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Patch 5.4.7 hotfixes for April 14
A new round of hotfixes for patch 5.4.7 have been released and posted on the official blog. Most of the hotfixes from today involve old raid encounters and achievements -- including one fix that should please those just crazy enough to attempt the Insane in the Membrane achievement. Rygarius April 14 Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios Siege of Orgrimmar: Blackfuse Bombling should no longer be incorrectly awarded from the Spoils of Pandaria encounter. Ice Crown Citadel: Resolved an issue that could prevent players from being able to loot The Lich King if NPCs dealt fatal damage to him. The Eye: Additional safeguards have been added to the Kael'thas Sunstrider encounter that could cause him to sometimes not grant loot if he's defeated too quickly. Achievements Insane in the Membrane: Resolved an issue where Exalted status with the various Steamwheedle Cartel factions, as well as Honored status with the Bloodsail Buccaneers faction, were not properly being credited if those reputations subsequently decreased. Players should now be able to earn this achievement if they have ever brought those five reputations to the required levels. source
CCP shuttering World of Darkness
After a weekend full of Reddit rumors, CCP has formally announced that it is ceasing development on World of Darkness. The company laid off 56 employees from its Atlanta-based studio and will now focus exclusively on games set in its EVE Online universe. "To our current and former employees and fans of World of Darkness, I am truly sorry that we could not deliver the experience that we aspired to make," CEO Hilmar Petursson said in a statement. "We dreamed of a game that would transport you completely into the sweeping fantasy of World of Darkness, but had to admit that our efforts were falling regretfully short. One day I hope we will make it up to you."
The Heartbleed bug and its effect (or lack thereof) on Battle.net
The Heartbleed bug, as it's been dubbed, is certainly hot news lately, with various sites being impacted and password reset advice abounding. But Blizzard has some good news: Battle.net was unaffected. However, the advice is to change your password if you used the same one elsewhere. This is especially true if you're using the same email and password combination as you use for your Battle.net account on other sites. A big way that players get hacked, especially those without authenticators, is that their guild forums get hacked, or their email gets hacked, or their Facebook. Once those username and password combinations are known, it's possible for hackers to try them in various different places, one of which might be your Battle.net account. So be careful, mix up your passwords, and in light of these recent security issues, consider changing your passwords. It's also a good idea, again as a general rule, to get into the habit of changing your passwords fairly regularly, for everything. So now might be a great time to start, even though Battle.net is unaffected by the recent issues. Hit the break for Blizzard's full post.
Garrosh Heirlooms have Bad Luck Protection
Garrosh has been killed captured many times over, thanks in part to the heirlooms that he drops. Everyone wants one, and players are frustrated at what is seen as a very low drop rate. I am among those players, so Lead Encounter Designer Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas' tweets are music to my ears: @tomrom83 Garrosh heirlooms have "bad luck protection" - you should start to see more and more each week as you get more kills. - Watcher (@WatcherDev) April 10, 2014 @tomrom83 Yeah, separate items, so separate chances. You wouldn't want getting a Flex heirloom to hurt your Normal chance. Keep at it. Soon! - Watcher (@WatcherDev) April 10, 2014 This is great news, and indeed, on my tenth kill of Garrosh on my shaman, my 14th kill across all characters on that account, my bad luck was finally protected, and I got my first heirloom. The message to keep at it is a good one, and maybe in time, as the expansion wears on, the game's tolerance for bad luck will be adjusted. Or people will have killed him so many times that they're drowning in heirlooms. I'd love to know a little more about how bad luck protection works, too. How unlucky do you have to be, does getting one drop completely reset its count no matter how long that drop took to happen? How's your luck? For clarity, these heirlooms only drop from Flex and above.
Warlords of Draenor: New mount and NPC models discovered
AdriaCraft are at it again, digging through the data and powering up the Model Viewer to bring us images of some of the new NPC and mount models in Warlords of Draenor's Alpha. There's a couple of mounts like the Raven Lord that we've seen already, but a few that are new, like the Clefthoof, who also comes in various different colors. There's also a Giant Boar mount, also in red, and a Draenor Wolf, who also comes in three other color schemes. Apart from the mounts, there are various NPC models apart from Thrall, some of which have surfaced already, some of which haven't. Velen, Grommash, Durotan and Blackhand are all there. There's several varieties of Iron Horde machinery that have been found, as well as some pale orcs, new Talbuks and Sporebats which we heard about following the recent press event, and Elekk, Goren and Hippos. All of these come in a variety of colors, so do check out the original post for more info. But my favorite new model by far is the Draenor Ancient. Like all the models, he's in a variety of colors, but look at his grumpy face! What has you excited from this recent datamine?
Warlords of Draenor Beta Installer appears on Battle.net
WoW Insider was alerted to the presence of this installer on battle.net. It's apparently there for every account, even starter editions with no World of Warcraft license. Its presence should not, therefore, be taken as any indication of alpha invitations being sent out or access granted. Nonetheless, the installer is downloadable, and runs, as can be seen below. It appears to be a 24.48GB download, so the CASC file system's smaller size will likely not be seen at the install stage. This definitely is not a mis-labelled PTR, either, as it doesn't replace them on the game list in the launcher, and launching it from the desktop app gets you to a set of servers that just don't seem to work, so it looks like access is not set up just yet. Closing that window will put you back to the Warlords of Draenor alpha-style Dark Portal login screen. There is not access to the game at this point. [Thanks for the tip, @Spazzo!]
Warlords of Draenor: Artcraft provides first look at new female draenei
Just the other day Artcraft revealed the new male tauren models--complete with animations and videos--and today they're at it again with a sneak peek at the (real) new draenei female model. This is a quick look, as emphasized in the post itself, because the model has yet to be sent to the animation team. As a result you'll notice her posture in this preview is quite different from the draenei model we know and love. That will change once the animation team gets a chance to properly rig and pose the model, but for now we're getting a glimpse of a work very much in-progress. At first glance, the new draenei model doesn't seem as different from the old one as the tauren or orc models, for example, but this is to be expected. The original draenei (and blood elf) models, implemented in Burning Crusade, were a significant step up from the models of classic WoW. That being said, there's marked improvement in these previews. The hair, the detail of the leg musculature, and in particular the hands all give our beloved draenei much more depth and finesse in the body. The curvature of her head-tentacles is also much smoother and more realistic-looking. This is a nice upgrade from the current draenei, and I look forward to seeing more.
Blizzard registers "Overwatch" trademark?
We've heard from various recent news sources that Blizzard has registered a new trademark. Of course, we recognize the scepticism, following last years incidents with The Dark Below and the associated silliness, but let's take a cautious look at this one. The trademark is "Overwatch", a term usually used to denote small, supporting military units. Blizzard hired Left 4 Dead developer Michael Booth last year, and it seems like he is directing a small project, with a similar team size to Hearthstone, that isn't Titan. There have been various job listings for positions with this new project, some of which talk about multiplayer experiences and maps. Now this might all be nonsense, but perhaps it points to a new military-styled game coming out of Irvine. There has long been speculation that Blizzard's next franchise would be a shooter, but with Titan ostensibly on the shelf for now, could this new small team production be that game? We're understandably cautious in our presentation of this information, but it's certainly interesting.
Patch 5.4.7 hotfixes for April 7
A new round of hotfixes for patch 5.4.7 have been released and posted on the official blog. While the list is pretty small, it includes a few important changes for players, including the fact that world bosses in Mists of Pandaria are no longer tap-to-faction -- something that was revealed last week. There's also one particularly nice change for players that like to farm old content. Players frustrated with the five instances per hour limit on World of Warcraft accounts should be pleased to note that that number has now been increased to 10. Shaman, an issue that caused the visual effect for Healing Rain to persist indefinitely has been fixed. All world bosses in Mists of Pandaria are no longer tap-to-faction -- players from both factions can engage the boss at the same time and receive loot. Read on for the full list of hotfixes.
Here's a look at ESO's first major content update
Ready for Elder Scrolls Online's first major content update? Me too, but since it's not out yet, we'll have to make do with this video preview. It's a four-minute clip detailing the Craglorn adventure zone, which is aimed at high-level players and features new quests, incentives to explore, main story updates, dungeons, and quite a bit more. Click past the cut to see for yourself!
Warlords of Draenor: Adriacraft hunts down new male tauren model
Our friends over at Adriacraft have been busy mining away at data from the Warlords of Draenor alpha, and discovered something interesting -- the new tauren male model. While we saw a brief glimpse of the model at BlizzCon, it was just a flat model, lacking expression or animation. The images from Adriacraft look to be from the character selection screen, and the model has its familiar stance and expression. Adriacraft has other shots from the character selection screen as well, including both male and female dwarves, male and female gnomes, and the male orc model. A tweet from Senior Art Director Chris Robinson indicated that the tauren male and his animations will be featured in an upcoming edition of Artcraft -- so players wondering what the model looks like with some emotion on its face may not have to wait too long to see it. For more screenshots and images of the new models, take a look at our gallery.
Connected Realms update for April 4
The list of US realms slated for the Realm Connection service has now been updated with new information regarding upcoming dates for the service. However, the schedule looks a little different now. Realm merges that were scheduled for Thursday, April 10 are no longer scheduled for connection -- in fact, there are no scheduled realm connections at this point in time. The realms listed below are on the list of future realm connections, but do not have a date set. Drenden and Arathor Nagrand and Caelestrasz Blackwater Raiders and Shadow Council
Warlords of Draenor Alpha testing begins
Warlords of Draenor Alpha has officially begun! While at this stage testing is limited, players may feel free to opt-in to future beta testing by going to the Beta Profile Settings on your Battle.net account. Interestingly enough, along with this announcement comes the announcement of a new file format to compress and store game files. The new file format, CASC, replaces the MPQ file formatting Blizzard has been using for the past 20 years. Keep in mind that this is an alpha announcement -- beta has not officially begun. No beta keys have been emailed out. If you receive an email offering a beta key, ignore it for now -- as more information about the new expansion releases, phishing attempts are like to rise as well. Check out Blizzard's full announcement regarding the Alpha, and keep your eyes peeled -- with a client available, datamining will likely begin soon. Update: Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas had the following to say about the Alpha: Don't read too much into the word "Alpha." We have a LOT of content that's ready for testing. http://t.co/c93xZhSOt1- Watcher (@WatcherDev) April 3, 2014
Blizzard clarifies Challenge Mode Realm Best titles [Updated]
Lead Encounter Designer Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas has taken to the official forums to provide more clarity on the removal of Realm Best Challenge mode titles. As ever, you can read the full post after the break, but in summary, if you're really unhappy about the removal of the titles, it's not good news. Watcher explains the various options they considered, giving a title to everyone who'd ever been realm first, which was dismissed as too problematic for the next season. He also explains how leaving the titles with those who held them at the end of the season would not work because if those players changed servers they'd lose the server-tied titles. Response has been largely dissatisfied. It seems to me, and I may be wrong, I am not a WoW dev after all, that it would not be so huge a feat to create a new title for those players at the top of the ranks at the season end. Challenge Modes have been compared to arenas before, and this could work exactly the same. A title like "Mystical Challenger [Name]" could be applied in the week following the end of the season, attached to the character not the server, just like they do for arena Rank One. And just like arena, players would have to vy for those realm-best top spots right up to the last weeks. The Arena comparison makes a lot of sense to me, so let's keep it going. Hit the break for the full post, and an update posted after time of writing!
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.
Challenge mode rewards clarified for "end of season"
Blizzard has posted a blog detailing changes to the proposed "end-of-season" challenge mode rewards. They had previously posted a rather firm policy, detailing how this season's rewards would remain limited to those who'd previously earned them, and not be account wide. However, it seems they've changed their mind. Hit the break for the full post, as ever, but let's summarise the key points here: The "Undaunted" title for all bronze medals will be account wide, so useable on any character. The Pandaren Phoenix mounts earned with a full set of Silver medals will become account-wide. If any character on your account has a full set of Silver medals, all four of the Pandaren Phoenixes (Crimson, Ashen, Violet, and Emerald) will become available to all characters. Cosmetic sets will not be account wide. If you have all nine Gold medals, you can still buy the sets after the season ends on the character that earned the medals. The "Challenger's Path" spells will be retained. Realm Best titles will be permanently removed. Hit the break for the full post.
Review of World of Warcraft: Paragons
With all the chatter surrounding Christie Golden's next novel, I have to admit I'd almost forgotten that World of Warcraft: Paragons was set to release today. It's definitely not your usual sort of novel, instead holding a collection of short stories lore fans are likely already familiar with, all tucked into one book for easy referencing -- but it also includes the long-awaited novella Blood of the Highborne, by Micky Neilson. That said, fans looking for new, current lore aren't going to find any in this particular collection. However, the book contains all of the leader short stories that were released over the course of Cataclysm's run, as well as a few other shorts -- Unbroken, the story of Farseer Nobundo, The War of the Shifting Sands, a piece that was released just before the launch of AQ40, and Road to Damnation, the story of Kel'thuzad, released just before the launch of the original iteration of Naxxramas all the way back in vanilla. It's Blood of the Highborne that really stands out among the collection, not necessarily because it's better than the rest, but because it's brand-new content that fills in a gap that's been missing in lore -- the conception and introduction of the Blood Knights of Silvermoon.
Dragon Soul LFR changes possible in 6.0
Transmog addicts may have some good news for patch 6.0. When LFR was introduced with Dragon Soul, the last raid in Cataclysm, players flocked to the content and gathered armor and items that had their own unique color schemes. After Mists of Pandaria was introduced, players leveled to 90 -- and the ability to run Dragon Soul on LFR difficulty disappeared. While players can still farm the raid on Normal and Heroic difficulties, the unique color sets released specifically for LFR were no longer available to those max level characters. This was in part due to the nature of LFR. The only way to raid LFR level content is to queue for it through the raid finder interface -- you can't simply change the dropdown difficulty on a per-character basis, as you can with Normal and Heroic difficulties. Once you've passed the level threshold for Cataclysm content, the option to raid Dragon Soul LFR simply disappears from the raid finder interface. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem -- but transmogrification addicts everywhere have been looking for a solution to obtaining those older, uniquely colored items, and Lead Game Designer Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas just tweeted that a solution may be on the way in patch 6.0.
Connected Realms update for March 28
The list of US realms slated for the Realm Connection service has now been updated with new information regarding upcoming dates for the service. Players on Borean Tundra, Shadowsong, Dreden, and Arathor may want to note that the scheduled dates for connection of these realms have changed. The following realms have been scheduled for connection on Thursday, April 3. Borean Tundra and Shadowsong Dath'Remar and Khaz'goroth Read on for the rest of the connections and dates.
Tameable hydras for hunters officially on the way?
Hunters may remember with some sadness the brief moment in time back in 2011 when hydra pets were datamined from the patch 4.1 PTR. Unfortunately, the pet never made it to live servers, leaving those with hopes of taming a three-headed beastie for their very own to wait until a later time. Apparently, that time is coming soon. Game Designer Jeremy Feasel tweeted the tantalizing image shown above yesterday, along with the following tweet. Wish they'd stop biting each other and help me kill this thing! #Hunters #StopHittingYourself #3HeadsAreBetter pic.twitter.com/yfh0Lhsabh- Jeremy Feasel (@Muffinus) March 28, 2014
