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Patch 5.2 PTR: Raid testing for Throne of Thunder continues
Raid testing for patch 5.2's Throne of Thunder raid continues tomorrow with testing of 10 player heroic content. For those wondering where all the 25 player testing is at, fear not -- there will likely be testing of 25-man normal modes at the end of this week. Keep your eyes peeled! Raid tests tomorrow will take place at 10:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and 4 PM PST. If this is your first time testing, fear not -- your gear will be scaled to suit the encounter. WoW Insider Throne of Thunder boss impressions Jin'rokh, the Breaker Horridon (Olivia's take) Iron Qon Lei Shen, the Thunder King Tortos Megaera Raid Testing Schedule -- February 20 On Wednesday, February 20, we will be testing more raid encounters in the Throne of Thunder. Note that we will likely be doing 25-player Normal testing (of many encounters) on Thursday and Friday. I'll post a schedule for those tomorrow. Each encounter should be available at approximately the listed times below for all Public Test Realms. Wednesday, February 20 Horridon - 10 Player Heroic 10:30 PST (13:30 EST, 19:30 CET) Ji-Kun - 10 Player Heroic 13:30 PST (16:30 EST, 22:30 CET) Primordius - 10 Player Heroic 16:00 PST (19:00 EST, 01:00 CET) As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a beta environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session, change the boss being tested, or cancel a test entirely, due to bugs, server hardware issues, etc. Keep an eye on this forum for the latest information, and thank you in advance for testing and providing feedback. Important Testing Notes Q: How do I get into the raid zone? A: At the northeastern edge of the swamp on the Thunder King's island, there is a Shado-Pan camp in a small cave. A sewer grate in this cave will take you directly to the zone-in point for the raid zone. (As more of the island unlocks, players will be able to access the main gate directly.) Q: What gear do I use to test the raid? A: As we did for Beta raid testing, we will be scaling players' gear inside the raid in order to facilitate testing. Gear will be scaled (up or down, as appropriate) for the purposes of testing the encounters, depending on difficulty and their location within the zone. source
The warning signs of player burnout
Does logging in fill you with dread? Do you feel obligated to log in? Are you only playing because you feel like it's expected of you, or that your guild will fall apart without you? Do you resent them for it? If you can answer yes to any of these questions, then you, dear reader, are suffering from player burnout. Player burnout is a consequence of social gaming. In a game like World of Warcraft, activities like raiding, arena or rated battlegrounds cannot be accomplished alone, they require groups of people to engage in them. They require scheduling and ask us to do more than simply show up and play - there's research into strategies, learning proper group composition, handling the minutia of loot distribution or discussing how to counter specific enemy action or what have you. Especially when leading a group of players into these situations, there's a level of added responsibility. Be it as a tank, as a DPS lead, as the person calling for focus fire in arena, the flag carrier in rated BG play, or as the person behind the scenes managing loot council or running the website, players can grow exhausted with what comes to feel like a burden. So what if you're going through player burnout? What can you do about it? Well, I'm no psychiatrist, but there are a few things you can do in game to reduce your stress level.
Patch 5.2's jewelcrafting changes and how to profit
There are going to be some new important recipes in 5.2 for Jewelcrafters: a "prism" style daily cooldown Serpent's Heart, and a no-cooldown recipe that allows you to craft the uncut meta gems, Primal Diamonds, out of gems and Spirits of Harmony. Kaliope reports that both recipes are world drops in Pandaria on the PTR, and shouldn't take long to farm. Serpent's Prism would have been a better name While the profession is better designed than ever (with much less waste for shufflers and far fewer items ending up at the vendor), the Serpent's Eyes that you get while prospecting Mists ore tend to pile up. They're used to make the 450 crafted jewelry, but the market for that isn't nearly as large as the supply of Serpent's Eyes. Many people end up making these into blues and disenchanting them so they're not wasted. Now that all JCs will have the option of turning three Serpent's Eyes into a prism every day, that will provide an outlet for the Eyes that may be more profitable than the 450 blues. So far, only a few Prisms have been opened, but they seem to award a random blue gem, just like prisms from expansions past. Since it's on a daily cooldown, it's unlikely to be able to push down the price of blue gems much. Is it worth using Spirits of Harmony? The new Primal Diamond recipe has no cooldown, but requires Spirits of Harmony which are their own sort of cooldown. One criticism of Jewelcrafting has been that JCs have nothing except research and extremely low-liquidity mini-pets to spend their Spirits of Harmony on. Jewelcrafters generate Spirits as quickly as any other character, and in theory, it'd be nice to have a JC option to use them on. Especially seeing as how anyone doing daily research will have almost certainly finished learning all their cuts by now.
Ra-den encounter features a return of limited attempts
The Throne of Thunder has been compared to Ulduar in more ways than one -- the size and scope of the dungeon, the multitude of boss encounters, and even the thematic elements of the dungeon itself. But it looks like there is one more comparison to add to the pile. Ra-den, the bonus boss unlocked only upon defeating Lei-Shen on heroic mode, has a mechanic to limit the number of times he can be engaged in any given week. Those that remember Algalon remember the one hour limit on attempting the boss. One careless pull, one wipe, one disconnect could potentially ruin a guild's chances for downing the boss in a lockout period. But Ra-den isn't limited by a time clock; instead, he's simply limited by the number of attempts a guild can make. Screenshots have shown that number to be 30, however keep in mind that the number of attempts, and even the limited nature of the encounter, can be changed at any time. Patch 5.2 is still on the PTR, after all. Blue poster and Game Designer Watcher had some words of wisdom to share following the unplanned discovery of Ra-den's limited attempts on the PTR.
Why do you play what you play?
Life is complicated. There's no simple answers to most of our problems, and even if you think there are, there are lots of people who disagree with you. Life is fraught with tension, with situations that require tact and even diplomacy to navigate. This is one of the reasons I enjoy playing warriors. I enjoy their straightforward approach to problem solving. In the real world, my troubles are usually things that simply can't be dealt with via the application of a gigantic axe to their heads (my bills just refuse to die no matter how much I try and stab them) but I face no such difficulty in World of Warcraft. To me, the game is escapism, a couple of hours in a world where the stakes are larger than life, but the solutions are much more primal and basic. Sometimes you just want to yell Hulk smash.
Do we need a cross-realm Auction House?
I live on a dying server. It's not quite dead, but it's slowly withering away. I'm not sure what happened, exactly, but I have an idea of when -- at the beginning of Wrath of the Lich King, Dalaran was packed. By the end of the expansion, there were far fewer people running around. Orgrimmar in Cataclysm was a quiet place to be, and in Mists, the Horde shrine is populated by a few handful of players. As I said, I don't know what happened, but for some reason the masses that were on my server when I rolled there in Burning Crusade have all but evaporated. On the one hand, it makes Pandaria a pretty quiet, idyllic place to be. There's hardly any competition for rare spawns, and you don't really have to compete with anyone for quest mobs or ore nodes or herbs, either. There's hardly any drama on the server, by and large because there really aren't enough people around to generate it. Sure, there are a few jerks, but it seems like everyone on the realm is generally relaxed and well-behaved -- as long as you stay out of Trade Chat. On the other hand, it makes trying to buy or sell anything on the auction house an absolute nightmare.
New short story, The Trial of the Red Blossoms, now available
It appears that Blizzard is far from done with short stories on the official website -- and that seems to be a pretty good thing. The Trial of the Red Blossoms, written by Cameron Dayton, is the latest offering to hit the official website. And for those wondering, there isn't a Li Li in sight in this tale. Instead, we get a tale highlighting just what it takes to become one of the Shado-pan, woven through the eyes of a young, scrawny pandaren thief simply named Ten. If you thought that Pandaria and its residents were all about good cheer, food and drink, it's time to think again. The Shado-pan are among the least sociable of the pandaren, and are quite vividly illustrated as a group of warriors that you really, really don't want to mess with. It's a dark, grim tale about some of Pandaria's darkest, grimmest citizens -- and it absolutely shines. Ten is nothing like the sometimes too-precocious to handle Li Li, and his past and future hang in the balance of the Shado-pan. Whether or not he can rise to the occasion is entirely up to him. The Trial of the Red Blossoms appears to be the first of what may be the next collection of short stories. Cataclysm saw the Leader Short Story series, and Trial is filed under Faction Stories on the Expanded Universe page, suggesting there are more tales of other factions to come. If they are even half as good as Trial, I suspect we're in for a treat this expansion. And frankly, I can't wait to see if we're finally going to get some dirt on the August Celestials. You can read The Trial of the Red Blossoms on the official website, in the Destination: Pandaria section of the Expanded Universe guide. And as an added bonus this time around, the story is available for download in multiple formats -- choose from PDF format, ePUB format for the smartphone, tablet or Nook, or mobi format for the Amazon Kindle.
Should free-for-all PvP be applied to battlegrounds?
Yesterday, I finished gathering valor points for Wrathion, and moved on to the next step of the legendary chain. Unfortunately, this included winning two battlegrounds. I say unfortunately because while I enjoyed PvP back in the days of vanilla and Burning Crusade, I really haven't focused on PvP all that much since then. In fact, other than some excursions into Wintergrasp and Tol Barad, I tend to avoid it altogether. It's not that I don't enjoy PvP, honestly -- it's that I know, deep down in my heart, that I'm not terribly good at it. So I stay out of the battlegrounds and let those that know what they are doing excel at it. But last night's excursion into the Temple of Kotmogu and the Silvershard Mines were eye-opening, to say the least. Temple of Kotmogu was an incredibly fun frenzy of grabbing orbs and killing players, and escorting carts in the Silvershard Mines was pretty entertaining, too. Still, sometimes I miss the days where PvP was all about killing other players. It turns out, I'm not alone.
Things I wish would return to World of Warcraft
It's inevitable that as the game progresses, some elements are lost. Story elements work to a conclusion, gameplay elements are left by the wayside. The game changes. We can't and shouldn't constantly strive for the game to return to yesterday, but there are some elements of the past that deserve re-examination and perhaps a return to the game. Especially if they can be returned without disrupting what we already have. So to prove that even I have a nostalgia core here is my contribution to the discussion, a list of things I would like to see make some form of return to World of Warcraft.
Should valor upgrades be removed permanently?
I'm a raider at heart. Sure, I took a break back in Burning Crusade, but when I returned to raiding it was with a vengeance, albeit in a slightly less hardcore fashion. Mists of Pandaria started out with several different raids that are continuing to keep my guild occupied and will likely keep us occupied right up to patch 5.2's release -- and that's an excellent thing. Dragon Soul, no matter how interesting a few of those fights were, was simply not enough to keep my guild occupied right up until the end of Cataclysm. In fact, Mists of Pandaria started out with a whole flurry of activity to keep everyone well and truly busy for the first couple of months. Daily quests were something that I threw myself into without flinching -- partially out of interest for the stories and quests, but also, yes, because I wanted to make sure I upgraded my gear as quickly as possible. Doing this flurry of dailies meant that I was capping valor incredibly early in the week, and spending it as fast as I obtained it. But there's kind of a problem with that now, and it's being addressed to some small degree in patch 5.2. See, part of that whole raiding process is making sure you're in the gear you need. Now, it also includes upgrading your gear as quickly as you can, putting even more emphasis on capping valor just as quickly as possible. Is all that pressure a good thing?
Patch 5.2 PTR: Killing Throne of Thunder's Ji-Kun
Rejoining Lore from TankSpot and his guild Months Behind, Ji-Kun was our next target. Hers is an interesting fight, which somewhat split the group's opinions, leaving us undecided on whether it was genius or gimmick. Rather like Alysrazor in Firelands, Ji-Kun has a mechanic involving feathers. Actually, she has several mechanics involving feathers, if you include Quills, but the main one I'm thinking of here, indeed the main mechanic of the fight as it is intended, is Daedalian Wings. The tooltip isn't enormously useful here, but this is the buff received by players when they loot feathers from killing off the Hatchlings in one of the nests. Ji-Kun is positioned on a very elevated platform in the center of a circular room, with five other platforms positioned around the edge, below her level, and four more platforms positioned above her. These platforms are the key to this fight, which, apart from their mechanic, is, frankly, rather dull. Some of your party will be traveling to and from the lower platforms, while most will likely remain on the upper.
WoW goes on sale in the EU and the US
As of today, in preparation for patch 5.2, all of WoW has gone on sale! The world's gamers can pick up the entire game at a huge discount, as posted today. Blizzard The Thunder King's return looms on the horizon, and to prepare for the storm, Blizzard has just slashed prices on all World of Warcraft games by up to 70%! Now is the time to recruit your friends to begin their epic quest in Azeroth. But hurry-this deal ends February 25. Price in pound sterling is £4 for Battle Chest, £6 for Cataclysm and £15 for Mists of Pandaria. source Do note that these prices are correct for the digital versions, as physical products are currently unavailable from the EU Blizzard Store. If it's physical versions you're after, and you're in the EU, then the US Blizzard Store with the associated delivery charges and potential for import duty is your only option. But exercise caution, and ensure that any game purchased can be played in your region. The US sale offers the Battle Chest for $5, Cataclysm for $10, and Mists of Pandaria for $20. US players can get either the boxed version or the digital version for this price. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Ol' Grumpy and the dumbing down debate
Hey, boys and girls, it's your old pal Ol' Grumpy. I haven't been around that often lately, partially because I haven't really found all that much to complain about lately. Luckily (or unluckily) there are always other people, who will do that kind of thing for you. Recently, I've seen the dread beast rear its ugly head again. What am I talking about? Well, I'm talking about the old canard "Why did you dumb the game down" that pops up on the forums from time to time. It is almost always incredibly subjective and drags out 'examples' that are, at best, arguable. It usually shows more about the person making it than the game itself, and it always makes all the hair (and I have a lot of hair) stand up in irritation. I really dislike this argument. Every single time I've seen or heard it, it's been used not to actually protest a decline in game complexity but to argue 'the game was better/harder/more fun when we had to do X" in some kind of demented paean to nostalgia and obstructionism. Frankly, I don't understand this mindset. "Back when I started the game, we had weapon skill, but then you dumbed it down" seems insane to me. How did weapon skill require any thought, exactly?
Patch 5.2 PTR: Isle of the Thunder King testing unlock schedule
Nakatoir has posted today regarding the impending advancement of the Thunder King on the patch 5.2 PTR, laying out the unlock schedule of the unlockable isle. Nakatoir World of Warcraft Patch 5.2: The Thunder King is almost here. The Kirin-Tor Offensive, led by Jaina Proudmoore, and the Sunreaver Onslaught, championed by Lor'themar Theron, are converging on the Isle of the Thunder King to topple the first emperor before he can wreak havoc across Pandaria. Their campaign will march slowly across the island, unlocking new content over time. We're ready to test the full breadth of the island, and that's where you come in: Players who participate on the Public Test Realm can enjoy an accelerated unlock schedule, blasting from the beach to the shores and into the Thunder King's inner citadel in a matter of a few short weeks. By participating, you'll be a great asset to Jaina and Lor'themar. More importantly, you'll help us knock out any nasty problems with the island and its progression before we go live. Transfer over a character and report to the Vale of Eternal Blossoms for instructions! source So, if you want to be among the first to witness the new storylines, the new lore, zones and quests, copy a character or create a pre-made! The full unlock schedule is after the break, so you can understand how the island will progress. Please do note that this is a testing schedule only, not a prediction of a release date. Spoiler Alert! Minor spoilers after the break.
Patch 5.2 PTR: New fishing events, battle pets, and El
Fishing has seen a few changes in patch 5.2, including a new fishing event that has been added on the PTR. El from El's Extreme Anglin' has all the details, as well as an NPC in game as a nod to the fishing expert. But those that were dreading the thought of another tournament can breathe a sigh of relief, as there doesn't seem to be any contest involved with the new fishing event -- just a whole lot of fishing. Dubbed "pool migrations" by El, the new fishing event spawns multiple pools in one of eight different areas across Pandaria. Seven of these locations are marked on the minimap by a red x, shown on the map above. Each spot has a multitude of rapid-spawning pools that contain the same fish as usual, but occasionally you'll encounter one very, very large pool, home to Krakkanon, a giant sea monster that can be engaged and defeated for rare rewards and a multitude of fish.
World of Warcraft subs drop to 9.6 million
Activision has posted its Q4 2012 earnings report today showing a rise in profits totaling $1.14 billion, or a 257 percent increase over last year. While this is certainly good news for the company and fans of most of its titles, World of Warcraft subscribers have dropped to 9.6 million from the Q3 2012 number of 10 million, but still up from the Q2 2012 figure of 9.1 million. Of course, World of Warcraft is in no danger of losing its position as the number one subscription-based MMO title, according to the company, but with most MMOs switching over or launching with no subscription, the competition in that realm continues to dwindle.
Patch 5.2 PTR: How to get your hands on Sunsong Ranch
When we last visited Sunsong Ranch in patch 5.2, it was to news of several improvements of the farming content. This included some changes to the Master Plow, some changes to the way seeds were planted, and to top it all off, the option to purchase your farm and make it your very own. This meant that the farm would turn into a rest point and an area where one could immediately log out of the game -- something that players had been requesting ever since they began helping Yoon and planting their own crops on his farm. While we knew that the option would eventually be added, it was not available with patch 5.2's first iteration on the PTR. So we had no news on how much it would cost, what kind of reputation you would need to have, or what exactly would happen to Farmer Yoon after you purchased his property. The latest build to hit the PTR has now unlocked the feature, and players can now test out the content to their heart's content. But uh ... you can't purchase the farm.
Patch 5.2: Valor and Conquest Points will be reset
Given that patch 5.2 includes a new raid and a new PvP season, it is no great surprise that Valor and Conquest points are being reset. However, one element of said reset is not proceeding quite how recent arrivals to Azeroth might expect. Blizzard PvE Valor -> Justice All Valor is converted to Justice Justice -> Gold Justice above the 4000 cap is converted to gold at a rate of 47 silver per point So let's say the realms go down for the 5.2 patch and you have 450 Valor and 3800 Justice. Because of the 4000 Justice cap, you'd log back in after the patch is released with 0 Valor, 4000 Justice, and be 117 gold and 50 silver richer after the conversion. With 5.2 we won't be changing current Valor items to cost Justice, but they will be much cheaper (discounts from 50-75% off their current costs). You'll need to acquire Valor after the patch is released to buy pieces for their discounted rate, or to buy the new 5.2 Valor items, but we're also introducing new items to spend your Justice on, including heirlooms and Pet Battle stones. source This seems to follow the logic of Blizzard's raid nerf strategy, where players' prior efforts are not wholly negated, but will doubtless ruffle a few feathers. There is also further information provided about Charms, and PvP points.
Patch 5.2 PTR: Updated abilities and quality of life changes for pet battles
I find myself logged onto a different character every time I'm doing a round of pet battle dailies. It shouldn't be an issue, because pets are account bound, but there's just one little thing: Battle Pet Bandages. I never earn any on my main character -- maybe it's bad luck. It's very frustrating to end up with a defeated team, Revive Battle Pets on cooldown, and no stable master nearby. Oh, and no bandages! Well, it feels like the devs really have been listening to the battle pet community, because they released a few quality of life updates on the PTR that (mostly) will make pet battlers happy campers. Battle Pet Bandages now stack and are Bind to Account. Level-capped players will now have a chance to earn Lesser Charms of Good Fortune after winning a pet battle versus a pet within 5 levels of the highest level pet on their team. Higher-level pets will offer a better chance to earn a charm. Winning a pet battle versus a team within 5 levels of the player's highest-level pet will now award player experience. I'm so happy to see that pet bandages will be Bind to Account. Being able to funnel every precious bandage to one character will make things much easier -- especially for the altoholics out there. And three huge huzzahs to earning stuff while battling pets! It takes quite a bit of time to grind every pet battle achievement, even with power leveling newbie pets. So, earning rewards normally reserved for playing through PvE content turns pet battling into time well spent. I'm tempted to level a character solely through pet battles, now that winning one will grant player experience! You can check out the full list of updated pet battle patch notes at the official site, but to make things easier we've compiled the complete list of notes after the break.
Know Your Lore: The evolution of Varian Wrynn
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. We can't really take a good look at Garrosh Hellscream without taking a look at his Alliance counterpart, King Varian Wrynn. Varian is an enigma in his own right, although for different reasons than Garrosh. Where Garrosh was a character that was introduced and shown in every aspect in the game itself, Varian is notable for being ... absent. He wasn't there for vanilla WoW. He wasn't there for Burning Crusade. Varian didn't make his first appearance in game until the launch event for Wrath of the Lich King, and exploded onto the scene with an attitude that threw a lot of players off. Where Garrosh saw all of his development play out in-game, even the odd disconnected moments, Varian saw his play out through a series of comics and novels. Most of his history is a big question mark to many players. While not quite as big an unknown as Lor'themar Theron, people still wonder -- who is this guy? Where did he come from, and why was he so angry when he returned? And perhaps most importantly -- where did he turn from angry leader in the Ulduar cinematic to the far more patient leader we're seeing in Mists? Oddly enough, his story and Garrosh's mirror each other far more than you'd think.
