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Patch 3.2: Argent Coliseum raid story and encounters (SPOILERS)
There's been a lot of speculation as to what Patch 3.2's new raid instance, the Argent Coliseum, will contain. We got a taste of what bosses we might fight a little while back when the 3.2 PTR launched and some Achievement information was datamined, but I've taken it all one step further. As with my previous post on the 5-man content in the Coliseum, I've datamined a ton of information from the PTR game files, including NPC and spell data (another massive thanks to Boubouille of MMO-Champion for his help), to determine not only who we're facing up against (for sure), but how exactly the encounters will go down once we've gotten our epicly-clad heinies into the octagon Coliseum.The same disclaimer as last time applies. The encounters could change at any time, datamining isn't an exact science, I could be misinterpreting files, etc, etc. But I'm pretty solid on what I've written down, and anything I'm speculating on will be noted as such.Any spell or ability listed in this guide will likely be a random rank, given the spell database's knack for throwing me 10-man and 25-man spells in the same area! Don't assume that the damage values are accurate until you get killed by them!Remember: MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD!Ready? Let's go!
Patch 3.2 PTR now live
The wait for the new content patch may have just gotten a little shorter! The files for Patch 3.2, Call of the Crusade, are now available for download from the official site (or any number of other mirrors, at this point), and the PTR realms are up.MMO-Champion and a number of other sites have datamined information from the files, including new achievements, holidays, and names of the Coliseum bosses, which we've compiled for you. We'll keep you updated with any new information we get regarding 3.2, including the current status of the PTR, as events warrant. Get psyched! Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!
Crusaders' Coliseum details released
Bornakk just released some major details of the Crusaders' Coliseum, the new 5/10/25 man dungeon that will be released with Patch 3.2.First and foremost, this will be the next tier of raiding. There was some speculation that this would be an interim tier of raiding, however that is not the case. The gear that will come out of the Crusaders' Coliseum appears to be Tier 9.Secondly, the encounters will be unlocked one per week until all five encounters are available. This mirrors very closely the way the Sunwell Plateau was handled back in Patch 2.4.Finally, there will be a new "Crusaders' Tribute" mechanic. The mechanic appears to track the number of times you attempt an encounter, and the fewer times it takes you to complete the encounter, the greater the loot will be for the final boss. A type of raid where you are going for the Tribute rewards will be called a "Tribute Run."For further information about the upcoming patch check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2.The full details of the announcement after the break.
More information on 3.2 release date, Coliseum, new Battleground
Hot on the heels of the Under Development page for Patch 3.2, we received a few more tidbits of information from Community Manager Zarhym, responding to posts on the official forums. In bold are the players' questions. The Argent Coliseum: Does this mean a raid and a instance will be in there? Yes, there will be a 5-player version, then a 10/25-player version. The bosses will be different for the two versions. Think Ring of Blood or Amphitheater of Anguish, but more epic. The new Battleground (Isle of Conquest): So, it's WG combined with AB? If anything, Wintergrasp combined with Alterac Valley with a few more twists. Do you really think Ulduar achievements will last a year? Instances become stale after 6 months even with achievements. Yea 3.2 won't be till later this year and by then Ulduar will have been played to death and people will want something fun and new to do and not some small joke instance since we won't see Icecrown till April/May next year probably. Would it help if I told you that your presumed timelines are way too inflated? :) I was expecting most of this information, and I'm glad that my suspicions that the Coliseum would be a Ring of Blood-style event were confirmed. This isn't really an avenue Blizzard has used for a raid before. The hinting that 3.2 will come a lot sooner than we think is also comforting -- since it means that 3.3 and Icecrown are even closer.I'll have a speculation post about what we can expect in the Coliseum soon. Until then, keep your eyes peeled -- we'll update you as soon as we get any more news!
Seals? In MY purse? It's more likely than you think
Amidst all of the cost rebalancing for Champion-level rewards in the Argent Tournament, the CMs have indicated that there would soon be new ways to obtain Champion's Seals. With the advent of patch 3.1.2, it seems Blizzard has started to follow through on that! We received a bunch of tips in the mail over the past day or so, all letting us know that their Champion's Purses -- one of the reward choices for Champion dailies -- could randomly contain a whole 'nother Champion's Seal. This is a pretty big deal, especially since you have multiple chances per day. Players are reporting the percentage to be somewhere between 25% to 50% per Purse. Not too shabby! This also means that those mounts you want -- including the recently-reduced Argent Hippogyph -- might be a little more within your reach, and faster at that.We'll keep you informed of changes sure to be forthcoming, given that the CMs also mentioned that the Hippogryph cost reduction was (in part) due to their desire to add even more rewards in future patches.
Changes coming to the Crusader title
We were just talking about this on the podcast last night -- Turpster's tip a week or so ago was that going for the Crusader title in the Argent Tournament actually puts you at a disadvantage, because if you keep from turning in the last Valiant quest for the achievement, you don't lock off having the ability to do both Valiant and Champion quests together, thus, as you can see in the thread, earning an extra 36 gold a day, which adds up to 1000g a month. After you earn the ability to represent every city, you can't do the Valiant quests any more (instead, you have to earn city reputation through the Champion's Writ, which costs you 10g from the opposite reward). In short, right now, if you're leveling through the AT quests, stay away from the Crusader achievement until you have all of the city reputations covered, and all the gold you want.Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), Bornakk says that Blizzard probably will make a change here soon to smooth everything out. But how they'll do that isn't quite clear -- they could leave the dailies (or some form of them) open even after you get the achievement, or they could beef up the achievement reward to make up for it. Not a hard fix either way. But yes, until then, you might want to rethink racing to the Crusader achievement, as there's more reward to be had by waiting.
Argent Tournament Dailies: Battle Before The Citadel
Congratulations, Argent Champion! You've progressed past the Valiant rank and become a true Champion of the Argent Tournament. You're the finest that the Tournament has to offer and you've made your city proud. And that means playtime's over ... again. Yep, it's time to kill some Scourge outside Icecrown Citadel again, but this time you're after their commanders, the ones you've so deftly avoided in the past.Let's go!
Argent Tournament Dailies: At the Enemy's Gates
Congratulations, Argent Valiant! You've progressed past the Aspirant rank and proven your chops at mounted combat before your peers. You've even become a representative of your home city in the Argent Tournament. Well, guess what? Playtime's over. Remember, the whole point of the Argent Tournament is to train all comers into Scourge-killing badasses, so now that you've proven yourself, it's time to crack some decaying skulls. And this time, you get to do it on horseback.Find out how after the jump.
Argent Tournament Dailies: A Valiant's Field Training
This is one of the quickest and easiest dailies to complete for your Argent Tournament prestige. The questgiver asks simply that you kill 10 Scourge units in Icecrown.Remember, in 3.1 any mob that will grant you quest credit will show as much on their tooltip when you mouseover them. Use this to your advantage and don't waste your time with an AOE pack that won't give you credit!Given its close proximity to the Tournament grounds, many players are likely to flock to Sindragosa's Fall to kill the Scourge mobs there, including Frostbrood Whelps and Cultist Corrupters. You have some other choices, though -- the Valley of Lost Hope is chock-full of mobs that grant quest credit, as is Aldur'thar, and both are close enough to the Grounds that you don't need to fly all around the zone just to get your quest done. Crack some Scourge skulls and grab your reward!Reward: 1 Valiant's Seal and 13g 23s Editor's note from Alex Ziebart: I happen to like doing the Shadow Vault dailies side-by-side with this one. The vrykul for Leave Our Mark count as Scourge for this quest!
Argent Tournament dailies: The Edge of Winter
This is the first in a series of daily guides intended to guide you through the Argent Tournament as quickly and painlessly as possible. We'll have guides for each daily going live in the weeks to come. Keep your eyes peeled and your lances ready!All of the Argent Tournament competitors want to best their rivals, and the best way to do that is (clearly) to grab some mythical weapons and bash their heads in. In this case, you're after the Edge of Winter, a mythical blade held safe by the Maiden of Winter's Breath Lake ... but not for yourself, of course. You don't need any kind of special advantage to compete. The first thing you'll want to do is head to Crystalsong Forest, near the entrance of the Crystal Vice.
Argent Tournament rewards found
MMO Champion has posted some of what are believed to be rewards from the Argent Dawn Tournament coming to the servers, and they are pretty awesome. All of the rewards will apparently be purchased with a new currency called Champion's Seals, and those will be earned from doing dailies, some instanced activity (likely a type of mounted combat -- think PvP-esque, but against mobs), and all of the other various tasks the Argent Dawn is lining up for us. The Tournament itself will appear in 3.1 (and Alex has already posted a great gallery of what it looks like on the PTR), but other activities won't appear until a later content patch.There are epic weapons for everyone (right now priced at 25 seals, though that may change -- the weapons seem to be a little higher 5-man Heroic level), as well as blue boots, belts, gloves, and neckpieces for most classes and specs (all just 10 seals -- about equivalent to the Revered options the endgame reputations). Additionally, you can get tabards for each faction city (at 50 seals, that seems expensive, but they could have a special proc or ability granted with them), you can buy specially colored faction mounts for 100 seals, and at the top of the heap is an Argent Hippogryph for a whopping 250 seals. Seals, it seems, will also be able to be exchanged for reputation commendations, so if you just want to rep up with a certain old faction rep, you can do that, too.Pretty enticing. We have yet to see how exactly seals will be earned or how easy they'll be to come by, but it seems like Blizzard is planning to make this a catch-all option for endgame in terms of picking up rep, mounts, or gear. Just like the champion tabards let us choose just how we could earn rep for the endgame factions, the Argent Tournament appears to be a chance for folks at level 80 to pick up whatever rep or options they like by doing whatever the Tourney offers.
WoW Patch 3.1 PTR: New Argent Tournament Achievements
We've got some good information for you here. After the break are a listing of the initial achievements for the Argent Tournament that was announced yesterday. The Tournament will be active on the Patch 3.1 PTR for testing, so hop on over there and check it out.It looks like you're going to be competing in mounted duels against opponents to earn the right to represent parts of your faction. You'll earn titles such as "of Gnomeragan" and "of Stormwind".Very, very, cool.There's also a fun achievement that I can't wait to find out more about called "It's Just a Flesh Wound" where you "Unmask and defeat the Black Night at the Argent Tournament."A newt! Burn her!A full listing of the achievements after the break.
Official Champions DevBlog: Design Director Bill Roper on Storytelling
Hello and welcome to issue number two of the Massively.com hosted official Champions Online developer blog! If you happened to miss the first one featuring Jack Emmert, you can find it right here. Remember, we should be seeing a developer post about twice a month between now and launch day. So if you're interested in following the insights straight from the team make sure to follow our very own Champions Developer blogger, who will be doing the honors of posting your bi-weekly dose of DevBlog goodness.Today Bill Roper lays down some details on how Cryptic Studios is enabling a deeper sense of story in Champions Online. It's all pretty interesting stuff, and you can check it out after the cut!%Gallery-17946%
