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Warlords of Draenor: More details on the Ashran faction hubs
So in case you didn't hear, this morning we learned that in Warlords of Draenor, the faction hubs will be moving from Karabor and Bladespire Fortress to Ashran. Now CM Lore has posted to the official forums with a more detailed post explaining exactly what's entailed in the change and why it was made. Lore - Hubs no longer Karabor/Bladespire Okay, there's a LOT of misunderstandings and misinformation floating around, so let me try to clarify what I can. Warlords of Draenor's story is about the people of Azeroth (namely, the Alliance and the Horde) venturing into an unknown world and building up a force strong enough to take out an enemy stronger than anything they've encountered before, on that enemy's own turf. While there are certainly some alliances to be made along the way, and those are definitely major parts of the story, the core theme is about you and your faction fighting for survival. So, as development continued, we came to the realization that it just doesn't make sense for the Horde and Alliance to spend so much energy and resources building up a stronghold on Draenor, only to base their efforts out of someone else's city. We're not helping the Draenei or Frostwolves fight off the Iron Horde – they're helping us. The Alliance and Horde both have major bases of operation on Draenor. That should be where they're working from. That, along with the continued development of Garrisons into the overall quest and story flow of the expansion, led us to the decision to develop the Horde and Alliance bases on Ashran into the major faction hubs instead of Bladespire and Karabor. Promoting the world PvP area on Ashran is a nice perk, but it wasn't a factor in making that decision. That said, the Temple of Karabor and Bladespire Fortress are still there. We haven't removed them or anything like that. You won't be able to use your bank or check your auctions there, but they're still fully built home cities for the Karabor Draenei and Frostwolf Orcs, respectively. You'll still be able to explore them in their full glory. As to the Alliance and Horde staging areas on Ashran, allow me to lay out a few key facts to hopefully allay some concerns: They're located on Ashran as a geographical location on the map, but they're not part of the Ashran world PvP zone. They won't be subjected to the realm coalescing we're using to keep Ashran's PvP area populated, and they won't flag you for PvP on non-PvP realms. We've also made some major improvements to the way PvP flagging works on non-PvP realms that removes "accidental flagging" from mistargeted abilities or ground effects. Unless you manually flag yourself by typing /pvp, you will simply not be able to attack enemy players, or heal friendly players who have flagged themselves. They're populated with guards, and the only land-based entrance is directly through the Ashran world PvP zone (including a major fortress). It's certainly possible for someone from another faction to attack it, but it's not any easier to do so than it is to attack the enemy faction's shrine in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. There will be a fast travel option between the staging areas and your Garrison. You can pop over there quickly, conduct your business, and leave again if you like. This isn't a question of whether or not Bladespire and Karabor are cities. They are. It's just a question of whether the portals to Orgrimmar or Stormwind are there or somewhere else. You'll still be able to explore them, they'll still be fully populated, and they're still going to be every bit as beautiful as they would have been with a Transmog NPC. We're looking forward to them ourselves! source This is a well thought out and cogent explanation of the process behind the decision. However, as a player, it's not a decision I personally like -- one of the real draws for me as a player was the idea of getting to have Karabor as my home city, with the portals and vendors mentioned above. I want the freedom to never see Ashran, if that's what I decide to do. I understand the reasoning, I simply don't agree with it, and I hope it's rolled back. For now, though, Ashran is where the Horde and Alliance home cities will be located in Warlords of Draenor.
Warlords of Draenor Beta: New in-game Character Copy
One new feature worth mentioning in the beta is the new in-game character copy option. Enabled currently only in North America (sorry, Europe) this feature allows you to directly copy a character from the live realms to the beta without using the website. Simply click the button to the side maked Copy Character and then a box pops up (like the one in the header image) with a list of your eligible characters and the servers they're on. Then select one and it copies over to the beta server. I've used it twice (on warriors, of course) and while there were some issues with it, it did work. It's very handy. Perhaps eventually all character services could be available in this manner. Right now you can buy the level 90 character boost, but you can't buy a faction change or server transfer via the in-game client -- this seems like it could lead to that kind of functionality.
Breakfast Topic: At last, the Beta
We've been waiting a long time, and now it's here. I know that the Alpha's been running for a while, but an Alpha test never feels as real to me as a Beta - this is where we start really seeing bugs get discovered, see players swarm onto the zones and explore, and get tons and tons of lore spoilers that I am completely incapable of avoiding. So we have a multitude of questions? Did you get in? If so, are you going to participate or are you going to avoid all Beta information for fear of spoilers? What are you most curious about, where do you most want to go, what's your plan for the Beta? The dam is broken, and the floodwaters are loosed - are you planning on swimming along or getting to higher ground and waiting it out? And if you didn't get in, are you planning on waiting patiently or are you avoiding it altogether?
First wave of Warlords of Draenor beta invites out
If you've been waiting patiently (or impatiently) for access to Warlords of Draenor you should check your account - you may have been invited to the Warlords of Draenor beta test, starting this Friday, June 27th, at 2:00 PM PDT. Emails are already being sent out, but remember, you don't have to do anything with those emails - don't email back anything, just check your account at battle.net and if you're in the beta, you'll be able to proceed from there. And if you didn't get in, don't panic -- as Rygarius tweeted, there will be more beta invites. Reminder folks, this is the first #Warlords Beta wave. not the last. :) - Rygarius (@Rygarius) June 27, 2014 I'm really happy to see the Beta test commence - it makes the game feel more solid and getting ready to launch. I'm very excited. Let's all be good beta testers, guys. Update 1:00 p.m.: The beta is also live in Europe.
The Queue: Shoot the moon
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. I think it's worth trying to answer this first question once in awhile. @Chaosork asked: Do you know when the WoD beta will come out?
Warlords of Draenor Alpha Patch notes for April 17
A new round of updates have been released for the alpha client of Warlords of Draenor. Included in the patch notes are new sections covering changes and adjustments with Itemization, Movement Speed, Raid Utility Balance, Reforging, and Combat Resurrection. There have also been updates to existing sections as well - many class sections have received a lot of updates and adjustments, as expected for such an early build. Haste % and Crit % bonuses have been streamlined -- no more spell/melee/ranged, it's a universal Haste and Crit % bonus for all. Druids, rejoice -- Ravage no longer requires you to be behind the target. Many glyphs have been removed, and a lot of new glyphs have been added, with some glyphs now being exclusive to a specialization. Movement speed enchants now increase Movement Speed by 10% -- up from 8%. Hunters, there has been a comprehensive sweep over pet abilities -- it's a major list! Paladins, there have been some major tweaks to both Holy and Protection specs. For the full list of updates, check out the official Battle.net site for all the details. New updates are denoted in red for easy reading.
Warlords of Draenor: Patch 6.0 patch notes
The patch notes for patch 6.0 have been released! Patch 6.0 is the pre-patch for Warlords of Draenor, featuring many of the changes and adjustments we'll be seeing in preparation for the next expansion's launch. Please note that patch notes can and often will change over time -- these should by no means be considered a finalized version. Highlights from the patch notes include: A new row of talents has been added for level 100, and Draenor Perks from levels 91-99. Racial traits have been rebalanced. All characters now learn a few important Major Glyphs as they level up. Garrisons, garrisons, garrisons! Read on for the full list of patch notes after the break.
It's time for the Warlords of Draenor beta
"It's time for the Warlords of Draenor beta." Kind of an obvious statement, isn't it? A lot of people are making the call for it, voicing their discontent that it's not available yet, that we're not getting the deluge of Warlords info that one expects from an active beta. The majority of those complaints, however, are just on the surface of the community -- ardent fans that crave more Warcraft. But the need for a beta now is deeper than appeasing the community's need for new purple pixels. Three reasons: First, and foremost in the mind of a multinational business like Blizzard, the beta itself is needed to show investors and other stakeholders that the company is moving forward with their flagship property and is executing its recovery plan. Let's not argue about how healthy or not healthy WoW is at the moment -- it has had a subscription drop and the market demands that it tries to recover from that. Part of the rejuvenation process is to release an expansion that alters the gameplay in fundamental ways that will draw players back in.
The wonders and perils of betas
Here at WoW Insider, like in many other places, we've got betas on the brain. Mists of Pandaria had WoW's largest beta, with a huge audience thanks to the Annual Pass sign-up system. In case you don't recall, the Annual Pass gave players a copy of Diablo III, as well as guaranteed access to the Mists of Pandaria beta, in return for committing to play WoW for another year. As a result, the beta access was huge. Not to mention problematic, as it took Blizzard a really long time to roll out beta access to all the players who'd signed up for the Annual Pass. It was a bit of a nightmare for them, one would imagine, as players felt they had the right to access Mists beta from day one, and just got more and more angry as wave after wave of invitations went out, without theirs. So, before players even got into the beta, there were problems. Betas, originally, were for testing and testing alone. Testing by a slightly larger group than Alphas. Now, beta access seems to have evolved into a different beast altogether. It's early access, it's getting to play a game before your friends, it's status as someone in the know. Betas have become a way for game designers to get their games promoted via streams and YouTube, and the exclusivity of access creates a culture of have and have-not. Everyone wants to be in the beta, with little regard for how it affects their enjoyment of the game.
Warlords of Draenor: Is there already an internal alpha?
Here at WoW Insider, we're really excited about Warlords of Draenor beta. And when I say we're really excited, I mean we're really excited. So we're always looking for clues that it might be coming. If you weren't aware, the things that will generally happen before a press beta are an internal alpha, followed by a very small friends and family alpha. So when Senior PvP Designer Brian Holinka tweeted the following, we had to share: Spent a lot of time today playing 5.4 arena then immediately playing 6.0 arena. Man what a difference. Looking forward to people's reaction. - Holinka (@holinka) February 7, 2014 Now, Holinka is definitely not saying that there categorically is an internal alpha. He is the PvP designer, after all, so it makes sense that he would have the ability to test his designs. But the big differences are things like the removal of abilities, the stat squish, CC removal, the rework of how health and damage scale -- all core systems. So while we can't take this as a confirmation of an internal alpha we can hold out hope that, if there isn't one yet, it won't be long. And that means that we could be well on the way to Beta. It seems that, if the Warlords of Draenor pre-orders appear with the launch of patch 5.4.7, beta can't be too far behind. Given Blizzard's history, asking players to shell out for an expansion that isn't even in beta yet might be a tall order.
