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Weekly news recap featuring Niko
Niko returns this week with WoW Insider's news recap, where we look back at the hottest news of the past week. This week's topics include: New Mists of Pandaria Battlegrounds: Silvershard Mine Encrypted Text: Lifestyle of the Pandaria rogue A closer look at the hunter rare tames in Mists of Pandaria Become a Guardian of Hyjal with transmogrification Breakfast Topic: How will you level through Mists of Pandaria? If you enjoyed the show, make sure to subscribe to Niko on YouTube (or follow him on Twitter) and come back next week for the next episode!
Why spells should work the same in PvE and PvP
This ugly subject inevitably comes up: "I do bad damage in PvP, but they can't buff me because of my high PvE damage." Spend enough time around MMOs, and you'll hear that line with nearly the same regularity that the cock crows each morning. That statement leads to this one: "Spells should work differently in PvP and PvE. They're two different games!" They're not, they shouldn't, and please, no. Ghostcrawler himself just hit the forums to point out a few good, solid, technical reasons. To sum up his excellent explanation, Blizzard can't just duplicate all the spells and make them work different in PvP and PvE because that multiplies the level of complexity in the programming. The more complexity you add to the system, the more likely you are to see bugs and exploits sneak into the game. Not to mention, on the other side of the fence, the PvP dynamic itself is so complex that you can't just assume "low damage" is a function of the game itself. It can easily be due to the metagame, not to mention each player's performance. Ghostcrawler's logic seems to be a slam dunk, but I've had the misfortune of playing in a few games that did use different rule sets for PvP and PvE. It's a nightmare. City of Heroes was so clumsy in its divisive handling that I still wake up at night screaming, "That was my power move!" WoW isn't an either/or game. You don't tend to completely eschew PvE when you're playing PvP, no matter how much we wish you could. Dailies, raids, and other circumstances force you into the world. Even dedicated PvE players jump into the BGs occasionally. Separating the rules between the playing arenas creates yet another barrier to playing the entire World of Warcraft. Not to mention, if those different rules are different enough, it ends up feeling like you're running two different characters. Is that really the game we want? 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 has 9.1 million subscribers, down by a million since May
World of Warcraft remains the reigning titan in terms of subscription-based games... but the titan is looking just a little bit leaner at the moment. The most recent subscriptions numbers for the game were released today in the Activision Blizzard earnings report for Q2 2012, and the game has dropped to a total of 9.1 million subscribers as of the end of June. For those keeping track at home, that's a loss of 1.1 million players since the last update on subscriber numbers in May. Despite the subscriber loss, the overall earning report is positive, citing the announced launch date of Mists of Pandaria and the success of Diablo III (it sold over 10 million copies) as major milestones for the company. According to the report, most of the lost subscriptions are coming from Eastern players rather than US and European players. This is the first time in several years that WoW has been beneath 10 million players, and it's certainly interesting in light of recent discussions about the future of games with a subscription fee.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: The Jade Forest revamped and reopened
The Jade Forest has been reopened on the Mists of Pandaria beta servers, and it's had quite the face-lift in a few key areas. Two new giant mogu temples are now at either end of the zone, and the Alliance and Horde have claimed them in the names of their respective factions. As a result, the starting quests for each faction have changed significantly from what they were before the Jade Forest was closed for its renovations. Because of this, beta testers who were well past the zone when it was closed may want to copy another character over to the beta and give the new version a play-through. It seems that both Alliance and Horde have received significant changes in the opening portions of the zone; however, later quests outside of the starting areas seem to be unchanged. In addition, there were several model updates with the current patch. Pandaria's wildlife now seems to be suitably diverse from the rest of Azeroth's creatures. So what's changed? Well, quite a bit, actually. Take a look at the before and after in our galleries for a peek at the changes, and follow after the break for some impressions from the new Mists starting experience. %Gallery-157916% %Gallery-161437%
Know Your Lore: Getting into the lore of Mists
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. Well, this has certainly been a week, hasn't it? Mists of Pandaria will officially be out and in your hands on Sept. 25. In the tidbits I've discussed here and there regarding Mists of Pandaria, I've pointed out time and time again that the lore we will see with this expansion will all be new. Does it tie into old lore and events that have been set up in prior expansions? Absolutely. Will we be dealing with villains from days of old? ... Not so much. This isn't something to be annoyed about; it's something that we should embrace. The continuation of a story is always a good thing. For a story as massive as Warcraft's, it's about time we had a shot of new lore added into the mix. The best part about the lore in Mists is that because it's all so very new, everyone will be on roughly the same page headed into the expansion. For players who know the lore inside and out, this will all be new material to learn. For new players just looking to get into the lore, you'll be on the same page -- looking at brand new material and figuring it all out. There are a few story threads that have been picked up, but by and large, everything on Pandaria originated on Pandaria. So how do you get started processing all that stuff? Let's take a look, minus the spoilers. Sorry, guys -- you will eventually get more Pandaria info than you can shake a stick at, but it's going to be September before I start throwing it at you with unbridled glee.
Blizzard previews two MoP scenarios
Following along on the hype train (choo, choo) after the MoP release date announcement come previews for two scenarios, a new feature in the game's fourth expansion. The two scenarios in question are A Brewing Storm, where you have to protect a brewmaster with the very pandaren name of Blanche while she brews her finest beer yet, and Greenstone Village, where you take on the forces of agitated earth spirit Hui. Scenarios are short, queueable instances for three level 90 players of any class -- no holy trinity needed. Progression is based on fulfilling story objectives instead of defeating trash and bosses. Check out the full previews for Greenstone Village and A Brewing Storm over on the official WoW site. You can now read more about the Mists of Pandaria Scenarios feature in our updated expansion preview website! Check out our sneak peek at two of the scenarios you and your friends will be able to play in Mists of Pandaria: A Brewing Storm and Greenstone Village. What's a "Scenario?" Scenarios are short, instanced adventures for three players that directly follow the stories and events in the open world. In a scenario you'll be presented with a number of goals you need to achieve in order to progress. So instead of "clear trash, kill boss, rinse, repeat", you will be given objectives you have to complete to move the scenario's story forward. Yes, that's right – scenarios are heavily story-driven, much more so than dungeons. You'll be able to queue for scenarios, dungeons, raids, and battlegrounds all at the same time in Mists of Pandaria. Scenarios share a common UI with dungeons and raids as part of the Dungeon Finder, and you can check your queue statuses by clicking on the LFD icon next to your minimap. Check out the previews now for more info and screenshots, and make sure to check back often as we'll be adding info for more scenarios soon. Stay tuned! 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!
Blizzard giving away even more MoP beta keys on Facebook
With today's news of Mists of Pandaria's Sept. 25 release date, there's sure to be a surge of interest in the expansion, and Blizzard is giving you the opportunity to get into the beta before it ends with a new sweepstakes. All you have to do is follow Warcraft on Facebook and complete the entry form, and you're good to go. They'll draw 2,000 names a week, and half of those will receive another key to give to a friend, for a grand total of 15,000 keys. Check out the full Blizzard summary below, and get crackin' if you're not in the beta yet! Mists of Pandaria Beta Key Sweepstakes We've just launched a Mists of Pandaria Beta Key Sweepstakes! Starting July 31, we'll be randomly selecting 2,000 winners each week to receive a key to our exclusive World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria beta test. In addition, every other winner chosen will receive a second key to share with a friend! Drawings will occur every Tuesday for five weeks for a total of 15,000 keys. To enter participants simply need to follow Warcraft on Facebook and complete our official entry form between now and August 27 for a chance to win. For more information about how to participate, check out the sweepstakes rules and eligibility page and our sweepstakes FAQ. 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!
Arcane Brilliance: Weighing the level 90 mage talents
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we're looking once again at the mage of the future. And just like the mage of the right now, the mage of the future needs two things in abundance: mana and spellpower. Fortunately, the mage of soon™ only has to get to level 90 to get a new way to gain both. You've traversed the wilds of Pandaria. Your mage has decked himself out in shiny new quest reward greens that are better than the purples he farmed Deathwing for months to collect. You've killed X number of mobs, collected X number of inexplicably difficult-to-locate vital organs from those mobs and returned them to people with increasingly tough-to-reconcile reasons to want said organs, killing a potentially genocidal percentage of the warlock population along the way. Now, you're level 90. Your reward is two new abilities. One is Alter Time, which we've already discussed at length. The other is entirely up to you. There are three new choices in your talent ladder to select from. They range from a fresh and infinitely more useful version of Mana Shield to a crazily improved buff for Evocation to a rune of wizardly sparklesauce that you place on the ground and then set up shop there, serving up magical deathfire to all customers forevermore, amen. They sound quite different, but have one thing in common: You press a button, and you get mana and spellpower. I think we can all agree this is a button we want. The question is, which of those three buttons do we want the most? And the next question is, do we want any of them as our capstone talent?
The Queue: No one asked me to do this
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Matthew Rossi is your barely coherent helper today. I am one of those people who often finds myself on the less popular side of social debates. I'm a Superman over Batman, Luke over Han Solo, Werewolves over Vampires kind of guy. When all of my friends were into Space Battleship Yamato (or the American version, Star Blazers) I was much more into Gaiking. I don't even know why I liked Gaiking so much. Anyway, there's apparently a Gaiking movie coming out in 2012. There you go. There's your Matt likes strange things trivia of the day. I like Gaiking. darkpanda asks: I wonder if Blizzard will change the way shoulders are acquired. As it currently stands, you can spend Valor points to purchase every piece of a look-a-like set of tier armor without the set bonuses. All except the shoulders or course. You still need to either win an armor token or hope that a shoulder with the same skin will drop from a Raid. Do you think Blizzard will go all the way and allow us to purchase every piece of an armor set so everything will match? Right now, we don't even know for sure if we'll be able to buy gear for valor at all or if we'll be expected to run dungeons and then upgrade the drops with valor points -- or both. We only really know the valor upgrade system was announced. As of the last time I was on the beta, there was no valor point vendor with Mists level gear nor any way to upgrade via valor points yet. So your guess is as good as mine about shoulders.
What do you want in a city?
Nestled on the eastern half of the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, players will find two nearly identical shrines, the Shrine of Two Moons and the Shrine of Seven Stars. In the next expansion, these two locations will serve Horde and Alliance players as miniature capital cities, conveniently located in the heart of Pandaria for easy access to the rest of the continent. Both shrines currently offer most of the usual commodities you'd find in a capital city: Auction House, bank, profession trainers, and arcane reforging. Unfortunately, the shrines also appear to lack other basic essentials, such as class trainers, portals, transmogrification, void storage, and the ability to mount up on a flying or ground mount. The good news is the shrines still appear to be under significant development. City chat channels (such as trade chat) were only just added yesterday with the latest beta patch, and most of the vendor and trainer NPCs still can't be interacted with. Additionally, you're not currently considered at rest while within the confines of a shrine, meaning you have to sit through that annoying pop-up for 20 seconds before you can log out. It also looks like the mount issue will be handled by an NPC in the shrines who casts Cyclonic Inspiration on you, allowing you to move about the city at high speeds, but the buff doesn't always take and falls off before you can run simple errands between the bank and Auction House. Since I didn't participate in the Wrath of the Lich King beta, this is the first city I've seen while it was in development, which got me wondering: What would the perfect city be? What would I want a new city in the game to have? Maybe a transmogrification ethereal right next to the bank so it's easier for me to swap outfits? I bet players who deal in lots of buying and trading on the Auction House would want the bank right next door, if not inside the Auction House itself. What kind of features do role players want? How about raiders and PvPers? What do you want in a city, and why? 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!
Newest World of Warcraft novel gets a release date and cover preview
Jaina Proudmoore is one of the biggest lore figures in World of Warcraft despite the fact that her character history largely consists of trying to make reasonable compromises and being completely ignored. It's no surprise that she's the star of the newest novel based on World of Warcraft considering her prominence in the lore and her relationship to the war between the game's factions. Tides of War is written by Christie Golden and will be released in late August, setting the stage for Mists of Pandaria later this year. While Jaina has always tried to broker a peace between the Alliance and the Horde, the novel's plot revolves around Warchief Garrosh Hellscream launching an attack against Jaina's home in Theramore, demonstrating the same legendary thinking that's alienated several of the Horde's allies. Whether or not the erstwhile diplomat will be able to retain any hopes of a peaceful resolution remains to be seen, but with Mists of Pandaria promising to focus on the conflict between the two factions, it seems likely that players will be looking at silencing the last and loudest voice for peace.
The Daily Grind: Are black market auction houses a good idea?
With World of Warcraft's upcoming Mists of Pandaria comes an interesting addition to the game: a black market auction house. This new type of auction house will allow Blizzard to post rare items from the game for bidding only (no buyouts), and is obviously intended to be a massive gold sink for those who have more money than sense on their hands. While the intent of the black market auction house is understandable, what it's selling has players hotly debating over whether this is a good idea or the spawn of Evil and Mrs. Evil. Raid gear, ultra-rare pets, and other hard-to-attain goods could become easily available for those with large pocketbooks. So let's put it to the bright minds at Massively Labs (that's you): Are black market auction houses a good idea? Is Blizzard setting a trend here or cutting its own feet out from under it? 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!
Mists of Pandaria: (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
The latest build for the Mists of Pandaria beta has brought new spells, huge nerfs, and Flippable Tables. Yes, that's right, a Flippable Table. Michael Gray speculated about the table last week in Phat Loot Phriday, but at the time, the item hadn't yet been implemented on test servers. Well folks, there is now no more need for speculation. For your viewing pleasure, I give you the Flippable Table. And I only had to kill 400 birds and get spawn-camped by an embarrassingly low-level warlock (I do not PvP as shadow) to bring it to you. You're welcome. Currently, the Flippable Table is purchased from Nam Ironpaw in Valley of the Four Winds using Ironpaw Tokens, a currency you get from completing Mists of Pandaria cooking dailies. The same currency is used to purchase other novelty items such as Apron and Frying Pan. 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!
Saying goodbye to Cataclysm
I remember the first time I saw the trailer for Cataclysm. I will cheerfully admit I totally flipped out over it, largely because I was so excited to see Deathwing make a return. I've always been fond of the Dragon Aspects, and I was looking forward to an expansion that featured them in a way they'd never been featured before. We'd seen Alexstrasza and Ysera, of course, but with Malygos dead and Nozdormu missing, I knew something interesting had to happen on both of those fronts. The expansion itself was different than I'd expected, to be perfectly honest. Cataclysm wasn't exactly a bad expansion, really, and the old world quest revamp as well as flight being added were both welcome additions. But Cataclysm lacked the spark previous expansions had, and I can't quite put my finger on why, exactly. Despite the fact that it didn't knock The Burning Crusade out of first place on my list of favorite expansions, there's still something I'm going to miss about Cataclysm once we're wandering Pandaria.
Arcane Brilliance: 4 things I'm going to miss the most in Mists of Pandaria
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we're discussing a sad topic: loss. Not that this is a new feeling for mages. We've loved and lost before; everyone pour one out for Wand Specialization. You were too beautiful to die. Every time there's a new expansion, we get some new toys to play with. We tend to focus on these shiny new abilities or revamped mechanic -- and rightly so, as they are often pretty spiffy. But I fear we sometimes forget the casualties. For when Blizzard giveth, it also tends to taketh away. Spells are replaced, redundant talents vanish, and mechanics change, and as a mage, I always feel somehow diminished when I see a blank page in my spellbook -- even if it's a page that used to be occupied by something as useless as Arcane Fortitude or Amplify Magic, those ancient relics of fail. Mists of Pandaria will be no exception. We're gaining some awesomeness but losing a few things too. And some of those things, I'm really, truly going to miss.
Arcane Brilliance: Bombs and tempests on the Mists beta
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we're discussing my favorite kinds of mage spells: the ones that blow things up real good. Namely, warlocks. I like the spells that blow up warlocks. This should not come as any sort of surprise to anyone, ever. I don't know about you, but I didn't roll a mage for the free strudel. I'm not going to lie; the prospect of magical baked goods didn't hurt. Unlimited pie is something of a draw for me. But when I chose mage for my first character lo those many dead warlocks ago, I did so because I wanted to make pixels explode in spectacular fashion. And my mage certainly didn't disappoint. Over the years, I've thrown my share of Pyroblasts, Frostfire Bolts, and Arcane Explosions, and the resulting pixel explosions have been quite satisfactory. Still, I'm nothing if not greedy. In my opinion, when it comes to exploding pixels, more is always better. And so, when I learned of the new talents, the ones I was secretly most excited by were the three bomb talents we were choosing between at level 75. The worst part? I had to choose just one.
Know Your Lore: As new lore emerges
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. There will be spoilers for Mists of Pandaria in this post. So there's no other way to say this: I am enjoying the heck out of the stories I am being presented with in the Mists of Pandaria beta. I'm actually reading quest text. (To be fair, I do that a lot anyway -- lore nerd and all.) Frankly, as Anne pointed out this weekend, one of the things that's best about this expansion is that everything we experience is new to us. Mists of Pandaria isn't just the story of the pandaren. In fact, while the pandaren are very cool, I find myself absolutely drawn to explore everything else up on the buffet table. The Mogu and their astonishing ruins, the mantid threat in the Dread Wastes, the entirely foreign threat of the Sha -- these are all compelling and fascinating to me. Better still, I'm being presented all new ways to explore these story options. More so than any expansion in the history of World of Warcraft, the Mists of Pandaria are parting to show us an entirely new world, one we know very little about. If you're an old codger like me, that in and of itself is an interesting departure. But it's being backed up by all the innovations and discoveries of the past seven years of quest and zone design. Frankly, this first post-Cataclysm expansion owes a lot to the teachable moments of the massive zone redesign effort made in the previous expansion. The fruits planted then are being harvested now, and the results are in places stunning.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: Nomi, the cook's apprentice
Cooking has been (for lack of a better word) supercharged in Mists of Pandaria, splitting the profession into various "Ways" or styles of teaching. The Ways of the Grill, Oven, Pot, Steamer, Wok, and Brew all await your able hands to delight your senses. Since cooking, eating, and drinking are so important to the pandaren, Blizzard ratcheted up the potential for player involvement. Once you master all of the ways of Pandaria cooking, you will unlock your very own cook's companion, Nomi, with whom you can gain friendship reputation. El's Anglin' has a great preview of Nomi and his quests, which put you in the role of master, teaching your apprentice the same ways you learned. Each lesson Nomi must learn appears to take about a month of dailies, and as El points out, a lesson 1 implies lessons 2, 3, and so forth. When you do reach the end, however, there is an achievement called Now I Am the Master, which graduates you from student to expert status. Many have been speculating that achieving this feat might allow you to graduate your alts with cooking in order to prove your master chef status. Nomi is a very interesting new addition to the Mists of Pandaria beta. With such a huge revamp coming to the way we approach cooking, who knows what else is in store with regard to some of the other professions? 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!
Pandaria makes its appearance on the world map
MMO-Champion has revealed that the latest beta build, 15739, will finally put Pandaria on the map. The fog of 10,000 years has lifted, and the elusive continent's position has finally been established, at least to the satisfaction of Azeroth's cartographers. (That really must have been quite some fog.) Beta testers on Pandaria will no longer appear to be somewhere in the swirling midsts of the maelstrom, which will likely be a relief. While the zone map itself has been accessible to folks on Pandaria almost since the beta became active, its exact position relative to the other zones has not been established until now (although we've always known it'll be in the southern area of Azeroth). It's positioned opposite Northrend, occupying that conspicuously empty bit of the map. It looks, then, as if the continent might be accessible via ship rather than purely via portal, which would fit in well with Blizzard's ideas on increasing the time players spend in the world it's creating. It does make me wonder whether any future expansions will create more continents in this area apart from those four or whether any future zones will be on an Outland-esque plane on a different map. Sure, there's room for more land mass either side of Pandaria, but then where would the pictures of ships go? Or perhaps a new zone will emerge in the middle, to the horror of the navigators of Azeroth's fleet. 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!
Mists of Pandaria: Sunwalker Dezco for Warchief
Spoilers for Mists of Pandaria in this post. I cannot tell you how much I enjoy Sunwalker Dezco. As a tauren, I love the idea that there's a tauren presence in Pandaria, and that unlike most of the Horde the leadership of said tauren, actually uses the quotes around the word Warchief when talking about Messere Hellscream. I first met the Sunwalker in the Krasarang Wilds. He was leading an expedition to Pandaria inspired by the visions of his wife. After that, I ran into him again helping out against the mantid, then in Kun-Lai Summit at the Temple of the White Tiger, where he gives out a quest to meet with one of the August Celestials within the Temple of the White Tiger. After Xuen, the White Tiger, tests your mettle, he allows you and Dezco (if you're Horde) to go south. Pretty much everything Dezco says or does shows that he's loyal to the Horde, but clearly less than enamored with Garrosh and his particular way of leading it. Dezco is very involved with the quests leading to the Vale of Eternal Blossoms as well as Krasarang and Valley of the Four Winds, and he's at once a determined bringer of the light and a much more tolerant and reasonable Horde figure than we've seen in some time. I'm just glad to see a new, no-nonsense tauren lore figure, and to see the tauren taking some initiative in Pandaria. And I admit, I love the idea of a sarcastic tauren paladin. 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!
