Month: March 2010

If you've been holding your breath waiting to find out when and where the next BlizzCon would be held, then… you've probably passed out by now. But if you've just been patiently watching for an announcement, then we've got good news for you: BlizzCon will be returning to the Anaheim Convention Center on Friday, October 22 through Saturday, October 23! Just as in years past, BlizzCon 2010 will feature an exciting mix of discussion panels, tournaments, hands-on gameplay, contests, and much more. Check out the announcement press release, and keep an eye on www.blizzcon.com in the months ahead for further details, including ticketing information.

When and where is BlizzCon 2010?
BlizzCon 2010 will take place on Friday, October 22, 2010 and Saturday, October 23, 2010 at the Anaheim Convention Center, located at 800 West Katella Avenue, Anaheim, CA 92802. The hours of operation are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Pacific Time on both days (Friday and Saturday).

How much does a BlizzCon 2010 ticket cost?
Details about BlizzCon 2010 ticket availability and pricing will be announced on the official BlizzCon website, www.blizzcon.com, as the event draws closer.

Where and when can I buy BlizzCon 2010 tickets?
To attend BlizzCon, you must purchase tickets in advance through the online Blizzard Store once they go on sale. Details about BlizzCon 2010 ticket availability and pricing will be announced on the official BlizzCon website, www.blizzcon.com, as the event draws closer.

What activities will be at BlizzCon 2010?
In addition to serving as a gathering place for Blizzard Entertainment gaming communities, BlizzCon will offer attendees a chance to enjoy discussion panels with Blizzard Entertainment developers, competitive and casual tournaments for players to showcase their talents, hands-on gameplay featuring your favorite Blizzard Entertainment games, community contests with great prizes, commemorative merchandise based on Blizzard Entertainment’s game universes, and more. We’ll share more details about these and other events and activities on www.blizzcon.com as the event draws closer.

How will ticket sales operate this year?
The ticket-sales process for BlizzCon 2010 will be conducted through the online Blizzard Store, and will function similarly to the ticket-queue system used for BlizzCon 2009 ticket sales. We'll have more details to share about BlizzCon 2010 ticket availability and the purchasing process in the near future, so please keep an eye on www.blizzcon.com for updates.

Can I order BlizzCon tickets over the phone?
You will only be able to place BlizzCon ticket orders online through the Blizzard Store. We will not be accepting BlizzCon ticket orders over the phone.

What can I do ahead of time?
Purchasing tickets requires a Battle.net account. If you do not have a Battle.net account and wish to create one in advance of ticket sales, click here to get started. Prior to ticket sales beginning, you may wish to visit Battle.net Account Management to ensure your contact and stored credit-card information are up-to-date, and to verify your e-mail address.

What do I get for the cost of a ticket?
Each BlizzCon ticket includes a BlizzCon badge that grants access to BlizzCon. Attendees will also get a BlizzCon goody bag containing exclusive swag. More details on the contents of the goody bag will be revealed in the weeks ahead. Please be aware that transportation and hotel accommodations are not included with the cost of any BlizzCon ticket.

Is BlizzCon open to attendees outside the United States and Canada?
Yes. International attendees will be able to purchase tickets at the same time as domestic attendees. We have not yet announced when tickets for BlizzCon 2010 will go on sale, so please keep an eye on BlizzCon.com for more information.

What should I do about hotel accommodations and transportation?
Several hotels within walking distance of the Anaheim Convention Center will be providing guest rooms at a special BlizzCon group rates. Transportation to the event will be up to you. Please check the Travel Info page on www.blizzcon.com in the coming weeks for further information on nearby hotels and how to take advantage of the special group rates, as well as information about car rentals and shuttle buses from nearby airports. If you plan to drive to the Convention Center for the event, we suggest you carpool.  Please visit our parking page in the coming weeks more information.

Is there an age restriction for attendees?
Some content at BlizzCon may not be suitable for children. Anyone under 13 must be accompanied by an adult. Absolutely no children 5 years of age or under will be permitted to enter. Tickets are required for all attendees, and the child ticket price is the same as the adult ticket price. Please note that no strollers will be allowed in the Anaheim Convention Center.

Whom should I contact if I have a question about accommodations for people with disabilities at BlizzCon?
If you are disabled and require special services, please contact blizzconsupport@blizzard.com to identify your special needs. All requests should be received by August 20, 2010 in order to ensure the availability of services.  Please include your contact information in your email.

I am planning on carrying my costume and some water in a backpack to BlizzCon. Is this OK?
Any bags being brought into BlizzCon should be smaller than 20 inches x 10 inches (roughly the size of two sheets of paper side by side). Anyone with a bag larger than this may be refused entry. If you are taking part in the costume competition and require a larger bag to store your costume, please check with the information kiosk in the lobby on your arrival. Blizzard Entertainment reserves the right to search any bags being brought into BlizzCon and to refuse entry if they are found to contain prohibited items (see below).

Will there be a place to store a costume and/or bag at any time during the event?
There will be no general storage space available to show attendees. Please leave anything you don’t wish to carry in your car, at home, or at your hotel. If you are taking part in the costume competition, please check with the information kiosk in the lobby on your arrival.

Can I bring my video camera/camcorder into BlizzCon?
Video cameras are permitted for use in the BlizzCon exhibit halls. However, you may not record gameplay from any of the screens (with the exception of tournament gameplay), and recording the BlizzCon closing concert on Saturday evening is strictly prohibited.

Can I bring my iPod?
MP3 players are permitted in the BlizzCon exhibit halls. However, personal equipment may not be connected to any computer for any reason at any time.

Can I bring my computer/laptop to BlizzCon?
General attendees will not be able to bring desktop computers, laptops, and electronic storage devices into the BlizzCon exhibit halls. Please leave these devices in your car, at home, or at your hotel. Members of the media who have a press badge will be able to bring a laptop onto the show floor.

I'm planning on wearing a costume to BlizzCon. Are there any items I cannot bring into the event?
Costumes may not include or otherwise utilize any edged weapons (such as knives, daggers, and swords); actual clubs, maces, or other crushing weapons; or projectile weapons of any kind, even if unloaded or nonfunctional (this includes firearms of any kind including air guns, longbows, crossbows, etc.). Acceptable costume weapon props are limited to air-filled or soft plastic melee weapons (swords, daggers, maces, clubs, etc.) and wooden staves that are not shod with metal.

Is there anything else that I can't bring?
Attendees will not be allowed to bring weapons, alcohol, fireworks, glass bottles, cans, or large containers into BlizzCon. **Any attendee found to have violated the prohibited items list may be removed from BlizzCon.**

Will BlizzCon be broadcast on TV or available to view on the Internet this year?
We haven't announced any plans for television or Internet broadcasts of BlizzCon 2010. Keep an eye on the official BlizzCon website, www.blizzcon.com, for any event-related announcements as the convention draws closer.

Listed below are recent fixes we have applied to the game. Keep in mind that some of these changes may not be active until after the realm has been restarted.

To review previous in-game fixes, please visit:

3/24

• The Glory of the Icecrown Raider (10 player) meta achievement no longer requires Neck-Deep in Vile to be completed.
• For the Sindragosa encounter, Frost Breath cast under 35% HP no longer has a snare component and there are no longer diminishing returns on Taunt effects.
• The High Test Eternium Fishing Line now correctly adds +5 fishing skill.
• The Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat now applies the +75 fishing buff as intended.
• Transmuting Spellweave, Ebonweave, and Moonshroud items no longer places a buff on the player.
• The NPC Halthenis is properly appearing again which allowing Hunters to complete the Beast Training quest.
• Horde and Alliance Master Engineers…

Wrathgate booster set for tabletop game based on Blizzard Entertainment's award-winning World of Warcraft series slated for May release, followed by Class Decks in June
Irvine, California – (March 24, 2010) – Cryptozoic Entertainment is pleased to announce that they have signed a long-term licensing agreement with Blizzard Entertainment.  The multi-year arrangement grants Cryptozoic the right to produce the trading card game (TCG) based on Blizzard Entertainment's hugely popular World of Warcraft® massively multiplayer online role-playing game series.

“This is an exciting time for us and for players of the trading card game,” said John Nee, Cryptozoic Entertainment’s CEO.  “Our first priority will be to maintain the current programs that the community has come to expect and then build from there.  The game itself is fantastic, and will not change.  The community can rest assured that we are committed to providing them with the high quality product and organized play that they deserve, worldwide.”

“It's important to us and to our players that every entertainment experience set in a Blizzard Entertainment game universe matches the standards we've established with our games,” said Paul Sams, Chief Operating Officer of Blizzard Entertainment. “We're proud of the quality and accessible gameplay that the World of Warcraft TCG has offered to date, and we're confident that Cryptozoic is the best team to help us continue that tradition.”

Cryptozoic will continue to expand the World of Warcraft TCG for years to come.  Players will soon have a slew of exciting new cards to test their skills and defeat their opponents with at the upcoming Continental Championships in June and the World Championship in August.  The first product release from Cryptozoic will be the Wrathgate boosters in May followed by the Class Decks in June.

“Having been fully involved with the development of the World of Warcraft TCG from day one, I've always been passionate about taking it into the future,” said Cory Jones, Cryptozoic’s President and Chief Creative Officer, and formerly Blizzard Entertainment's lead business and development liaison for the TCG.  “I'm pleased to say that the players have a lot to look forward to as we continue developing and evolving the game to match the action and spirit of World of Warcraft.”

To start, players can get the latest news on the World of Warcraft TCG at www.cryptozoic.com.  Then in just a few weeks a brand new website for the TCG itself will launch.  Cryptozoic promises ongoing updates on everything from organized play to product releases as well as a regular dose of strategy articles and spoilers as they get closer to their initial product launch.

30 minutes LFD Debuff
We're keeping a close eye on the discussions, feedback and in-game information for this. We don't have any current plans to make changes, and it seems a bit soon to start considering them, but we are paying attention to constructive discussion and feedback on this change. (Source)

3.3.3 Known Issues List – 3/24/2010 Update

• Pit of Saron – Scourgelord Tyrannus can remount Rimefang during the encounter. (Source)

Random Battlegrounds Queue Times
There's a known bug that isn't properly incorporating random battleground queuers with those choosing specific battlegrounds. This can lead to queue times that are longer than what they should be.

A hotfix is in the process of being developed and we anticipate it should be applied within the next day or two. (Source)

Let healers DPS in Cataclysm?
Ideas that would make healing more fun are good things to discuss in this forum, particularly with an eye towards Cataclysm.

The idea to let healers dps a little is a controversial one though. Some healers just have no interest in it, so while it might make healing a lot more fun for you, it risks making healing a lot less fun for them. I would not approach that idea as an obviously intuitive one that all healers will rally around, because I suspect that's just not the case.

[…] I could see that if the tree was structured in such a way that you had to give up a little bit of healing for that dps (and to be fair, talents like Searing Light already exist), such that it was the kind of thing you might do while soloing or running easy content (like Dungeon Finder when overgeared). In other words, I wouldn't want us to do it in such a way that healers were then balanced around doing damage — like we calculated healer damage when we come up with boss berserk timers. Then it goes from a playstyle choice to being the only way to play. (Source)

Commendations of Service – It's fun to click 400 times!
As a one time thing it's really not that big of a deal. You could always do it in increments if you are getting bored. I also ended up figuring out a pretty easy way to do it where I had the vendor box open, I'd keep trading in the BG tokens, and just put the honor token on my 1 key so I was watching/reading other things while just spamming right click + 1 and going through all of them.

What if the 2 second cooldown was 0 seconds instead.
I believe that's more of a safety net to help lower hits on the hardware. These are tougher things to explain but imagine 100 players crunching at the tokens together in the same place, that could lead to issues for these players and others so it's better to be safe. Oops, used the same reasoning again in another post…

Bugs and Test Dummies
If you ever notice a bug, one of the very first things you should probably do is consider if it's a test dummy problem. We've had several false positives reported since we first implemented them, and in fact that's one reason we avoided putting in test dummies for so long.

Which is not to say that actual bugs don't creep in too. (Source)

Hunter (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Spirit Beasts
The Spirit Beasts were added as a way to capture that old feeling of having to hunt (which really means be very patient and very lucky) to get rare spawn pets so that you'd feel awesome and be able to show them off. Making those creatures actually more powerful than other pets goes completely counter to that design. If the frustratingly rare spawn is needed for highest possible dps, there would be a lot of exasperated hunters out there, and I think they'd be totally justified.

Spirit Beasts are the hunter equivalent of the Time Lost Protodrake. They are there for bragging rights, not max dps.

We're not sure yet what we're going to do for hunter pets in the future. I fear that even if the dps gain was marginal that hunters would still go for the highest dps pets, so really there only exists an illusion of choice. We could literally make all of the pet families do the exact dps and have rather watered down special abilities (because otherwise one of them might grant a 1 or 2% dps benefit and that would end up being the pet again).

In other words, I can see a design where pet choice is purely cosmetic and pet stats are identical or I can see a design where pet choice matters, in which case you don't really have that many to choose from on content that matters. (Source)

Mage (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Molten Fury and Torment of the Weak
 We think we figured out a problem here with the Molten Fury talent not playing well with Torment the Weak. If that proves to be the issue that explains the observations some of you all are having, then we'll try to get a fix in quickly. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Warrior T10 4pc DPS Bonus
Yes, there appears to be a bug with the dps warrior 4 piece bonus. It should be easy to fix. (Source)