Adam Koebel

Gaming By Adam Koebel

Patch 6.1: Crafting improvements

I think one of the more frequent complaints I've heard from people about professions in Warlords is the time gating. The latest patch 6.1 PTR build has some changes to help rectify this. You can now craft reagents like Hexweave Cloth as often as you want by using a combination of Primal Spirits and raw materials, e.g. Primal Weaving. Stat reroll items like Didi's Delicate Assembly no longer cost cooldown/work order reagents to craft and instead just cost raw materials. Some profession daily cooldowns have had their raw material cost increased, e.g. Gearspring Parts now costs 15 of each ore, up from 10. In general, it seems like Blizzard is trying to bring some value back to raw materials. I give a solid thumbs up to the change to reroll items. I don't want to disclose how much gold I had to spend rerolling my gun to the proper stats. Looking at these changes, maybe I'll actually have to dust off my mining pick. Wowhead has a full list of all the profession changes.

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Blizzard teases new mount

It's a cat. It's very purple. It kind of gives me a Netherstorm vibe. Blizzard just teased this new mount on the official @Warcraft Twitter account without much of a hint. Here, Kitty Kitty... pic.twitter.com/fwxttQVY15 - World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) January 28, 2015 My initial thought was it would be another store mount, but now I think another possibility is a Heroes of the Storm promotional mount. Remember the Hearthsteed mount from Hearthstone? Same thing, except for Heroes. That's my guess anyway. Would you shell out $25 for this if it turns out to be a store mount? I think it looks pretty slick.

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Gaming By Adam Koebel

Patch 6.1: Shrink your bodyguard down to size

Thank the Light. If there's one thing that keeps me from using my bodyguards, it's how they get in the way of literally everything I want to click. The problem is even worse if you play a pet class because your bodyguard tends to stay right behind you instead of to your side. While exploring my garrison on the patch 6.1 PTR, I was happy to find a vendor in my Barracks that sold me a Bodyguard Miniaturization Device for the bargain price of 250 Garrison Resources (I would have paid 10,000). As you can see from the picture, it shrinks your bodyguard down to a more manageable size that should never get in your way (plus they look really cute mounted up at this size). The device lasts for 1 hour and has 1 hour cooldown. Best of all, it does work if you dismiss and summon a new bodyguard as the buff is placed on you. If you still haven't joined the bodyguard club, you really should.

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PC Gaming By Adam Koebel

Patch 6.1: Traveling the world in search of garrison music

The jukebox is one of the biggest new garrison features coming in patch 6.1. It allows you to change the default music in your garrison, which is a welcome feature considering how much time I spend in there. Upon completing the simple quest to build your jukebox, you are given a selection of 7 faction-specific music tracks (known as Music Rolls) to get you started. It's as simple as clicking your jukebox and picking a new track as your default garrison music. There are many more Music Rolls to collect. One of the first I collected on the PTR was Music Roll: Faerie Dragon, which I found all the way out in Tirisfal Glades. If you're a regular reader of Know Your Lore, you may remember the Tinfoil Hat Edition about the mysterious Whispering Forest event (pictured above). If you are present for this event -- which has been made less rare in patch 6.1 -- you can loot this music roll from a faerie dragon nest located in the center of the circle of mushrooms.

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Gaming By Adam Koebel

Official patch 6.1 PTR patch notes

Grab yourself a drink and get comfortable because these are some hefty patch notes. There are a lot of changes coming to almost every aspect of the game -- classes, garrisons, professions, items, you name it. Here are a few highlights. Collecting all heirloom items awards a special mount usable by level 1 characters. Tertiary Stats for Avoidance, Speed, and Leech now provide about four times as much benefit per stat point. Lumber Mill and the Trading Post no longer require Garrison Resources to build or upgrade. The Mage Tower now accepts Ogre Waystones as work orders awarding Apexis Crystals and a chance to receive an item that allows instant completion of a mission that's in-progress. Players may find an item while completing a Bounty, Relic, Dungeon, or Raid daily quest from the Garrison visitor that that allows them to summon one of six new raid or world boss in the Garrison (10-40 players). Characters can now accrue up to a maximum of 60,000 Apexis Crystals (up from 20,000). View the complete notes after the break for much more, including a ton of class changes.

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Gaming By Adam Koebel

New blood elf model gallery

At long last, the new blood elf models have finally appeared on the patch 6.1 PTR. These are still a work in progress according to Blizzard. All of the faces are still using similar geometry, but new faces are slated to be added in a future PTR build. In the meantime, you are encouraged to give Blizzard your feedback on the new models and animations on the forums (US feedback thread, EU feedback thread). Want a preview of how the models are shaping up? Check out our new gallery below!

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Gaming By Adam Koebel

Celestalon teases upcoming class changes [Updated]

Celestalon decided to tease us with this rather cryptic tweet regarding upcoming class changes on the patch 6.1 PTR. Class design is often 85% talking about what to do, 15% actually doing. Today was the 15%. Next PTR build should spur lots of discussion. - Celestalon (@Celestalon) January 22, 2015 Alright, Celestalon, you have my attention. He later followed it up with another tweet saying the changes will primarily be number tweaks, but there will be a few functionality changes. Overall class balance could definitely use some tweaks, at least for the top and bottom outliers. Recent hotfixes have helped, but I get the feeling they've been cautious with some of the changes. Patches are probably a better time to make significant adjustments since they can be thoroughly tested beforehand. What would you like to see changed for your class in patch 6.1? Update: Theses changes won't be going in today's upcoming build (January 22), but should make it into the next PTR build (source).

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PC Gaming By Adam Koebel

Patch 6.1: Trade Garrison Resources for extra daily quests

I find it amusing how Garrison Resources were so coveted at the beginning of the expansion, and now I simply can't spend them fast enough. Patch 6.1 is changing this with several new resource sinks. We've already talked about rush orders and follower reroll items which can be purchased with resources, and next on the list is Scouting Missives. You can buy Scouting Missives from your garrison quartermaster at a cost of 200 Garrison Resources each. Scouting Missives unlock one of the daily quests that reward 800 Apexis Crystals, e.g. Scouting Missive: Darktide Roost. These are separate from your regular daily quest, so you can do as many of them as you want as long as you have the resources to spend. You can see the full list of quests here. If you're using any of the Apexis Crystal gear this should help you fast track the latest upgrades (ilvl 670 in patch 6.1). I'll probably use them to complete the Securing Draenor achievement.

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Gaming By Adam Koebel

Patch 6.1: New follower traits and reroll items

Talonpriest Ishaal is finally going to have someone who wants to go on missions with him. Follower races which previously had no synergy traits, such as the arakkoa, will now have them available via special mission rewards. New/updated follower traits The Wildling trait increases success chance when on missions with beast followers. Taught by Winning with Wildlings. The Mechano Affictionado increases success chance when on missions with machine or construct followers. Taught by Grease Monkey Guide. The Bird Watcher trait increases success chance when on missions with arakkoa followers. Taught by Guide to Arakkoa Relations. The Ogre Buddy trait increases success chance when on missions with ogre followers. Taught by Ogre Buddy Handbook. The Speed of Light trait reduces mission duration, similar to Epic Mount. Taught by Sun-touched Feather of Rukhmar. The Treasure Hunter trait increases gold rewarded by missions by 100%. This trait appears to be unique to Harrison Jones. Scavenger now increases Garrison Resource rewards by 100% (down from 200%). Note that many of these missions have had their base rewards increased to compensate, e.g. Can't Go Home This Way was buffed from 175 base resources to 300. There will also be more opportunities to reroll traits and abilities on your followers with Follower Ability Retraining Guide and Follower Trait Retraining Guide. Both of these are rewarded from several new missions, and they can also be purchased for 1500 Garrison Resources each from your garrison quartermaster. As someone who has had awful luck acquiring Follower Retraining Certificates, I'm all for this new way to spend resources.

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Blackrock Foundry raid preview

Blizzard has just posted a preview of the upcoming Blackrock Foundry raid. It will feature 10 total bosses across 4 wings. A new world boss, Rukhmar, will also make its debut when Blackrock Foundry opens on February 3. You can find the full unlock schedule for all difficulties right here. Blizzard Entertainment Blackrock Foundry was the ancestral home of the Blackrock orcs, wherein master smiths smelted and worked the impossibly hard ore that is the clan's namesake. Now, massive giants captured and broken by the Thunderlord heat the great forges, flamebenders of the Burning Blade imbue the ore with an inner fire, and engineers shape the slag according to otherworldly schematics. Warlord Blackhand's foundry is the center of the Iron Horde's military might, churning out the weaponry that will be used to raze Azeroth. source Check out the full preview for a rundown of all the bosses you'll be facing in as little as two weeks!

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Gaming By Adam Koebel

Patch 6.1: Stage 4 upgrades for crafted gear, new alchemy trinket

Good news for those of us who use crafted gear. The latest PTR build has added stage 4 upgrades for all Warlords crafted gear. Armor, rings, and trinkets can now be upgraded to 680 ilvl and weapons can be upgraded to 670 ilvl. The materials are similar to previous upgrades, only this time you need 30 Savage Bloods each. You'll also notice that the alchemy profession has access to a brand new trinket which can also be upgraded to 680 ilvl (requires alchemy to equip). Blacksmithing: Powerful Truesteel Essence, Powerful Steelforged Essence Leatherworking: Powerful Burnished Essence Tailoring: Powerful Hexweave Essence Inscription: Powerful Ensorcelled Tarot, Powerful Weapon Crystal Engineering: Oglethorpe's Octagonal Lenses, Precision Scope Tuning Kit Jewelcrafting: Powerful Taladite Amplifier Alchemy: Stone of Fire (also new are stages 1, 2, and 3)

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Gaming By Adam Koebel

Patch 6.1: Rush orders allow instant completion of work orders

Tired of waiting for your garrison work orders to finish? In patch 6.1, you'll be able to acquire rush orders which allow you to instantly complete 5 active work orders for that particular building, e.g. Rush Order: Engineering Works. There are a couple ways to acquire these rush orders. Firstly, there are new profession missions which become available based on the profession buildings you have in your garrison. If you have an Engineering Works, you should periodically get missions like You're Fired or The Wonder Gears which reward 2 or 3 of these rush orders. Followers with profession traits have an increased success chance on these missions as well. Secondly, you can buy rush orders with Garrison Resources for non-profession buildings like the Barn and Gladiator's Sanctum. Currently it costs 1000 Garrison Resources per rush order, with the exception of the mine and garden which cost 300 each. Keep in mind this is PTR and all subject to change. It sounds pretty pricey to me, but if you're overflowing with resources it will give you something to spend them on.

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Gaming By Adam Koebel

Patch 6.1: Request an early stop on flight paths

I can remember players asking for this feature ever since connected flight paths were introduced back in patch 1.10. Sometimes you click the wrong flight path, sometimes you fly over something interesting and just want to get off early. Whatever the reason, in patch 6.1 you can now request a stop at the next available flight point on your route. It's as simple as clicking the little vehicle eject button that you normally use to exit vehicles or multi-passenger mounts. Currently, once this is toggled on you cannot cancel your request to land early. Aside from that little quirk, it's a welcome feature. Now if only I could bail out of flight paths with a parachute.

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Blackrock Foundry opens on February 3

Blizzard has just announced the unlock schedule for the Blackrock Foundry raid! Normal and heroic modes open on February 3, with Mythic opening the following week on February 10. Raid finder begins to unlock with wing 1 on February 17, and you'll have to wait all the way until March 24 to kill Blackhand in wing 4. LFR will require a minimum item level of 635. Keep in mind this doesn't mean patch 6.1 will be released on the same date. The @WarcraftDevs Twitter account has already told us that the two are not dependent. Check out the full unlock schedule after the break.

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News

News By Adam Koebel

Maintenance extended until 1 p.m. PST

Today's maintenance has been extended for WoW, Diablo 3, and Hearthstone. Realms are now scheduled to be up at 1 p.m. PST. The PTR is still up if you really need your WoW fix. We'll update this post if it gets extended again. [Update - NA] Maintenance has been extended until 1pm PST for #Wow, #D3, and #Hearthstone. We'll update as soon as we know more. - BlizzardCS (@BlizzardCS) January 13, 2015

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Patch 6.1 PTR realms are up

The patch 6.1 PTR realms are now live, but without any level 100 characters there isn't much to test yet. All PTR realms are still locked to Mists of Pandaria and there is currently no ETA for when they'll be upgraded to Warlords of Draenor. Character copy is disabled, but you can make pre-made level 90 toons. One of the few things available for testing is the new heirloom interface. Once you own a heirloom, it's a simple matter of clicking it in your heirloom tab to create a copy of the item in your bags. You can buy heirlooms and upgrade tokens from Estelle Gendry (Undercity) and Krom Stoutarm (Ironforge). Base level heirlooms scale from 1-60 and can be upgraded twice to level 85 and level 100. See here for a full list of the heirlooms available. For more details on the status of the PTR realms, check the blue post after the break.

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Gaming By Adam Koebel

Patch 6.1 PTR: Blackrock Foundry garrison missions are 660 ilvl

Our friends at Wowhead have datamined a new set of follower raid missions for Blackrock Foundry. Like the Highmaul missions that exist today, these will reward random non-weapon loot from the Blackrock Foundry raid. It's unclear at this point if tier 17 armor will be potential rewards or not. The important bit of information here is that these new missions require your followers to be 660 item level. The current cap on follower item level is 655, so you won't be able to upgrade them quite yet. In the meantime, you can continue to collect upgrades from the Dwarven Bunker/War Mill and Salvage Yard if you want to do these missions when the patch hits. If you want to learn more about raid missions, you can check out our post from last week.

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PC Gaming By Adam Koebel

New garrison NPC in patch 6.1 will sell you missed followers

Community Manager Crithto teased a new garrison NPC coming in patch 6.1 that will sell followers you may have missed because of quests, missions, buildings, or outpost choices. Remember that quest in Shadowmoon Valley that had you choose 1 of 3 followers? It looks like you'll now be able to get the other 2 -- for a price. This may address one of the concerns I posted yesterday (#5) regarding how easy it is to skip past potential followers on alts. Keep an eye out for more details once the 6.1 PTR launches. Crithto All of this feedback is great so thank you! We have some really cool changes coming to Garrisons in the future and a lot of them are based on what you've shared with us in recent weeks. Also, I've relayed many of the ideas you've posted here, too. One specific change I can share is in the next patch we're planning to add a new NPC to tier 3 Garrisons who will sell followers you might not have access to based upon which buildings and Outposts you've chosen. Definitely keep an eye out for that on the next PTR, test it out, and let us know what you think. Quote: Ohhh, what about for followers that came from quests that give you a choice of three but you can only choose 1. Gotta catch'em all you know =P. Yup! You'll be able to browse for followers you did not choose from quests and any you might have missed from failed missions. source

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Flight path improvements coming in patch 6.1

Tired of taking the scenic route because you missed a flight path between you and your destination? In 6.1, the flight master will be able to send you on the most optimal route regardless of what flight paths you've discovered. EU Community Manager Takralus has the details. Takralus We are making some huge improvements to the way flight paths work in 6.1. There are hundreds of flight paths in Draenor. The way it works right now, if you don't know a flight point, the flight master won't use it as a connecting node when you're travelling from point A to point B. If you've missed a few flight points (which is very easy to do), this means certain flight paths are be much less efficient than they could be. In 6.1, flight masters will use flight points you haven't discovered as connecting points. This will make things much more efficient. source

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Garrisons and Alts: How can it be improved?

I sometimes find myself wishing that garrisons were designed to be account-wide from the beginning. It may sound silly, but I'd love to see my alts hanging out in my single account-wide garrison when I'm logged on another character. This is obviously not in the cards, but maybe there could be some changes to make managing multiple garrisons a little bit easier. You can tell yourself that they are "optional" as much as you want, but you'd be missing out a large portion of this expansion if you simply ignored them, even on alts. Thankfully, Blizzard is listening to feedback and plans on making adjustments in the future. Takralus We're looking into ways to make Garrisons a bit more friendly in future patches for those of you who enjoy alts. We see that Garrisons are a bit too much for you guys right now. source Good to hear. I have a few ideas on how things might be improved, some more realistic than others. 1. BoA follower armor and weapon upgrades As it stands, having a Dwarven Bunker/War Mill and Salvage Yard are essentially requirements if you want to partake in the most worthwhile follower missions. Wouldn't it be nice if after your first or second garrison this was no longer the case? I've put a significant amount of time and resources into my main's followers, and I'm at the point where most of them are maxed out in item level. However, I still have a ton of items like War Ravaged Weaponry which I can no longer use on this character. My alts could put them to good use.

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WoW 10th anniversary ending early, Blizzard working on a fix [Updated]

WoW's 10th anniversary event was scheduled to run from Friday, November 21 to Tuesday, January 6, 2015 at 10 a.m. PST. Unfortunately, it is currently set to end 1 day earlier than originally announced. Molten Core or Southshore vs. Tarren Mill cannot be queued for on most realms at this time. Blizzard is aware of the problem and working on a fix. We'll update this post when we hear anything new. Hopefully you'll still get a chance to run these later today if you haven't yet (or wanted one last shot at the pet or enchanting illusion). Update: Blizzard is extending the event for an additional week starting tomorrow. Molten Core LFR and the Southshore vs. Tarren Mill battleground will be available again from January 6 at 10:00 a.m. PST until January 13 at 10:00 a.m. PST.

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How to send your followers on raid missions

With the right followers, it's possible to get yourself a piece of genuine Highmaul raid loot without ever setting foot inside the raid. Before you endeavor to do this, you should know that the Dwarven Bunker/War Mill and Salvage Yard are basically required to do this in any sane amount of time. You need both buildings to get enough follower armor and weapon upgrades, as these missions require a roster of ilvl 645+ followers to complete. Raid mission basics Your first raid mission will unlock when you have 3 followers at 645 or higher item level. The mission should stick around for at least a couple days if you want to spend some time getting other followers ready. After completing a raid mission, your next one will unlock 2 weeks later. Any piece of loot from the raid appropriate to your loot specialization can drop, with the exception of weapons. Just like normal drops, these can be warforged, socketed, or have tertiary stats. The quality of loot is based on your current progression in the raid itself: Normal caches (ilvl 655 loot) are rewarded if you've killed 0-14 bosses in normal mode. Heroic caches (ilvl 670 loot) are rewarded if you've killed 15+ bosses in normal mode. Mythic caches (ilvl 685 loot) are rewarded if you've killed 15+ bosses in heroic mode. Mythic caches plus a bonus of 1000 gold are rewarded if you've killed 15+ bosses in mythic mode.

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World of Warcraft in the new year

Blizzard has just released a preview of some exciting new things we can expect from WoW in 2015. Let's get right down to the highlights: In patch 6.1, the legendary quest will be rewarding you with a legendary follower. They will be testing the ability to send tweets (with screenshots) from inside the game. Better flight paths, with more direct routing. New incentives to invite friends into your garrison with daily tasks (complete with rewards and achievements). New ways to spend Garrison Resources, new follower missions and rewards, new follower modification items, and a new tier of difficulty for garrison invasions. The ability to purchase game time tokens (with real money) that can be traded with other players in game for gold. Account-wide heirloom system, with the ability to upgrade heirlooms to level 100. New blood elf models and tweaks for existing models. Improving Ashran faction balance. Blackrock Foundry will begin opening in February 2015. Check out the full blue post after the break.

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Gaming By Adam Koebel

Patch 6.0.3 hotfixes for December 16

If you were wondering what happened to that hotfix to reduce the number of Inn quests needed for the level 3 blueprint, it has finally been implemented. I personally recommend doing most of the quests anyway. At least the quests that reward toys and pets. The one reward is the closest you'll get to flying in Draenor in the foreseeable future. Here are some of the highlights: A hotfix in testing from December 11 for the Inn has been implemented. The achievement, Stay Awhile and Listen now only requires the character to complete 10 of the 20 Inn quests (down from all 20). Tectus' health has been reduced by about 15% when the raid is scaled to 10 players on Raid Finder, Normal, and Heroic difficulties. As the raid scales up to a maximum of 30 players, Tectus' health for 30 players remains roughly unchanged from before this hotfix. Resolved an issue where having a player join the Dungeon Finder or Raid Finder group just as another player was leaving could cause the button to queue up for additional players to remain greyed out for the rest of the group. Today is pretty light on the hotfixes. See the rest after the break.

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Gaming By Adam Koebel

Patch 6.0.3 hotfixes for December 15

Today we have a little more class numbers tuning, along with a bunch of quality of life changes and other miscellaneous bug fixes. Those of you with Barns are going to be very happy. Here are some highlights: Beast mastery and survival hunters, as well as all rogue specs have received buffs. Alliance Tier 3 Garrison: Dungeoneer's Training Dummy for healing and damage have swapped places so melee classes are less likely to trigger the tanking dummy by accident. Barn: Captured beasts can now stack to 20 (up from not being stackable). Dwarven Bunker/War Mill: Armor transmogrification items obtained from the Dwarven Bunker/War Mill are now truly account-bound and can be sent to other characters on the same Battle.net account. Poundfist now has 40% more health and increased the upper limit on the number of players his health can scale to. Raid Finder difficulty Highmaul should now be creating raid groups comprised of 2 tanks, 5 healers, and 18 damage dealers (instead of forming raid groups with 6 healers). Tome of the Clear Mind now stacks to 200 (up from 20). See the full list of fixes after the break.

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