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World Bosses no longer tap to faction
Lead Encounter Designer Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas has posted on Twitter confirming what some players thought was a bug. Several players have noticed that, when an opposing faction group is attacking a world boss, like the Celestials, they are able to hit it and still get loot and credit. Watcher confirmed via Twitter that this was not a bug, and actually a hotfix that went in recently. That hotfix, he also notes, caused the boss health scaling with larger groups to break. This, in turn, has been fixed. He also later added that this was not just applicable to Timeless Isle bosses, but to all of them. So presumably, that's every boss from Galleon and the Sha of Anger, through Nalak and Oondasta, right to the Celestials, and Ordos. What this means is just as explained above -- if the opposite faction pulls a boss, you can punch it and still get credit and loot. You'd have to be a little brave or foolhardy to do so alone on a PvP server, unless you're a stealth class, but the opportunity remains. It'll be interesting to see whether this change has an impact on the use of the Raid Finder and oQueue for Celestials groups, or not. Given the convenience of those methods for finding a composed group, I suspect they'll prevail.
How to keep world bosses away from the pesky Horde (or Alliance)
My server is a PvP server. It's one of the more balanced populations with a relatively healthy amount of players on both the Alliance and the Horde. Even before this expansion, you had to watch your back because you could be jumped at anytime by 3 Horde players (at least, that's how many it took to kill me). With the release of Mists of Pandaria, world bosses have made a return. Back in the old days, there was generally an unspoken etiquette among competing raids looking to take down a world boss. But this generation? Not a chance! Now we have these filthy backstabbing Horde (or Alliance) players looking for every advantage they can get to wipe Alliance players and take over their efforts. Back in my day, they had the courtesy to simply let Ysondre, Emeriss or one of those other Emerald dragons wipe the raid for them! My friends, if the Horde(or Alliance) want to fight dirty, then we can only respond in kind! Today I'm going to let you in on a few battle tactics to both defend yourselves and crush the Orcs and their allies!
The Queue: World bosses, pet battles, refrigerators, and more
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. I cannot adequately express how happy I am that weather is back in Pandaria. Fishing off the coast of Krasarang in the pouring rain is unbelievably relaxing. Puntable1 asked: Pet battle question. What do you use to kill crabs? They are the only wild pet I have a problem with.
Blood Pact: Reputable gear and more for raiding
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology, and destruction warlocks. This week, Megan O'Neill opens up Shado-Pan dailies and then promptly decides that things like having 4-slot farms for all her alts and leveling her shockadin are more important. What a slacker. Three weeks ago, I wrote briefly about the rewards from having reputation with Pandaria's factions. Three weeks ago, all I had was beta to go on, and on beta all the factions had dailies open to me independently of each other. When Mists of Pandaria went live, we found out that it really should have been named the Golden Gate Lotus faction, complete with "You Shall Not Pass into August Celestial reputation" signs. Then we had a hotfix of the Justice Points and Honor Points gear to bring them in line with each other ilvl-wise, a hotfix that removed reputation requirements for justice point gear, and some more hotfixes opened up some of the valor gear behind faction reputation lines. While your heading was spinning with all the faction-made gear changes going on, I was writing it all down to figure out which pieces I should be questing for.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: World boss Salyis's Warband
You may recall from an earlier post that raids will have a staggered release in Mists, with the first raid, Mogu'Shan Vaults, not appearing for a whole week after the expansion's launch and then a week later in the raid finder. Then you'll have to wait a whole four weeks for the next batch of raids, Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Springs. But if you level at break-neck speed and are thirsty for a challenge to get your teeth into in a group, fear not! Blizzard has accommodated your needs with world bosses, available from day one, and the preview page is now up for Salyis's Warband, as we were informed yesterday. Check out the Mists of Pandaria preview website and get a first glimpse at one of the two new roaming world bosses: Salyis's Warband! These extremely powerful monsters will do everything in their power to make your life more... "interesting" as you explore the mysterious continent of Pandaria. World bosses spawn in the open world and can be attacked by any player (un)fortunate enough to cross their paths. Salyis's Warband will be quite rare, while the expansion's other boss will appear with fairly regular frequency. But before you charge headfirst into battle, keep in mind that it will take the combined efforts of a full raid to bring one of these guys to their knees. Taking down a world boss is no small feat, but the rewards make it all worthwhile: achievements, fabulous items, and massive bragging rights will all be yours if you and your comrades in arms succeed in felling one of these roving terrors. Check back soon for more info on the game's other world boss, the Sha of Anger! source
The unspoken etiquette of world boss encounters
World bosses are returning in Mists of Pandaria! You know, my uncle, the legendary General Commandicus Brutallicus, told me stories of veteran players staying up at various odd hours of the day to challenge the emerald dragons, Lord Kazzak, and others. Even though I was but a young priest at the time, he told me that going after them was a hoot and experience in itself, especially if your home was on a PvP realm. There was an unspoken etiquette among raid leaders who went after world bosses. Since world bosses are making a comeback, I wanted to share them. You can't call dibs. The first group that arrives, is buffed, and ready gets to pull the boss first. No exceptions. You can't just stroll in there and call dibs when your entire raid group wasn't there or ready yet. Heck, you can't even physically contest the boss even if you did get there first. Back in my day, anyone who cried about seeing the boss first and losing out was generally laughed at. You take turns. There was an unspoken level of respect between the top raiding guilds. Despite the hatred and the fierce competition, we never interfered with attempts that were already progress. To do so brought dishonor to the guild and would cause you to be blacklisted from the realm. In an era when realm and faction transfer never existed, it was a big deal -- not to mention, if you opened fire on one group, they would come back and wipe your attempts. This would go on back and forth before everyone got tired, but no one would give. Yes, which leads me to the next rule ... Bring two raid groups. You had one raid group which would tackle the main boss. The second raid group was there to provide cover and to engage or otherwise tie up any hostile players who wanted to wipe your raid. These tended to be the PvP contingents within the various guilds. They were the players who didn't raid but spent all day grinding Alterac Valley for Grand Marshall and all that. This second group of players would hide behind a mountain or a tree or something and wait for instructions from the primary raid leader before engaging anyone. Majority guild receives first picks on loot. This is more of a courtesy than anything else. If a raid group consisted primarily of a raiding group and it was demonstrable that they did most of the heavy lifting, they had the right to select one item they wanted out of the loot drops before opening the rest to free roll. However, since the loot method is going to change, this rule is no longer relevant.
Ex-AMD CEO Hector Ruiz steps down as Globalfoundries chairman amid insider trading scandal
We won't dive back into all the backstory that led to former AMD CEO Hector Ruiz's current troubles as the chairman of AMD spin-off Globalfoundries, but let's just say that when your name is in the same sentence as "insider trading scandal" and "hedge fund probe," you're probably in a pretty bad way. While this story is obviously still far from over, it looks like Ruiz has at least realized the gravity of his predicament, and announced today that he's taking a "voluntary leave of absence" before formally resigning from the company on January 4th, 2010. He'll be replaced immediately by former Broadcom CEO Alan "Lanny" Ross, who will serve as interim chairman until the company's board appoints a permanent chairman.
Ex-AMD chief Hector Ruiz caught up in insider-trading scandal
Hector Ruiz certainly led a checkered career as CEO of AMD, earning the highest CEO salary in the semiconductor industry as his company's stock dropped, its products dragged, and its fortunes sank, but the man didn't stop there -- it looks like he may also have been involved in a little illegal insider trading on the side. According to the Wall Street Journal, Ruiz is the heretofore unnamed AMD executive who illegally tipped off a hedge fund investor about the company's big spinoff of Globalfoundries, ultimately leading to criminal and civil charges against Galleon and six of its employees. Ol' Hec's currently in the clear, as he hasn't been charged with anything, but considering he's now the chairman of Globalfoundries, well, let's say things are about to get a little sticky. We'll let you know -- we've got a feeling Gizmondo's Stefan Eriksson is going to look like small potatoes when this is all over.
Vanguard gets new features & expands race/class combos on test
The Vanguard test server is hopping with the release of additional classes for most races and a host of other new features including galleons, fishing and a games arena. The lore behind the updated classes is that some races have been trained by others in practices needed for war while others have taken it upon themselves to learn and adapt. The specific new options are: Goblin - Dreadknight & Ranger Orc - Rogue Raki - Bard Dark Elf - Ranger Kurashasa - Bloodmage Mordebi - Necromancer Dwarf - Ranger Halfling - Paladin Vulmane - Monk Teach a player to fish in one MMO and they can figure it out in the others... but not here. Fishing in Vanguard has been set up as more interactive than in many other games. Instead of just clicking to cast and then waiting for the splash, you actually have to time and aim your cast so that there are fish present and you don't scare them off. Then, once you have a bite, you must fight to get the fish out of the water.There is also a new Enchantment ability available at level 50, galleon schematics to be had, a games arena, and new events. So if you're so inclined or are just looking for more to do at level 50, head over to the test server to get a sneak peak.
