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Relics of Ulduar to stay soulbound?
A poster in the general forums today outlined his, and many others, money making strategy they'll do when patch 3.0.8 goes live: Save up bank-tabs-full of Relics of Ulduar Sell Relics of Ulduar when they are no longer soulbound in patch 3.0.8 This is a solid scheme, it seemed, to make a metric ton of gold. In 3.0.8 Relics will be able to be turned in for Sons of Hodir reputation. Everyone and their mother are going to want them.However a response by Bornakk, a Blizzard Community Manager, reads "Is there a problem? Yes sir, the data on the relics is inaccurate. While things can still change, they may remain souldbound."So in the typical Blizzard fashion of not confirming anything outright, they have more or less strongly hinted that relics will remain soulbound in 3.0.8. So much for the money making scheme.
45 minute time limit for all arena matches
Bornakk just posted an important announcement for all arena participants:There is now a time limit of 45 minutes for all arenas. If neither team has achieved a victory, both teams will lose 16 arena rating points.This is posted in the general discussion forums, and we can safely assume that this change is active on live realms.Bornakk goes on further to say that matches that go on for 45 minutes are currently showing up as a draw and not displaying a loss of arena points. However, the point loss still happens. This means that you can apparently see it when you look at your honor page and you'll notice that your rating has gone down by 16 pointsWe've covered some very long arena matches in the past. A 13 hour match between a Druid/Warrior and Warlock/Paladin, won by the Warlock/Paladin, and a 10 hour arena match (the classes were not reported on).
Some free realm transfers extended and changed
Bornakk posted an update on some of the free realm transfers that have been going on. All transfers to the Drak'Tharon realm have been shut down. They have extended the timeframe to transfer to the Oceanic realm Gundrak. Saurfang is now also eligible to transfer to Gundrak. Transfers to Gundrak will now close down on Monday, December 8th at 12:00 p.m. PST. Be sure to transfer early (like, tonight) if you want to. They have been shutting down transfers early when their quotas are met.The full list of eligible transfer realms after the break.
Downtime extended to 1 O'Clock PST
Bornakk just posted that the downtime has been extended until 1:00 p.m. PST / 4:00 p.m. EST. This is never a good thing when maintenance gets extended, but at least Blizzard is hard at work on the servers.We haven't received any information that there are any new hotfixes being applied. So we'll probably have to wait to log in to see if any of the bugged quests are fixed or not.WoW Insider will update you when the realms are up... a few hours from now.
Official forums bugged, displaying in Korean
There's an odd error on the official forums today. Apparently the static parts of the web page (ie: non-user entered text) are showing up in Korean. Some users are not seeing it, but that is likely due to a cached version of the page they have.Blizzard is aware of the problem and, according to Bornakk, they are working to fix the issue.We'll update this post when the issue has been corrected.
Upgrading to greens? Not so much
I have to agree with Lowangel: where's the upgrades? We all knew that the gear dropping in Northrend wasn't quite going to be as huge a jump as it was when we headed off to Outland, but I was only dressed in late Karazhan gear, and at this point, close to 73, I've upgraded one thing. I thought I'd get a little upgrade -- time and time again, I've picked up soulbound quest items, only to have to vendor them off because they don't have the hit I worked to get or the extra Agility on top of the Stamina I've already got.As much as I appreciate keeping the epics on, it is a little disappointing that I may not actually get new gear for ten levels (indeed, many of the folks who cleared the PvE content already were dressed in their old gear as well). Dressing yourself in clown greens is embarassing, but having no upgrades at all is a problem in the opposite direction. Bornakk says to be patient and that we'll find upgrades soon enough (and I have, to his credit, already seen a few nice rep items that I'd want, even if I don't have the rep to buy them yet). There are upgrades out there.But so far, I've only hit a few sidegrades and hardly any clearly better gear than what I had before. How about you?
Twenty two U.S. servers open for free character transfers
Normally there are only a handful of servers involved when Blizzard opens the door for free character moves. However Bornakk announced today a total of 22 U.S. servers that you can move off of. There are various groups of servers, labeled "Source A" through "Source E", that are allowing free moves to destination servers, labeled "Destination A" through "Destination E."If you are interested in taking advantage of these free moves, get in quickly as these offers have been known to close down once Blizzard meets their transfer goals. The transfers begin tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. PDT and end at 12:00 p.m. PDT on November 4th (election day, next Tuesday). You can begin the transfer process by visiting https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/character-move.html when the transfers are available starting tomorrow.The full list of servers are reproduced for you after the break.Good luck if you're moving!
PTR closed with a thank you from the blues
Bornakk and Maaven posted a thank you note to everyone in the Public Test Realm (PTR) forums this afternoon. The PTRs are now closed since patch 3.0.2 is coming out tomorrow. It was an interesting note in that it made sure to mention all of the feedback that they've gotten. The feedback for this patch (and Wrath of the Lich King in general) has been different from previous times. There has been a ton of constructive, well thought out posts on the official forums about all the changes. Often times they've attracted the attention of Lead Class Designer, Greg Street (aka Ghostcrawler), and the discussion that results from such series of posting are quite enlightening and entertaining.So no more PTR, a nice little thank you from Blizzard, and a whole lotta patch to look forward to tomorrow.
Could there be such a thing as life without the Lich King?
In response to one player's question, "After Arthas, what's left to kill?" Bornakk has revealed a surprising tidbit about the future of World of Warcraft. The answer is: Murlocs! That's right. After we kill Arthas, "instead of adding new creatures or new continents it will be just one area of endlessly spawning murlocs." Amazing fun! This is what I've been wishing for ever since I saw my first murlocs on the shores of Darkshore. Perhaps we'll be able to collect endless varieties of Murky pets, too! They could go by all sorts of cute names like Lurky, Quirky and Turky.Ah... to dream. Anyways, later in the same thread, Nethaera stops by too and adds her own meditation on the possible death of Arthas, reminding us of a most ancient question regarding trees falling in the woods without anyone to hear them: "If Arthas dies, does the Lich King also die?" This seems to be a pretty clear indication that the death of Arthas will not mean the death of the Lich King, and that the story of the Living versus the Dead will go even after the big bad prince bites the dust.Arthas and the Lich King has been a pretty huge part of the Warcraft story ever since before most of us were even familiar with it, and for some of us it feels strange that he might one day no longer be a part of it. In our interview with WoW's lead producer, he noted that both the Maelstrom and the Emerald Dream were once considered as possibilities for WoW's second expansion, but they chose Northrend and Arthas to come before them because it seemed like the strongest idea. But how strong is Arthas really? Could he ever compare to murlocs?No, but seriously, do you think the Lich King is just way too cool not to perpetuate indefinitely as the ultimate villain? Would you like to see Arthas get killed in one patch, while the Lich King returned in another, kind of like Kael'thas showed up twice in The Burning Crusade? Or do you think we're going to get our fill of Lich Kinginess -- so much so that once Arthas is dead, the Lich King and all the Scourge should just die for good along with him?
Northrend-flying quest removed in favor of cash payout
Drkshadow posted in the official forums with what he considers a slap in the face for folks looking to use their flying mounts in Northrend. (It's always a slap in the face, isn't it?) The quest to "attune" your mount to Northrend has been removed, and replaced with a simple 1000 gold payout. If you don't pay, you don't fly. Bornakk confirms the change only a few posts later. He says turning the attunement into a cash payment makes it easier for more players to get. It might suck to pay the 1000G for each hungry alt. But, really, if you consider it -- how hard is it to farm up 1000G on your main? I think Bornakk makes a fair point -- it's probably easier to just grab cash on your main than take a relatively undergeared alt through a quest over and over. Of course, we already knew that flying wasn't going to be very expensive. I guess someone might argue that 1000 gold can be a lot of cash, but that's really only a few days of dailies, or maybe a quick trip to sell loot at the auction house. At level 80, I'm just not going to get intimidated by a single grand.
Blizzard hosts an annual Pumpkin Contest
I love this time of year -- the leaves are turning colors, there's a cool breeze in the air, and we're getting closer and closer to both Hallow's End and Halloween. And speaking of Halloween, it's time once again for the annual Blizzard pumpkin contest -- Bornakk has the deets on the forums. Just carve up a pumpkin at least as cool as this one featuring Illy D (it was one of last year's winners), take a picture of it lit, and send it to the judges through this form. The pumpkins last year seemed very influenced by Burning Crusade, so this year, we'll probably see plenty of Arthas and Death Knight pumpkins in the entries (I'd like to see a Nerubian pumpkin, myself).I can't wait to see the winners, though truth be told, I just can't wait for Hallow's End -- the best candy of all are the purple Epics falling like rain off the Headless Horseman.
Forum post of the day: The challenge
As a whole was as WoW players are a pretty tough crowd to please. This is probably because of the diversity of the player base as well as the variable goals that we set for ourselves. We range from casual PvPers to hard core raiders. We all have our fair share of complaints, but judging by the games massive popularity, it seems Blizzard has done a decent job of responding to the competing demand of its subscribers. Amgusrex of Moon Guard is concerned that play in Wrath of the Lich King will not be challenging enough. He feels that Blizzard does a disservice to players by nerfing the difficulty of content with progressive patching. His post is pretty inflammatory, calling others cry babies and pointing toward a "massive population that is bad at video games." Taking a look at the Original Poster's Armory profile, I have to assume that he is not posting on his main, because if he is he still has to over come many challenges himself before declaring the game "easy mode."
Bornakk confirms raid nerf
Blue poster Bornakk has clarified what many people were noticing yesterday: all Burning Crusade raiding mobs have had their health reduced (approximately 30 percent according to data collected). He also goes on to say that the mobs will be doing less physical damage, although the spell damage will remain the same.As far my close and personal friend Illidan goes, he will no longer be casting Shear. While I understand the need for this, as a Warrior can no longer spam Shield Block come patch 3.0.2, I will miss this particular mechanic in that it truly provided a test of skill above the standard tank and spank mechanic.The HP nerf to all of the raid bosses isn't sitting too well with me either. It makes me sigh in frustration at the weeks my guild spent getting the last 25% of Brut down to a science. Had this nerf been in place three months ago, we would have killed him on the second night of attempts.But that is the life of these games, onward and upward towards Wrath of the Lich King!
Blizzard retracts honor point changes: honor points will not be reset
Bornakk has announced on the forums tonight that the honor points wipe they were going to do before Wrath of the Lich King will not be happening after all.Once again for clarity: honor points and PvP tokens will not be reset when WotLK is released. According to a post by Zarhym today, Arena points and teams will still be wiped immediately prior to Wrath's release.This is a very interesting change of policy. Blizzard announced last week that all honor points and tokens would be reset. Since that announcement, there has been significant outrage by many players that have saved up large amounts of honor and tokens. With this change players will be able to stockpile points and purchase level 80 PvP gear. However this gear will be "significantly more expensive" than current level 70 gear.We'll bring you any updates that develop on this breaking news.
Forum post of the day: Mobile love
Recently, rumors have been spreading about a mobile application for WoW. Blizzard has been trying to get some information through a series of mobile service polls on the forums. Bornakk began a poll regarding the number of times forum users have downloaded games or applications for cellular devices. In the cellular era, Blizzard appears to be making our favorite MMORPG more mobile friendly. Many of the posters indicated that they have the latest in smartphones and thus are constantly adding new aps. This will likely encourage Blizzard to provide better mobile support. This will be handy considering that they have been resistant to third party mobile applications.
Breakfast Topic: Your last breath
A pretty fun forum thread caught the attention of Bornakk and many, many regular posters as well. The player Course of Medivh-US asks a question: If your character said one last thing upon dying, what would it be? A majority of the responses were comedy answers, and only a handful leaned over to the serious side. The jokes were pretty hit or miss, but I got a few laughs out of it. Among my favorites... "Haha, you fool! You fell for one of the classic blunders, the first of which is, "never get involved in a land war in Kalimdor." Only slightly less well-known is this; never go in against a Gnome when death is on the line! Hahahaha... *dies*" "Pat? What pat?" "wwwwwwwwssssssssssddddddddaaawdssssd" "Et tu, Brutallus?" "With my dying breath, I curse Kalgan!" Being an RP nerd, my characters would probably say something more serious. My Priest would lament her failures or regret she couldn't have done more before the end. My Paladin probably wouldn't say anything. She would just harden a defiant glare and pass on. If we were leaning to the silly side, my Shadow Priest would probably say something like, "Whoops, shouldn't have hit Shadow Word: Death there." Actually, I probably say that a lot already... but let's not talk about that. Let's extend this to you guys: What would your character say with their final breath? Heck, how do you envision your character taking the final spill? Old and grey on their deathbed, going peacefully? Being cut down in glorious battle? Blowing themselves up while skilling up Engineering?
A new round of free character transfers announced
As of noon today, a new set of free character transfers are available from select realms due to their exceedingly high population. Bornakk says that these transfers will last until Wednesday, September 10th unless their transfer goal is met early. In that case, the character transfers will end early as well. Get in while you can, if you're on one of these realms!The realms Illidan, Mal'Ganis and Warsong have the option to transfer to the Zuluhed server. Aerie Peak, Area 52, Moon Guard, and Zul'Jin have the option of transferring to Muradin. On the Oceanic side of things, the servers Barthilas and Frostmourne may transfer to Dreadmaul if they so choose. Forum links embedded for your new-home-researching convenience.Remember, these transfers are only open until September 10th or until their transfer quota is met. If you're interested in moving, do it as soon as you can so you don't miss out.
Bornakk clarifies Achievements and Feats of Strength
Bornakk drops some serious knowledge about the difference between Achievements and Feats of Strength (both of which, apparently, are showing up as of patch 3.0). Achievements grant points, and are apparently things that you can accomplish in the game while they're given out -- if there is an achievement on the list, you can earn it. But Feats of Strength are different; not only do they not give points, but "some of them may no longer be possible to do." So Feats of Strength may include things like opening the AQ gates, and so on. The good news is that if there's an Achievement for something in the game, Blizzard will make sure that it's possible to jump through the hoops you need to do it.But the bad news is that there's really no way to know whether you'll get credit for either Achievements or Feats of Strength until the system shows up on the live realms. As we've heard, Blizzard is going to try to be as retroactive as possible -- they'll be looking at quests and maybe even equipment to determine who's killed which boss in the past. But nothing, as Bornakk says, is guaranteed -- you may get one achievement for an old boss, but you may need to redo another old boss again.There's one more great thing coming out of all of this as well -- hopefully, Achievements and Feats of Strength both will drive traffic back to the old content, and people who've never run Naxx or AQ, for example, will be able to find regular groups for "Achievement runs." Even people who've already downed the content will want to do back if their Feats of Strength don't register, so lots of people who didn't should have new chances to see it.
New Blizzcast: Professions, progression and patches, oh my
Blizzcast episode 4 is out, and it's chock full of the interesting discussion you've come to enjoy from the Blizzard crew. This episode includes some fantastic interviews on a variety of wide-ranging topics from the music of World of Warcraft's Sunwell Plateau to designing the various in-game professions, and caps off with a bunch of reader-submitted dev-answered questions -- and some tasty Starcraft II information! If you're curious about the things going on behind the scenes at Blizzard (you know, beyond frantically trying to fix the online store so people can pick up Blizzcon tickets) then be sure to check out Blizzcast #4! Or for those of you who aren't into podcasts (or who just don't have the ability to listen in right now) be sure to check out their handy transcription of the podcast, available now for your lunch-hour reading pleasure. One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!
Blizzcast Episode 4 reveals Warcraft information and insights
Blizzcast episode 4 is now live and available for listening, and with it, of course, has come a wealth of new World of Warcraft Information. Some of it is stuff we've gotten wind for before, but there's some interesting insights into the whole game. You can listen to it here and read the transcript here, or join us after the break for a breakdown of the juiciest information from the Interviews
