like the new daily quests. This continues Blizzard's goal of most gear being accessible to all players, regardless of playstyle. Remember, all of this may change before launch. The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!
BlizzCon 2011: Mists of Pandaria trailer
For those of you at home who lack livestream access and refuse to believe the whole Pandaria thing until you get to see it with your own eyes ... Well, here you go: the Mists of Pandaria expansion trailer. Turn to WoW Insider for all your BlizzCon 2011 news and information. Look for our liveblogs of the convention panels, interviews with WoW celebrities -- and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!
BlizzCon 2011: Pandaren will be playable by both the Horde and Alliance
The moment we've all dreaded (or eagerly anticipated, that's up to you) is here: The Pandaren will be playable in the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion. Here's the kicker: They'll be playable by both factions, which means Blizzard really has thrown out the silhouette theory it's stood by for years. We saw that coming with transmogrification, though. It isn't much of a surprise. The choice as to whether you're Alliance or Horde doesn't happen at character creation, though. The choice will come after you've played through the introductory quest chain for your character. Once the stage has been set and you see where the lines of war have been drawn, you will choose which faction represents your interests best. Exciting? Oh, yes. Turn to WoW Insider for all your BlizzCon 2011 news and information. Look for our liveblogs of the convention panels, interviews with WoW celebrities -- and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria announced
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria will be the fourth expansion to the game. It was announced today at the opening ceremonies at BlizzCon 2011 in front 26,000 cheering fans. The expansion promises to deliver the next phase in WoW's development, ushering in a new era of quests, raids, PVP, professions, and instances. The major details: New talent system Pandaren race The region of Pandaria New monk class Level cap raised to 90 Dungeon challenge mode PVE Scenarios Pet Battle System Follow us all day for the next few days as we cover BlizzCon from top to bottom! Turn to WoW Insider for all your BlizzCon 2011 news and information. Look for our liveblogs of the convention panels, interviews with WoW celebrities -- and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!
BlizzCon 2011 tickets on sale tomorrow
It's that time of the year again: the time where you sit in front of your computer and hope that you can be one of the lucky ones to get a BlizzCon 2011 ticket. They sell out fast -- usually within the first couple of seconds, so you'll need to be at your computer beforehand and quickly reload the page many times before the sale starts in order to grab a ticket. Each household can order up to four tickets. This first batch will go on sale tomorrow -- Saturday, May 21, 2011, at 1:00 p.m. EDT / 12:00 p.m. CDT / 10:00 a.m. PDT. You can order them from the Blizzard Store at this page. Be sure to log in to the Blizzard Store beforehand, so you'll be all set to go without incident. Another batch of tickets will go on sale May 25. BlizzCon 2011 itself happens Oct. 21 and 22 in Anaheim, California.
BlizzCon 2011 tickets on sale May 21 and 25
Blizzard has announced via the BlizzCon site that tickets for BlizzCon 2011 will be available for purchase in two batches: once on May 21 at 10 a.m. Pacific time, and a second time on May 25 at 7 p.m. Pacific time. The price has increased (again) to $175 per ticket. Virtual tickets will be available for $39.95, the same as last year. Those wishing to attend the charity dinner can do so by purchasing the $500 ticket at Saturday, May 28 at 10 a.m. Pacific time. [EDIT: May 25th ticket sales start at 7 p.m. PT, not 7 a.m. PT.]
BlizzCon 2011 Announced: October 21 and 22
In a surprise move this morning, Blizzard has announced BlizzCon 2011. The event will run on Friday, Oct. 21 and Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011, at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. There has been no other information given on tickets, specific announcements (like the next expansion), musical acts, etc. ... all that will be coming out in the next nine months. In fact, this announcement is by far the earliest the con has ever been announced. The full Blizzard PR statement after the break.
