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Season Two of WoW's Brawler's Guild detailed
Blizzard has broken down the changes coming to Brawler's Guild content in World of Warcraft. Season One achievements (i.e., pre-6.0.2 achievements) will be marked as legacy and will be replaced by new Season Two goals. Additionally, all tiers "have had their boss line-ups remixed," according to today's dev blog. You can read the rest of the changes on WoW's official website.
Brawler's Guild: Season Two
Blizzard has clarified more with what's happening with the Brawler's Guild going into Warlords of Draenor. In a blog post today, Blizzard detailed the following changes: Blizzard Entertainment All Brawler's Guild achievements earned prior to Patch 6.0.2-Season One-will become legacy achievements. New achievements for Season Two will take their place. Rewards earned based on progression will remain available for purchase. The ring reward will be updated in Patch 6.0.2 so that it will have valuable stats for all specializations. The next patch will introduce boss encounters that will be adjusted for level 100 members. Progression has been reverted back to 8 tiers. Bosses that are being removed from previous tiers will be added to the challenge card vendor and become available as you progress. All tiers have had their boss line-ups remixed-for example, Bruce is now a rank 5 boss instead of rank 1. source We knew most of this already, however it's good to reiterate exactly what's on tap for the fight club. Keep in mind that while nothing is getting added immediately, we fully expect Blizzard to add in things as the expansion progresses.
Reminder: Get your content cleared before 6.0.2
Blizzard posted a reminder earlier this week regarding several features that will either be changed or removed from the game entirely in patch 6.0.2. While we don't at present time have a release date set for the introductory patch of Warlords of Draenor, it would still be in your best interests to complete the content now, rather than waiting and possibly missing out for good. And of course, removed content means those achievements you've gathered will be filed away as either Legacy achievements, or Feats of Strength in the upcoming expansion. Challenge Modes should be top priority if you've got your eyes on those Mists of Pandaria sets, because they will no longer be available as of 6.0.2 -- the phoenix mounts will also be going away, although players that have earned one of the mounts will have access to all variations. Players looking for heirloom weapons from Garrosh Hellscream should hop to it, as those will also be removed once Warlords of Draenor is released in November. In addition, the Brawler's Guild will be taking a hiatus once patch 6.0.2 hits -- the bosses and encounters in the Brawler's Guild will be re-tuned for level 100. However, if you've already gained access to the Brawler's Guild, you'll still retain that access when the new expansion launches -- no need to dig up another invite. Lastly, if you have not started the legendary cloak quest chain by patch 6.0.2, you'll no longer be able to obtain it. Players already on the chain will still retain the quests, although they will be slightly altered, as the section of the chain that requires players to collect Valor Points will be gone altogether with the removal of Valor Points in 6.0.2. For more information on changes and removals with the arrival of both patch 6.0.2 and Warlords of Draenor itself, take a look at Blizzard's full post on the official site.
Patch 6.0.2: No Brawler's Guild until Warlords
If you're still working on your Brawler's Guild achievements, get a move on - you have until Patch 6.0.2 to get that all done, because as soon as that drops, the Brawler's Guild will be closed until Warlords of Draenor comes out. Blizzard - Patch 6.0.2 patch notes Season 1 of the Brawler's has come to a close and associated achievements have been converted into Feats of Strength. Fights will be unavailable while the Brawler's Guild is being refitted in preparation for Season 2 (available after Warlords of Draenor has launched.) Account-wide membership in Brawler's Guild will carry over to Season 2. Once a brawler, always a brawler! source All current Brawler's Guild achievements will become Feats of Strength, and the fights won't be accessible until we get all new ones for Warlords of Draenor. But if you're a member, you don't have to worry about getting another invite, at least -- membership is for life.
Breakfast Topic: What's on your Mists of Pandaria bucket list?
Siege of Orgrimmar has been out for 3 months, Warlords of Draenor has been announced, and everything feels like it's starting to wind down as we make ourselves comfortable for the long wait until the next expansion. Some people choose to temporarily quit the game during these lulls, others roll alts, and then there's the good old bucket list. These are the things you never got around to doing, and now it seems like it may be the perfect time to start checking things off that list. The largest thing on my bucket list is pet battles. I've only dabbled with them, and it's not due to lack of interest (I was collecting pets well before pet battles were introduced), it's just something I never got around to taking seriously. The brawler's guild is also on the list. I started it pretty early on, but got side-tracked by more important things like raiding. I'd also like to finish leveling up my other hunter because I'm really excited to toss her the Garrosh heirloom weapon when she dings 90. What's on your bucket list for the pre-expansion slump?
World-ranked brawler shares secrets of Brawler's Guild success
How do you achieve a #2 world ranking in something without having any idea you're busting through every mark of achievement to set a blistering, world-record pace? You enjoy the process too much to even notice –- at least, that's how things went for champion brawler Lubricatèd of Eredar (US-Horde). The undead assassination rogue's rise to the top of the ranks was built not on a drive to set new records but on a burning desire to own a cool mount. "I had been trying for the mount from Galleon basically since launch with no luck, so I saw reaching rank 10 as a way that I could earn the mount without having to deal with the low drop chance of Galleon's mount," he explains. "I was already rank 8 with all rare bosses down the afternoon that patch 5.3 went live, so I went directly into the arena and started queuing up for the new fights." When the dust on the arena floor settled, Lubricatèd had nabbed himself not only that cool mount but also the number two slot in the world for the Brawler's Guild. We chatted with Lubricatèd about his winning strategies, what it was like to discover he'd torn up the charts, and his top tips for players new to the Brawler's Guild.
New features coming to Brawler's Guild in patch 5.3
For those of you who have mastered the secrets of the Brawler's Guild and are hungry for more, community manager Crithto has some potentially tantalizing things to look forward to in patch 5.3! Members will now have the opportunity to achieve rank 10, and there will be eight new boss encounters against which to test your strength. Those bosses are being kept purposefully under wraps for now - no head starts on strategy, folks! Another new addition will be an item called a Challenge Card. Using a Challenge Card will give the player a quest that allows for yet another new encounters to be unlocked. In addition, once you've defeated a boss, you can speak to the Challenge Card NPC for the opportunity to revisit the fight if you so desire. So for those of you who have been wanting the ability to face down a boss more than once, your wishes shall soon come true. Also available will be player VIP lounges - for those of you with a high enough ranking, of course! There will be unique Alliance and Horde areas, but if you play Alliance and have completed the 5.1 quest lines, you may already have a passing familiarity with your spot. Happy brawling in 5.3, and a good shiner to you!
What optional means in World of Warcraft
There are a few things I do in World of Warcraft. I raid. I do dungeons and scenarios for valor points and also to test out specs and gear optimization for use later in raids. I run LFR for gear to use as a stopgap in later raids, or to supplement my bad luck (for instance, I really really need a trinket). And I do a lot of older content, because I am a transmogrification junkie and I always have a hankering for a new look. Every few months, I get the urge to PvP because I remember the six months I spent PvPing at the end of Vanilla and the on and off arena days of The Burning Crusade with equal parts fondness and loathing, and when fondness overwhelms loathing I go give it another shot. These are the things I do in World of Warcraft. Everything else, I either don't do, or I do haphazardly. I don't do cooking anymore at all -- I used to, but one look at the current state of cooking and how intertwined it seems to be with the Tillers completely soured me on it. I don't do the Tillers. I only do dailies until I no longer need the rep to buy something and then I never do them again. I have two professions that I like to keep maxed, but I rarely do anything with them for profit, I just have them for the raiding benefits. In short, I play World of Warcraft to kill things and to look good while I do it. And that's enough for me. But I know it's not enough for everyone. Mists of Pandaria will be six months old this April 21st, and for a lot of people, it's the expansion that increased choices -- the expansion that expanded their options. And in fact, it did so for me, as well. Because one of the great things about options is that they are optional, and you can choose not to do them. So for me some of the greatest aspects of Mists of Pandaria have been all the things I haven't bothered to do.
Patch 5.3 PTR: New mount models, achievements
The intrepid folks over at Wowhead have been busy digging through the patch 5.3 PTR and discovering a host of new models and items associated with the new patch. For mount collecting enthusiasts, the addition of a new mount achievement in patch 5.1 and the Jade Pandaren Kite as a reward was a delightful surprise. For those who have been collecting mounts for quite some time, however, the kite was immediately available upon the launch of patch 5.1, and it didn't appear as though any further rewards would be offered. But mount collectors should be happy to note that there has been yet another mount achievement added in with patch 5.3. Mount Parade is earned by collecting 200 mounts, and offers two uniquely colored mounts as rewards. Alliance players will receive the Armored Blue Dragonhawk, and Horde players will receive the Armored Red Dragonhawk. Wowhead has models of both versions available for viewing -- and frankly, they're really well done. I wasn't sure what to expect with yet another dragonhawk to pile on the collection, but the detail in these models is pretty stunning. Also datamined with the latest round of the 5.3 PTR was the warhorse pictured above. There doesn't appear to be a file for it on Wowhead at this time, but the 3D model is viewable by checking Wowhead's latest news post. As of yet there's no news on what this horse is, where it drops, or if it's even available to players in the next patch. However, another mount has been added to the list -- the Brawler's Burly Mushan Beast. At the moment there is no model available for the mount, but the name suggests that perhaps the Brawler's Guild will be seeing some pretty cool rewards soon. As a mount collector, I have to say I'm pretty pleased with the new reward models -- but I'd love to hear what you guys think. Would you rather have seen something else? What do you think of the warhorse? And don't forget to check out Wowhead for a look at the 3D models for the new mounts.
GuildOx launches Brawler's Guild ranking system
GuildOx have just released yet another ranking system for WoW players, to go with their achievement and title rankings, and mount and pet rankings! GuildOx has rankings for pretty much everything you can think of, and their latest addition, the Brawler's Guild rankings are another, much requested, string to their bow. They don't, however, track anything but the final achievement of the guild, the Now You're Just Showing Off achievement, and when players got it on each realm, region, and even worldwide. This achievement is kind of the pinnacle of brawling prowess, but it would also be excellent to see rankings for those further down, for example, to see if there's a glut of players stuck on Yikkan Izu or whether it's just that my shadow priest is undergeared, or played by someone terrible at shadow priests. One very interesting thing about these stats is the prominence of ranged DPS among the higher rankings. Mages, elemental shaman, warlocks, balance druids, and hunters all rank pretty high in their top 100 listings, with melee classes seeming not to be able to keep up with their ranged cousins. Is this indicative of a ranged DPS bias in the Brawler's Guild boss design? Also, do note that GuildOx's database is still gathering, so don't check your realm and assume that, because it's empty, you can get ahead and claim the top spot! It will take a little while to stabilize and be completely accurate, thanks to how the database works. But do check it out! Like all their ranking information, it makes interesting reading.
Should green fire be prestigious?
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology, and destruction warlocks. This week, Megan O'Neill wishes the mages would stop sending out the bad voodoo vibes to everything she owns so she can buy new fun things for her birthday instead of old replacements. There's plenty to look for through the datamining, but the question on everyone's mind is, "How do I start the questline?" Trust me, when someone finds out, I'm sure the internet will explode about it. It'll probably be on a Monday, during my other job's hours, and right after this column posts, knowing my luck. But before I get into an all-out walkthrough of the questline, I want to discuss one thing: does green fire have to be exclusive? Is exclusivity required for meaningfulness?
Talking patch 5.1 with Dave Kosak & Cory Stockton
Patch 5.1 introduced a lot of new content, and a lot of new lore -- and who better to explain it all than Lead Content Designer Cory Stockton, and Lead Quest Designer Dave Kosak? We sat down with both, along with Community Manager Zarhym to talk about some of the new features found in patch 5.1. Along with questions about the Brawler's Guild, both Kosak and Stockton addressed scenarios, daily quests, tweaking old content, that pesky matter of player housing, and what's to come in patch 5.2. Patch 5.1 was an incredibly fast patch. Is this going to be a trend with Mists? Cory Stockton: Yeah, for sure -- this has been our goal for a long time. We can't promise that we're going to have the exact same amount of content in the exact same amount of time, but it's definitely our intention to deliver patches in a time frame similar to this with a similar or larger amount of content. It just all comes down to each individual patch and the details of what we can do, but it's definitely our goal. Dave Kosak: We'll alternate between patches that have raid content and patches that don't have raid content as sort of required by what players are doing in the game and try and space it out. But our objective has always been faster content delivery, and we're hoping that players are seeing that we're trying to live up to that.
Cross-realm zone use clarified in Brawler's Guild
Blizzard Senior Community Manager Zarhym has taken to the forums to address player's concerns regarding the appearance of players from other realms in the Brawler's Guild. Zarhym We've seen some confusion about people from other realms showing up in the Brawler's Guild. It's important to note that the Brawler's Guild only uses realm coalescing when the number of participants is really low, so a lot of people are seeing people from other realms due to the fact that there haven't been many invitations to join distributed yet. It's highly likely the area will cease to activate CRZ on most realms as participation increases. Having 100+ people in the queue doesn't create a good experience, but, from our perspective, neither does having only a small handful of people. The feature is designed to bring a decent population into the guild, and those people should spend at least a modest amount of time as spectators or loiterers before getting into the ring. We didn't design the Brawler's Guild with the intention of getting you through queues in 10 minutes or less. We're not trying to replicate Dungeon Finder for the solo player with Brawler's Guild. If the place seems overcrowded AND you're seeing people from other realms there, it could be a situation where the population check that determines whether or not to coalesce a realm hasn't run again yet. As I said before, this should stabilize in time and likely automatically disable CRZ for the guild. source This, to me, seems a little counter-intuitive given Blizzard's earlier explanations of their theories behind the implementation of the Brawler's Guild. Daxxarri posted this back on November 8th:
Patch 5.1: Brawler's Guild invites not available for 24 hours
The Brawler's Guild is included in patch 5.1, but the invitations will probably not be available on the black market auction house for 24 hours. It is unclear if the NPCs who drop them will start dropping right away or if the drops will be delayed as well. Nethaera has the details. Nethaera With the latest patch, 5.1 "Landfall", we've introduced the new feature, the Brawler's Guild. As we previously announced, entry into the Brawler's Guild is by invitation only. Invitations can be found on the black market auction house, by invitation from somebody within the guild, and occasionally as drops from certain Horde and Alliance NPCs. Before you rush to your realm's black market auction house, we wanted to make you aware that invitations may not be available immediately upon realms going live, but should be showing up within the next 24 hours. We wish those of you who choose to take on this next challenge the best of luck in your endeavor. source To paraphrase @BlizzardCS, don't make a mad dash to the BMAH today. However, they do say "may", which could mean that invites will be available before tomorrow. No need to camp, though. The number of invitations is only limited to those who can afford them. Will you be fighting in the Brawler's Guild? Or don't you want to talk about it?
Blizzard Talks about Brawler's Guild
Firstly, an announcement. Blizzard's made the "First rule..." joke now. Everyone else can stop, OK? Good. On with the post. Blizzard hasn't just been busy talking about Brawler's Guild. No, the developers have been trying to readdress some communication failings that, apparently, led to people erroneously thinking the Brawler's Guild was this big new feature that everyone would want to enjoy. I was definitely one of those people. Readers could tell as much from earlier coverage. So when Blizzard announced the method of gaining entry, I was among those who were annoyed. But now, the community managers have stepped in to address the concerns of players like me. The post splits out what Brawler's Guild is and isn't, and probably most important among the "isn't" section is "A major patch feature accessible to everyone (at first)". And this is where I'm not sure I agree with Blizzard. From a lore perspective, there are definitely bigger things afoot for both the Alliance and the Horde, and there's the addition of the two new factions, their quest hubs, gear and daily quests to look forward to, as well as new scenarios. And that's all great, but for me, Brawler's Guild is the major feature of patch 5.1.
Brawler's Guild: There must be another way
Regular WoW Insider readers may have caught sight of my earlier piece regarding Brawler's Guild. I hope it came across in that piece just how excited I was about this impending new feature, how much I wanted to keep doing it despite the fact that it awarded nothing but fun and ranking. I mentioned that there were likely to be changes coming to two elements, the rotten fruit thrown by other players at the person fighting, and the queue times. I postulated that a fix for the queue times, which were very long indeed on the Patch 5.1 PTR and promised to be even longer on live servers, could be something along the lines of instancing, using the new scenario technology, phasing, or simply introducing more rings somehow. I did not anticipate that the proposed solution would be to make this fantastic new feature invitation only, and that those invitations would only be sold on the Black Market Auction House. I didn't anticipate this for several reasons. Firstly, the Brawler's Guild is far too brilliant an idea for Blizzard to want to gate it. It wouldn't make sense to me that, given that most players can access this, they should be prevented from doing so. It's a really brilliant side feature, a game within the game. At the time of writing, it awards no gear, no useable boost or bonus. It's like pet battles, only now it's invitation only.
The Queue: Violence clique
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about fight club. Luckily, we're talking about the Brawler's Guild! Jimmy asked: SO what are you guys thoughts on the Brawler's Guild being open to (initally I hope) the rich players of WoW. For those who don't know the only way to access the Brawler's Guild is to purchase an entry from the BMAH or o be invited by a player who is already a member of the Brawler's Guild. This means that if you are not rich (in game currency) than you pretty much have no chance at the server first and if you don't have friends on top of not having gold, well than you are not gonna get access to this content.
Patch 5.1 PTR: My first night in Brawler's Guild
It took me a little while to locate this secretive group's headquarters, tucked away in the bowels of Stormwind. I wasn't quite sure where to look, having logged in to the PTR and created a level 90 shaman template character, and the first rule of Brawler's Guild wasn't exactly helping matters. I knew it was underground, so I checked in the Stockades, under the Cathedral, around the old Park, over where all the warlocks hang out... it sounded like a warlock-y kind of thing! Stumped, temporarily, and trying to think of other underground areas in Stormwind, it suddenly occurred to me: the Deeprun Tram! I zoned in, expecting to see it right in front of me, and, discouraged, ran over to the platform, then spotted a tunnel on the track level to the left that I was fairly sure wasn't there before. And the header image was what appeared at the end of it! Over on the Horde side, it was hidden in plain sight, in a building to the extreme north-east of Orgrimmar, in the Ring of Valor. I have to say, I think that, for a change, the Alliance have by far the cooler set-up here, although with the buggy PTR gameplay right now, the Horde arena is far more entertaining!
Patch 5.1: More new achievements
There are several new achievements coming in, many for the Brawler's Guild, as you'd expect, given that it's a new feature coming in the patch. We posted previously about an earlier batch of achievements, and we were right in thinking that the earlier release was far from a finite list. The same applies to these achievements, so if there's something you're waiting for, don't give up hope. First, there are some changes to pet-related feats of strength. Deathy, Murkablo, Murky, The Marine and Tyrael's Hilt's feats of strength are all now account wide. It makes perfect sense that only one character has to have any of those pets for them all to get the achievement. There are also two new achievements, one pet battle-related which is Pandaren Spirit Tamer, which requires you to defeat all the Pandaren spirits in battle, and awards you one of the Air, Earth, Fire and Water spirit pets. If you want to get the other three, they can be farmed from daily quests, such as Burning Pandaren Spirit. Additionally, a raid achievement called And... It's Good! requires players to fly through the discs above the Engine of Nalak'sha in Mogu'shan Vaults on Normal or Heroic difficulty. Our favorites of these are the Brawler's Guild ones, which include The First Rule of Fight Club. There's also the two Rabble Rabble Rabble achievements, which sound really interesting as it currently appears that players are portaling into the opposite faction's city. Dirty Fighter is also very interesting, it makes us wonder just exactly how one goes about playing dirty in the Brawler's Guild! Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Patch 5.1 coming to the PTR soon
When they said they wanted to get patches out faster, they appear not to have been kidding, because patch 5.1 is already slated to head for the PTR soon. And it looks like it's going to be chock full of improvements. The Brawler's Guild, allowing you to engage in solo PvE content against various difficult monsters, similar to the Proving Grounds concept from a while ago. The ability to upgrade the rarity of pets in the pet battle system via an as yet undisclosed method. Wrathion's legendary questline will advance. You'll be able to spend valor points to upgrade items. All of this and news of the advancement of the Horde/Alliance conflict. If you're wondering how that will move forward, patch 5.1 will have the answers for you. Coming soon to a PTR near you. The complete text of the announcement is behind the break.
