Pre-Expansion
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World of Warcraft patch 6.0.2 release date announced
You need wait no longer -- World of Warcraft patch 6.0.2, the pre-expansion patch for Warlords of Draenor, has been officially announced for next week. The upcoming patch features a host of systems changes - talent and abilities changes, the item squish, the removal of justice and valor points, the end of PvP Season 15, as well as a new world event involving the Iron Horde invasion and a new level 90 version of Blackrock Spire. Head over to the official site and take a look at the announcement, and get ready for the Iron Tide to roll in.
World of Warcraft to award instant level 90 characters with Warlords of Draenor pre-purchase
It's easy to kind of get stuck in the pre-expansion doldrums in World of Warcraft right now. Yes, you really want to have one more character up at the level cap, but you can't bear the thought of leveling any more. So what are you going to do? Well... you could just pre-purchase the expansion and get your instant level 90 character immediately, thereby saving you any more work leveling through the expansion and letting you just catch up a bit before its launch. All right, you can't do all of that right now, but the development team has confirmed that digitally pre-purchasing the expansion will give you your instant 90... instantly. No word yet on launch dates, but players can opt in for the beta testing right now via the Battle.net account management page. The company is also testing the idea of adding in the level 90 boost to the game's store, allowing you to bring as many characters as you want up to the cap without any fuss.
Why Mists of Pandaria needs one more patch
We're at that time in World of Warcraft where I'm not quite done with the expansion we have - there's still a few things I'd like to do like kill Heroic Garrosh - but at the same time, we've been playing long enough that I'm starting to really, really feel the urge to move on to a new place. At the least, I'd really like to feel finished with Pandaria. It's not that I didn't or don't like the expansion. Nothing could be further from the truth. In many ways, I still feel like this was the best expansion, in terms of pure storytelling - an incredible amount of story unfolded over the past year and four months, if you get right down to it. The voyage we undertook to a distant shore ended up teaching us almost as much about the world we left behind, ultimately taking us to a confrontation at the very gates of Orgrimmar. Garrosh Hellscream's journey from Warchief to reviled enemy of almost the world entire, even his own faction, was surprising and at times maddening and I played through it on both factions. There were some deeply troubling twists - to this day, I look back on the Dalaran purge on my worgen and shudder at stalking and killing an elf for the crime of wearing the wrong color and trying to take his money with him when he fled, while my tauren felt responsible for it all, having stolen the Divine Bell in the first place. After all of it - after having marched from the Jade Forest and those first arrivals to here, after having seen the destruction we left in our wake and done what I could to ameliorate it only to see it eventually bring even the Vale of Eternal Blossoms to the brink, after having finally waged war all the way back to that chamber deep beneath Orgrimmar I feel conflicted. I feel like there's more to do - the sha need to be cleaned out of the Vale, for instance, and the final fate of the mogu and mantid would be nice to discover - but at the same time, there's the urge that got me to Pandaria in the first place. The urge to go somewhere new. And that's likely still a way's away at this point. It's times like this, I actually miss Halion.
One Shots: Nobody steps on a church in my town
Can you feel the excitement? In less than a month, World of Warcraft is set to go explody as Deathwing takes flight. We suspect a sudden real-life "flu" epidemic may break out (or perhaps some very well-timed vacations) on December 7th. In the meantime, the pre-launch oddities are starting to crop up, such as this one, witnessed by Turkìsh of Garona. While he didn't send us a note to go with this particular image (perhaps he's busy making his peace), the full-size image in the gallery should explain itself to heretics and non-believers. Are you troubled by strange noises in the middle of the night? Do you experience feelings of dread in your basement or attic? Have you or your guildmates ever seen a dragon, dragonkin, or fire elemental? If the answer is "yes," then don't wait another minute! Fire up your MMO client and email your screenshots to the professionals... One Shots! Our courteous and efficient staff can be reached at oneshots@massively.com, 24 hours a day, to serve all your Azerothian supernatural screenshot posting needs. Be sure to include your name and a brief description. We're ready to believe you! %Gallery-85937%
