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Patch 6.1 PTR: Heirloom necklaces datamined
So once again the folks at Wowhead are hard at work datamining away at Patch 6.1 on the PTR, and they've found something very interesting - new heirlooms. Specifically, neckpieces. A whole host of them, in fact. Eternal Talisman of Evasion Eternal Amulet of the Redeemed Eternal Will of the Martyr Eternal Emberfury Talisman Eternal Woven Ivy Necklace Eternal Horizon Choker At present they don't seem to scale down on Wowhead, and they say 1 to 60 which seems odd to me, I'd expect 1 to 90. But that On Use is pretty amazing, all told. Since we're also talking about the heirloom tab coming in this patch as well, it's a good time for a set of necklace heirlooms.
World of Warcraft gives players a 100% chance to get heirlooms for Warlords of Draenor
The World of Warcraft faithful are busy devouring the recent Patch 6.0.2 in anticipation for the much larger expansion pack that's coming next month. To help players prepare for Warlords of Draenor, Blizzard is currently running a Smash 'n Grab event that will award players prized heirlooms. By running any difficulty level of Siege of Orgrimmar, players will get a 100% chance to obtain their first Garrosh weapon if they haven't already for that difficulty. The caveat is that players will have to run this without the assistance of the raid finder. The Smash 'n Grab event is currently running and will end on November 13th.
Crowdfunding Roundup: Family robots and camera tomatoes
Each week, TUAW provides readers with an update on new or significant crowdfunded Apple-related projects in the news. While our policy is to not go into detail on items that haven't reached at least 80 percent of their funding goal, this update is designed to give readers a heads-up on projects they might find interesting enough to back. And we're back again for another roundup of crowdfunded tech projects for the world of Apple. This first one is going to excite anyone who has ever wanted a family robot just like the Jetsons had. Unfortunately, I don't think that Jibo will be able to do as good a job as Rosie the Robot, but this Indiegogo project certainly is capturing the attention of backers -- and the money. It's 1,277 percent funded with 16 days to go. Cue Richard Strauss' "Also sprach Zarathustra"! The Monolyth isn't "full of stars", instead, it wants to control your air conditioning unit with a smartphone. This isn't for whole-house air conditioning (which could use your Nest thermostat), rather for room units that cool a smaller area. The Monolyth team has some amazing goals for integration that will make the device extremely useful and powerful. They're currently at 23 percent of funding with 27 days to go, so if you have one of the compatible air conditioning units and want to be able to give it some brains, back this project. With all of the smartwatches and other wearables on the market, it was only a matter of time that someone came up with a "smart band" that worked for everyone in the family. The Sync Smartband doesn't have a display on it, but tracks steps, calories expended and REM sleep. It can also be used as a proximity sensor so the young (or old) ones don't go wandering too far away from you. Sync is 72 percent of the way through funding with just over a month to go, so it looks like this family-oriented fitness tracker will make it. A while back there was a fake project that someone created some great videos for. The project purported to create wonderful wine by putting water and a special powder into a smartphone-controlled container. It proved to be a hoax, but this Bieree smartphone-controlled microbrewery is for real! It needs a bit of support to make it into production -- the project is currently at 63 percent of funding with just 12 days to go. Back this project: beer drinkers around the world are counting on you. If I had a dollar for every "Smart Card Wallet-Sized iPhone and Android Charger" type project that has been published in our weekly roundup, I'd probably be able to retire. Yet for some reason, unknown to me because there are already a number of these products on the market that work perfectly well, we keep seeing these week after week. It's this type of repetitive "me too" Indiegogo campaign that makes me want to beg for some real innovation. This charger will apparently make it to market along with the other 5,834 that are out there -- it is 266 percent funded with about two weeks to go. When Friend of TUAW Hal Sherman sent me a tip on the Heirloom, I had to laugh as it was the first time I'd ever seen a "camera tomato" project. But Heirloom is a take on a tried and true photographer's friend, the "bean bag tripod". Use this with a Glif and you'll be able to take some amazingly sharp photos with your iPhone, and it is big enough that it'll hold your DSLR in place, too. However, this tomato is nowhere near being "go for launch," with only two percent funding with a month to go. With apologies to Burt Bacharach and Hal David, "What the world needs now is another SCOTTeVEST". That's what the AyeGear 25 Pocket Transforming Jacket appears to be, down to the "X-ray" photos of the jacket with everything from an iPhone and iPad to a water bottle in the pocket. But I think that's a good thing -- the market needs competition. AyeGear is a Glasgow, Scotland-based manufacturer that wants to bring a sharp-looking new techie jacket to the market. The project is only 2 percent funded with a month to go, so dig into your pockets if you want to give Scott Jordan's company a competitor... The Ghost Trax App is an iPad app that does one thing really well -- it plays a backing track for solo musicians. If you're a solo musician, you'll want to scrape up some money and back Mark McCluskey's campaign, as it's only 17 percent funded with just over three weeks left. I love this idea. MaCO is a magnetic cable organizer (hence the name) that's designed to keep your world from tangled cords. Apparently others have found MaCO to be just as exciting and useful as I have, since it's 184 percent funded with over three weeks left in its campaign. Here are all the details: Last but not least, here's a Kickstarter campaign that deserves the minimal funding that it has received so far. The EvolvButton is supposed to add a "real" shutter button to your smartphone for taking photos. Well, your iPhone does have a real shutter button -- the volume toggle. All the EvolvButton does is add a piece of plastic over the top of the volume toggle. Of the ridiculous $40,000 goal, EvolvButton has achieved a whopping $14 with a month to go. No video for this one, I'll leave you with a photo instead. That's it for this week. We'll be back next Thursday for another roundup of crowdfunded projects that you can support or ignore. Many thanks again to Hal Sherman for providing some tips about new and exciting projects, and if you're aware of any other crowdfunded Apple-related projects, be sure to let us know about them through the Tip Us button at the upper right of the TUAW home page for future listing on the site.
Reminder: Get your Garrosh heirlooms while you still can
When Garrosh Hellscream's loot list for Siege of Orgrimmar was first revealed, the list included a ton of heirloom weapons for every spec and class under the sun. However, unlike every other heirloom currently present in the game, the weapons are intended for use from level 90 through level 100 -- to be used while leveling through Warlords of Draenor. It's a pretty cool idea, one that will likely help, at least a little, with leveling both mains and alts through Warlords content. However, if you want to get your hands on these heirlooms, you better act quickly. Once Warlords is here, the heirlooms will be removed from Garrosh's loot table. @Meerkatx The Garrosh heirlooms are specifically a reward for doing Flex+ while relevant. They won't be available once Draenor unlocks. - Watcher (@WatcherDev) April 26, 2014 Currently, there are no intentions at all to add the heirloom weapons to Garrosh's loot table in LFR -- as Watcher mentioned, they were meant as a reward for those doing Flex and above difficulty. And once Warlords is out and Draenor is unlocked, the rewards will be going away, so that players can't simply farm Hellscream for more heirloom items when they outgear the former Warchief. If you've been meaning to get your hands on these heirlooms, be aware that there is a finite limit as to how long they'll be available -- and get them while you still can.
What are heirlooms and how can I get them?
If you're new or recently returned to World of Warcraft, you've probably heard mention of heirlooms. This stellar leveling gear binds to your account rather than your characters -- so you can mail it to your alts -- and levels as you do, getting better as your character advances through the game. And best of all, heirloom gear often grants you an experience bonus for equipping it -- typically 5% or 10% bonus experience for each piece of armor. What that means is faster leveling with no need to worry about hunting down the best gear along the way. Because heirlooms are targeted squarely at level 90 characters leveling alts, you might not have put much thought into them -- but we're here to tell you that you don't need to wait until level 90 to pick up some heirloom gear for your character. If you know where and how to get it, you can grab a few pieces as you advance -- and with the sizable benefits they offer, you'll probably be glad you did. But whether you're a new character leveling up or a long-time level 90 thinking about a new alt, we'll walk you through what's available and where to find it.
Cross-realm account-bound mail now live, mailing rules
It's time to roll that new alt! Those of you playing on multiple realms -- or those of you who want to -- have reason to rejoice today, because with patch 5.4.2 you can now mail account-bound items between realms. This is at least true on North American realms and Oceanic realms -- European realms can expect the feature to pop up tomorrow after the patch. The process isn't much more complicated than sending items on a single server: just send your mail to "charactername-servername" -- without the quotation marks, of course. If your server name has spaces in it, skip the spaces. (So "The Venture Co" server would be "theventureco" for mailing purposes.) Bashiok explains the syntax: 5.4.2 is live and brings true account-bound items. Cross-realm mailing syntax is name-nospaceserver. Ex.: joeyjoejoeshabadujr-theventureco - Bashiok (@Bashiok) December 10, 2013 Like any mail you send to yourself, once you've clicked "send," the item immediately appears in your mailbox. And though heirlooms are the most obvious items to mail from character to character, there are a number of items that fall into the account bound category, including archeology items, Timeless Isle armor tokens, and more. However, you still can't send cash or non account-bound items, so your gold stash is tied to your server.
New heirlooms in patch 5.2 resemble the old but bring in the new
Patch 5.2 is thundering down on us this holiday season, bringing a raid, a Thunder King, and all kinds of shenanigans. It even has some great news for those of us who like to level small hordes of alts: new heirloom items! Of course, there's a twist. The new heirlooms like the War-Torn Ancient Bone Bow may superficially look like the old Charmed Ancient Bone Bow, but it's actually a different item. That's perfect in one sense, since the War-Torn Ancient Bone Bow now goes all the way to level 85. But it's a bummer for people who like to collect and save their points, since it means you'll probably have to rebuy it. The Vengeful Heartseeker, Battle-Forged Truesilver Champion, and many others enjoy this treatment in patch 5.2. Granted, this is pretty early in to the PTR cycle. It's entirely possible that Blizzard intends to provide an upgrade path. But you have to spend all those points on something, and heirlooms items have always served as a very effective point sink. I suspect we'll all be buying new heirlooms soon enough.
The Daily Grind: Are heirloom items bad for MMOs?
In its Wrath of the Lich King expansion, World of Warcraft introduced a new class of items: the heirloom. Heirlooms can be transferred between all of the characters on your account, even your alts belonging to "enemy" factions. While a cloth-bedecked caster can't exactly wear the heavy platemail of his older Paladin brother, the hand-me-downs are pretty useful for twinking if you plan it out a bit. The trouble is that heirlooms effectively level up with the player, so an alt who has a truckload of heirlooms has no need to take part in the player market. Why would he need to buy a crafted staff from a Weaponsmith? He's got one that he can use for 80 (85, now) levels. And in that case, why bother crafting as a lowbie Weaponsmith at all? What do you think -- do the conveniences of heirloom items outweigh their negative impact on MMO economies? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
An end to mailing heirlooms?
If you're an altoholic, you've no doubt experienced the joy of schlepping your heirloom items around via the mail system (along with claiming all your pets and mounts for every new character). With Cataclysm and the focus on all the earlier content, many people are still running alts through the old world, soaking up all the different changes. A recent blue post by Zarhym hints at a potential design change to the heirloom system. Zarhym So, after making a trip to the doctor and having some blood stolen, I stopped by Ghostcrawler's office to discuss this and other topics with him. We talked about some of the feedback in this thread, as well as the developers' latest thoughts on BoA and heirloom items. Rather than potentially having my statements in this thread come back to bite me at some point in the future, I'm going to risk being confusing or sounding dumb. :p In short, they agree that the process of mailing heirlooms around constantly is a little annoying. We'd prefer to try and work ourselves away from the method of mailing out BoA items in the future, like pets, mounts, etc. To that end, we have some design goals in mind that would improve this sort of item distribution system. And with those design goals have come some ideas for changing heirloom mechanics. This is sort of contrary to the idea I stated in this thread about just designing the system to allow players to mail their heirlooms all around their accounts without realm restrictions. That's all of the information I can share at the moment, but I feel like it's worth pointing out that the design philosophy I stated earlier isn't so set in stone -- we're reevaluating these types of systems as we look toward the future. I apologize if I've caused any confusion. source This sounds great. Perhaps a BOA/heirloom vendor in each city who will sell you anything you've unlocked for a nominal fee? Time will tell!
Totem Talk: Gearing your low-level enhancement shaman
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement, and restoration shaman. On Saturdays, Josh Myers tackles the hard questions about enhancement. Can we tank? Can we DPS with a two-hander? How does one shot web? The answer to the first two is "no," and roll a hunter for the third! Over the past four months that I've been at WoW Insider, I've spent a lot of time talking about enhancement shaman in World of Warcraft's endgame. From articles on gearing up through heroics, making the most efficient reputation choices, or killing Nefarian, almost all of my articles have dealt with playing at level 85. However, whether it's someone starting the game for the first time or someone who is just starting leveling a tenth alt, there are people out there without enhancement shaman at 85 yet -- shocking and unfortunate, I know!
Heirloom items bound to Battle.net accounts on patch 4.1 PTR
We just posted about the new heirlooms based on tier 1 armor discovered on the patch 4.1 PTR, but apparently there's even bigger news! Wowhead has discovered that as of 4.1, all heirloom items (including the newly added ones) are labeled as "Binds to Battle.net Account," an entirely different label than "Binds to Account." It's too early to discern exactly what this new distinction means, but at the very least, you should be able to mail heirlooms to characters on your realm that are on a different WoW account but the same Battle.net account. It's not known whether or not you'll finally be allowed to mail heirlooms to different realms, but at least you'll be able to mail some heirlooms to that Recruit-a-Friend mule account you made. Pretty cool! We'll let you know if Blizzard gives any official word on what's happening. WoW Patch 4.1 is on the PTR, and WoW Insider has all the latest news for you -- from previews of the revamped Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub to new valor point mechanics and new archaeology items.
Breakfast Topic: Do you use heirlooms when leveling?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. If you ask the guy or girl with the army of alts what they think of heirlooms, he or she will most likely tell you how great heirlooms are. When heirlooms were announced in Wrath, the players suffering from altitis all screamed out in joy. Something that would save them gold while leveling and make life just a little easier on the way to 80? Now 85? Yes, please! At first, we had shoulder and weapon heirlooms that were only purchasable in Dalaran or Wintergrasp. The shoulder heirlooms sold in Wintergrasp were identical to the ones in Dalaran, save that you sacrificed a sometimes useful stat for resilience. In patch 3.2, the Argent Tournament was introduced and with it, chest heirlooms and another way to buy heirlooms. Once you obtained the title you could buy shoulder, chest and weapon heirlooms with Champion's Seals. This was a much more viable and cheaper option to those who didn't want to dungeon crawl to gather the badges needed or who were spending your badges on gear for raiding. To some, the downside to these heirlooms is that they don't scale past 80. Cataclysm did introduce two new heirlooms that scale from 1 to 85: cloak and helm heirlooms purchasable once your guild hits the required level and you are honored. I myself have a number of different heirlooms for my alts, everything from cloth to plate, with different weapons for each class and their specific role. I stopped using them on my priest because I was flying through the revamped zones and couldn't finish all the quest chains before they turned gray. Do you have heirlooms for your alts? Do you prefer to use them while leveling, or do you keep it old-fashioned while leveling? %Poll-60592%
The Queue: Countdown to BlizzCon edition
Welcome back to The Queue, our daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mathew McCurley will be your host today. Some of my compatriots here at WoW Insider have already begun their long, difficult trek to BlizzCon. I, however, will be leaving early Thursday morning and powering my way to Anaheim. There is this happy disbelief right now because the convention is so close. Reality will probably hit me at 4 a.m. on Thursday, when I'm hating myself for early flights and starving at the airport. Let's answer some questions. Babaloo asked: When we go into The Burning Crusade/Wrath content, do we effectively go back in time? Seeing as events during those expansions are referenced in the new old world, how do they explain it?
The Queue: Hard (Stone)core
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today. Have we mentioned lately that we're positively getting our asses kicked by Cataclysm heroics? Emile asked: With flying in Azeroth coming up, we should be able to fly to those dancing trolls you can see when you fly from Darnassus to Moonglade (if I remember the right FP, I'm sure it's somewhere over Darkshore). Will those trolls still be there in Cataclysm? Yes, you'll be able to fly to Shatterspear Vale, where you can see the Shatterspear trolls joining the Horde and attacking the night elves, who've just had every single settlement in Darkshore obliterated by the cataclysm.
Spiritual Guidance: So you wanna play a priest, part 2
The word priest is derived from the Greek work presbyteros, meaning "elder." While Dawn Moore is neither Greek nor an elder, she has 300 days played between her various priests (two-thirds of which was probably spent AFK) and will do her best to relay the information learned in those days each week in Spiritual Guidance. This week instead of one of my typical, eloquent (ha!) introductions, I am going to tell you a story. A story about a machine. The machine was an ancient treasure, crafted by the titans and unearthed by a young priestess. The machine was very powerful and was said to hold the answers to all questions, even the ultimate ones. The priestess honored this machine with her life and wished only to do good with it. One day, while traversing the icy northern valleys of the Storm Peaks, the priestess crossed paths with a leopard. A snow leopard. The priestess slowly took guard, not wishing to agitate the beast. It seemed to be of no matter, however, as the beast was furious with hunger, and it leapt at her without hesitation. The priestess scrambled to her right, calling up a protective shield as the leopard came at her. It seemed she would have to do combat; she began to recite the words to a holy prayer aloud. Unfortunately, before she could finish her prayer, the beast broke her barrier and tackled her to the ground. As she fell, she panicked, thinking of the machine tucked carefully in her satchel. The sound of metal crunching and contorting split through the sounds of the leopard's growls. Or maybe it was just the sound of the priestess' heart? Whatever it was, the priestess screeched in anger, frightening the animal off of her as she called forth the shadows. A protodrake later dined on the leopard's broken corpse. The priestess hurried to Mimiron, master tinkerer and watcher of the titans. She begged him to repair the machine but he shook his head sadly. The machine was ruined, and only the absent titans themselves could restore it. The priestess lowered her head solemnly. Don't understand what that story is about? Don't worry about it. It's time for the second installment of my holy and discipline healing guide. Let's get started.
Cataclysm Press Event: Older heirloom items to work for goblins and worgen
Here's some good news for everyone planning to roll a goblin or worgen, or even a human hunter or troll druid, when the expansion hits: Your heirlooms will still work, but only until level 80. At the recent Cataclysm press event, Blizzard confirmed that heirlooms from the Wrath era will still work for new characters in the Cataclysm era, and specifically even for goblins and worgen. Since you earned them, you should still get to use them. However, they also note that the heirlooms will only work up to level 80. At level 80, you'll have to start using new heirlooms that will be added in Cataclysm itself. So go ahead, buy that Bloodied Arcanite Reaper for your new holy cow or worgen warrior; it'll still work just fine, at least until you get level 80.
The Queue: Now or later
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. It's been awhile since I've done listening music for The Queue. It's a lot of fun to do, but we do it so often here on WoW.com that it's starting to get a little stale. I've started to miss doing it though, so here you go. Today's listening music is some fantastic Rhett and Link, who you probably have never heard on the radio. Which is a shame. YimmyZ asked... "Is there any lore related to Emblems/badges? Something like the people need so many badges to draw magic from to imbue items or some such?"
The Queue: Still wishing for weather
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Please, everyone. We're begging you. Stop asking us Cataclysm questions that we'll need a time machine to answer. We're not in any betas, and if some of us were magically in an alpha, we probably couldn't tell you. We don't know what will happen to your favorite NPC when the world explodes. We don't know how much Loremaster will change. We don't know if Ragnaros procreates with Maiev Shadowsong. We don't know if Deathwing has enslaved a herd of unicorns. Mr Shinra asked... "Where are all battlegrounds supposedly located on the world map? I figure if come cataclysm we have the entire (old) world available for flight then perhaps we might by able to see the (empty/placeholder) battleground locations by flying over? I know the BGs are seperate instances much like a dungeon is, but it would still be kind of cool to be flying from, say Mount Hyjal to Orgimmar and passing over Warsong Gulch."
Patch 3.3 PTR: A little extra XP bonus
The sneaky database over at MMO-Champion has uncovered a little spell/aura/attribute hidden in the patch 3.3 PTR files that hints at some extra XP from future versions of heirloom gear. Currently, with two pieces of heirloom gear, you can get up to a 20% bonus (the chest and shoulders each give a stackable 10%, while heirloom weapons give nothing). But this Heirloom Experience Bonus +5% "spell" grants an extra 5% experience, so it could be that in the future, we'll see pieces of heirloom gear that have an extra bit of bonus on them -- maybe gloves, cloak, or a belt -- that will bring the total bonus XP up to 25%. There's no base level or other identifying information on this attribute (we call it a "spell," but really, given its information in the game, it seems like a gear-specific ability), so we can assume that it'll be a full 1-80 bonus, just like the current heirloom gear in the game. Unfortunately, we haven't actually uncovered any new heirloom items yet, so we have no idea if this stuff will show up in patch 3.3 or the expansion. And of course, just because the bonus applies from 1-80 doesn't mean the gear can be worn that whole time -- it sure seems like Blizzard wouldn't necessarily want Worgen and Goblin alts speeding past Cataclysm lowbie content. But we'll see -- in the meantime, look for a little extra heirloom power, coming soon. Thanks, Gene! Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to the Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
Officers' Quarters: Cataclysm's guild revamp -- guild currency
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.After Blizzard's big announcement about how they plan to improve guilds in Cataclysm, I've been examining the changes in detail. First, I wrote about the lack of guild improvements over the years and how the expansion will, for better or worse, change WoW guilds forever. Then I speculated on possible leveling system options, guild talents, and guild achievements. This week, I'm going to finish up the series by talking a bit about guild currency and suggesting some products that Blizzard should let us buy with this new system.Here's what we know so far. Guild currency will be earned by players in your guild who earn experience. It remains to be seen if experience (and thus currency) will still be earned by players once they reach the level cap, but I assume that it will. So far, they've only mentioned a few items that we can buy: Vanity items like mounts, tabards, and standards Reagents like frost lotuses for flasks Recipes Heirloom items that scale with level
