Pandaren Monk raises $1.1M, WoW TCG, Blue posts

Update 02/18 – The WoW TCG Announcement was from Upper Deck International (UDI), this company is slightly different from Upper Deck (UDE) in North America. UDE has NOT generated a press release on the situation yet and any information about the situation should come from Blizzard. Apparently they are "working with Blizzard to ensure a smooth transition of the brand and its assets so that no one riles up any WoW TCG gamers in the process".

Pandaren Monk Sales raises $1.1M for Make-A-Wish Foundation

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)
On Tuesday, Feb. 16, we were honored to host a special event at our Irvine, Calif. headquarters to mark the donation of more than $1.1 million to the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Make-A-Wish Foundation International, two organizations that grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions in 36 countries around the world.

This donation, which was based on 50 percent of the total sales during November and December of the Pandaren Monk pet for World of Warcraft, was ultimately made possible by the World of Warcraft community. We appreciate the support the community showed for this important cause.

As part of yesterday's event, we invited 15 wish children and their families to tour the Blizzard campus, meet with the World of Warcraft development team, and participate in a variety of fun activities. Check out the press release to read more about the event, and visit the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Make-A-Wish Foundation International websites to learn more about these organizations.

The Future of WoW TCG – Part 2
Following Blizzard's announcement a couple of days ago, Upper Deck International finally posted a few more details on how things will evolve for WoW TCG in the next couple of months. Apparently WoW TCG products will be available until the end of March, Spectral Tigers will become very hard to find after that I guess.

Quote from: UpperDeck (Source)
Over the past few months there has been much speculation about the future of the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game and Miniatures Game and due to ongoing discussions, we haven’t been able to provide any clear answers until now.

After long and careful deliberation, Upper Deck International (UDI) will not be renewing its World of Warcraft license agreements with Blizzard Entertainment. We’ve had a fantastic time working on the World of Warcraft brand and feel we have produced some of the most compelling TCG and Miniatures Game products since the turn of the century. Unfortunately, due to gradually declining sales over the past few years and the overall downturn in the economic climate, we have had to make the tough decision to discontinue our World of Warcraft product lines.

UDI World of Warcraft products will be available until the end of March. Upcoming products such as the Class Starter Deck, Wrathgate Booster, Souls of Vengeance Starter, Deluxe Starter and Booster will not go into production.

We know this is disappointing news for all World of Warcraft fans and want to thank players and retailers for their ongoing support over the years.
Being part of such a great and passionate community has truly been a privilege.

We are currently working with Blizzard Entertainment to facilitate a smooth transition as they work on their own plans for a World of Warcraft Trading Card Game.
Further announcements on this transition will follow over the coming weeks.

We will be pulling out all the stops to send off the UDI World of Warcraft lines in style. Look out for special events at your local gaming store with some of the greatest prize support ever and a final opportunity to complete your collection.

Joeri Hoste
Category Manager Trading Card Games
Upper Deck International

Carl Crook
International Marketing & Community Manager
Upper Deck International

Blue posts

Quote from Blizzard staff
Are we done with game balance changes until Cataclysm?
We're not done until Cataclysm actually ships. (Source)

Housing
While this originally came up before I was around, I think this has been answered at some BlizzCons since then. While we think this could be a fun idea, we also like the idea of seeing a lot of people in cities and don't want to make main cities feel like ghost towns – if you need an example of this head to Silvermoon (yeah, that's a cheap shot, I know). So for now this idea remains an interesting idea but we'd have to make sure it fits into the game well and meets our expectations which are pretty high for something like this.

[…] It's generally a better idea to keep the world filled and alive than empty, yes. It's also hard to say that letting people run off to their own cabin to relax in peace will really be a big bonus to the game for the vast majority of the playerbase. We'll see how things go in the future though. (Source)

Phylactery of the Nameless Lich (Normal / Heroic)
The Phylactery of the Nameless Lich's proc is a little underbudget and we plan to correct that in an upcoming patch. (Source)

Death Knight (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Glyph of Disease bug – Icy Talons not active after a disease refresh
The intent is that the Glyph of Disease counts as Frost Fever for the purposes of activating Icy Talons. The issue you describe is a technical limitation which prevents it from working this way. It's something we definitely want to fix, though I don't have a time frame to provide at the moment for when this fix will occur. (Source)

Druid (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Glyph of Wrath Suggestions
Glyph OF Wrath: Increases the cast time of Wrath by 0.5 and increases damage by X%
I understand the intent and it's clever in a way, but we would be hesitant to introduce a glyph that would actually be a bad glyph for players who weren't capable of benefiting from a bunch of haste. There are some glyphs with a kiss / curse vibe, but usually not this severe, and with a curse that really isn't a curse when you consider that it lets you benefit more from haste in the long run.

It might make more sense if you tucked it away where only endgame focused players could reach it (like an idol that dropped off an ICC boss), but even then it would almost need a warning label explaining what it was trying to do. (Source)

Warlock (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Destruction Spec
We know that Destruction is a little low on damage at the moment and needs a bit of help which we hope to deliver before Cataclysm. As usual we can't make any guarantees on when or if this will happen for sure though. (Source)

Altoholic, Blue posts, For The Horde Wallpaper

Blue posters are fairly silent these days, hopefully it won't be long before we see a couple of announcements, keep in mind that a new minor patch is on the way and we will probably hear about it very soon.

Addon Review – Altoholic
Today I'll highlight an addon I've been using a lot lately: Altoholic. Basically, this is the ultimate tool for anyone who spends too much time logging in and out of the game to check if something is or isn't on an alt. It lists pretty much every info you could need about your characters and you will never have to go through all the chars on your account to find who is exalted with the Ebon Hold, or who has 300 Stone Keeper shards in his stash.

Features

  • Languages supported: enUS, frFR, deDE, esES, ruRU, zhCN & zhTW.
  • Account-wide data summary:
    • Characters’ talents: Full talent trees margin-bottom: 0;”>
    • View containers (bags, bank, keyring) of all alts, on all realms.
    • Guild banks : You have 10 alts in 10 different guilds on the same server, all of them with access to a guild bank ? Not a problem, you can see them all here.
    • E-mail: allows you to see which alts have mail without having to reconnect them. The addon will tell you when mail is about to expire on a character. Threshold configurable (up to 15 days). Multiple realm support as well. Mails sent to a known alt (one you've logged on at least once) will be visible in the addon without having to reconnect it.
    • Equipment: See the equipment of the current realm's alts in one screen. Very useful when purchasing stuff for your alts at the AH. Multiple realms supported. Right-clicking any equipment piece will allow you to find an upgrade, this feature is similar to the official wow armory feature, and is quite performant, even though it doesn't match the accuracy of the official one.
    • Search: the most important feature of the addon, it uses an AH-like frame to display search results. You can either search bags on the current realm, on all realms, or a loot table. The loot table is a table based on AtlasLoot, but which contains only item id's, and therefore keeps memory usage minimal.
    • The Search menu allows you to find items based on their name (even partial), level, type or rarity, almost like at the AH. It is also possible to search known recipes.
    • Quest Log: See the quest logs of all your alts, as well as an indication of which alts are on a specific quest. Clicking on a quest link in the chat log will tell you which alts are on that quest.
    • Suggestions: Currently, only profession leveling suggestions are available when mousing over your current level in a specific profession. Suggestions are based on the leveling guides posted on the official US forums (credit goes to their respective authors). The addon also suggests you where to quest/grind xp depending on your character level. Suggestions were also added for the most recent factions. More to come later.
    • Auction house: You can see which auctions/bids you've placed with an alt without being logged in or being at the AH.
    • Professions: You can browse all known recipes in a thotbot like frame (see screenshot).
    • Mounts & Pets of all your alts.
    • Achievements are tracked for all you alts (see screenshot).
    • Guild Members: a list of your connected guildmates, along with their alts (if they're using Altoholic too), and their average item level. Clicking their AiL will also allow you to "remotely" inspect their equipment.
    • Guild Skills: a list of altoholic users in your guild, along with their alts and direct profession links. All professions are available in one click.
    • Guild Bank tabs: a list of altoholic users and the time at which they last visited the guild bank. If you haven't visited the guild bank for a few days, you can remotely update your local data without going to a capital city.

    Blue posts

    Quote from Blizzard staff
    Big Love Rocket Droprate
    The drop rate for this mount is indeed lower than 1-2% and that is intentional. We are okay with the number it is at right now and will continue to see how things for this event. (Source)

    Sticking with the same role
    I'm not entirely sure what the goal of this thread was, but World of Warcraft is a game with a variety of play styles that are there for players to play and experience as they see fit. Just because you started out as a healer (or whatever else) doesn't mean you need to stay that way forever. It is hard to really argue that doing the same exact thing for 5+ years won't be taxing in some way.

    I know some people who love healing and in the situations where they end up DPSing (like when dropping down to two healers in a raid or something) they complain a bit that they don't have as much impact on the raid. There are also the healer types that have nothing but healing specs since they want the responsibility of taking care of the raid and don't want to put that in someone else's hands (these people also tend to get especially irritated when these other healers are causing problems that they wouldn't have done themselves). Then some others may end up being "forced" to heal a fair amount to help out the group and any good guild I've been with tries to prevent the situation where that one person ends up carrying the load week in and week out with no end in sight.

    What I'm getting at here is just to remind players that if you aren't in the mood to do something anymore, try out something else. Whether that's Battlegrounds or a hunter or changing to that other spec you haven't had a chance to try out yet, give it a try and see how it goes. You may find a new style to play for the next few years or you may end up being good buddies again with your original play style. (Source)

    New Wallpaper: For the Horde!
    Blizzard has just added a new wallpaper to the World of Warcraft Wallpaper Gallery featuring some sporty scenes of snowboarding in the Storm Peaks. Take a moment to check out this snowboarding orc in action!

Sindragosa HM Video, Blue posts, Boom De Yada

Sindragosa Hard Mode video by Wraith
Wraith (EU-Sargeras) just released the video of their Sindragosa kill in hard mode. Only 9 guilds in the world killed her so far and I'm sure a lot of people will find it interesting …

Blue posts

Quote from Blizzard staff
Class synergy and PvP difficulty
Class synergy matters a lot more in PvP than in PvE. As a very simple example, chaining crowd control with different diminishing returns is almost non-existent in PvE. Therefore, classes with different forms of crowd control play very well together in PvP. To break that (to make class synergy not matter), we'd have to make all CC's DR with each other. I think it would get worse than that though. I think you'd have to give just about every ability to every class for fear that you might be missing one if you just paired with 2 other random players. It takes a whole raid to get almost one of everything in PvE and that's with a lot of homogenization on our part. We like that class comp matters in Arenas. It really doesn't much in BGs.

I also understand that there is a component of players who liked the aspect of BC Arenas where you could pretty much go in with anything and eventually get good gear. Maybe there is a way to still have a place for that, but we backed off of it because too many players were opting for Arena over PvE content simply because the loot per unit effort was so generous. Adding a skill component to earn the best PvP loot pushed some players back into PvE to earn the best gear. (Source)

"Interesting" talents in Cataclysm
Will we keep simple talents that staticly reduce cooldown or cast times?
Will talents that staticly increase walk/run speed by 15% count as interesting?
Will talents that staticly increase or decrease the length of time a dot or hot ticks for count as interesting?

Yes, all of those are "interesting." Sure reducing cooldown or cast time is just a dps (or healing) increase, but it does so in a way that requires more on the part of the player than just passively boosting dps (or healing). It changes your rotation depending on whether you have that talent or not. It makes your dps tree play differently from your healing tree.

Everyone can come up with the example of "I think X talent is really fun, but I only have 2 free points in my build, so I can't get it." We'd like to see that 2 be a much larger number, like 10 or more.

Another way to think about it is that every talent in say the Elemental tree also says "…and increases your spell damage." That's the bonus you get just for investing in the tree.

Talents are one of the few choices with regard to customizing their character that players really get. Gear is often subject to random elements or even whether you have access to the content or not. Everyone gets the same spells as they level. We can't get away from cookie-cutter builds completely, but we can have more of the type that say "and spend your last several points wherever you want." (Source)

Healing and mana regeneration in Cataclysm
I was about to write what I often do about healer mana management, which is that without mana being a consideration, healing is boring because you can just use your most powerful spell non-stop. Then I read your second paragraph, and it seems like you sort of agree with that. Imagine then that both MP5 and Spirit are going away and being replaced by a new stat called "Regen." Then imagine that a few weeks down the road, we decided that "Spirit" was a sexier name than "Regen." (Source)

Druid (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Buffing Owlkin Frenzy?
I don't think Owlkin Frenzy would be a good area to buff Balance burst damage in PvP. It's very dependent on actually being the one focused. That almost by definition is not "on demand."

I also don't think it's a great place to buff them for PvE. There are fights without a lot of predictable raid damage, and void zone diving shouldn't be critical in keeping your dps up. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Revenge buff
 I suspect we will buff Revenge to make it more attractive to push even in high rage situations. (Source)

Video – Boom De Yada WoW
Irdeen Productions presents "Boomdeyada", an original production inspired by the Discovery.com "I Love the Whole World" song. With World of Warcraft's meteoric rise to become the most influential MMO in history, it is only fitting that we showcase some of Azeroth's most powerful beings, from the small Gorlocks to the massive Firelord himself, Ragnaros.

<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oOZBU257ERE

ICC Hard Mode Videos, Cataclysm Goals, Comics

Icecrown Citadel Hard Mode Videos
Hard modes were unlocked last week and guilds released a couple of videos, there aren't a lot of them out there for the moment and I'll start with Deathbringer Saurfang, Blood Queen Lana'thel, and Lady Deathwhisper.

Blue post – Cataclysm Goals

Quote from: Ghostcrawler (Source)
I think some of you are misinterpreting a couple of the Cataclysm goals.

We're not "overhauling the combat system." We are changing some lame stats to be more interesting (like Intellect) and removing some that just added complexity to the game without adding depth (like armor pen, which is pretty much just damage modified by how much physical damage you do). We are adding more health across the board, but that's to add a few seconds in between the time you take damage and the time you die, which we think will improve both PvE and PvP.

We're also not trying to "dumb down stats." Complexity and depth are two different things. Depth is really important to us. Without it, the game starts to get predictable and stale. Complexity can be a route to depth, but it doesn't have to be. The game of go has very simple rules but almost limitless depth (you can use chess if you aren't familiar with go). The game tic-tac-toe has very simple rules and almost no depth. It's hard to come up with examples that lots of players will get for games with too much complexity and not enough depth, mostly because those games either never become widely popular or don't endure. Ever heard the phrase "quick to learn but a lifetime to master?" That's depth.

Yes, we are messing with talent trees, but a simple skimming of the forums should suggest why. There are too many talents that have little depth but are mandatory (most of the talents right about the 51-pointer). There are possibly interesting talents that you can't afford because of the passive dps / healing / tanking increasers. There are also modifications we need to make just because you'll have 5 more talent points. There are also talents that we have modified along the course of LK in the name of closer spec balance that are now out of budget. We're not deleting any talent trees and starting over. We're trying to make them more interesting and more fun.

Comics
Dark Legacy Comic #225 and Teh Gladiators #113 are out!

Future of WoW TCG, Realms Lag, ICC Progression

The Future of World of Warcraft: TCG

Quote from: Zarhym (Source)
As some of you may already be aware, we will not be renewing the World of Warcraft: The Trading Card Game license with Upper Deck. We want to assure you that we are committed to supporting the TCG, and players can look forward to new content and strong organized play support in the near future. We will share additional details about the game’s transition to a new partner as soon as possible. For those awaiting tournament prizes, we will ensure you receive them.

Now, what does it really mean for the future of WoW: TCG? At this point we don't really know what will happen to the current version of the Trading Card Game, we can just assume that your Spectral Tiger card will be worth "the price of a small car on ebay" in a couple of years. However, if you're only interested in the mount, you might want to wait a little before you buy everything you can.

About two years ago, Slouken slowly left World of Warcraft to start working on an "unnanounced project", at this point I just assumed it was the unannounced MMO. I was wrong: Blizzard created a new development team in 2008 to work on an online conversion of the World of Warcraft: Trading Card game and Slouken seems to lead the project (or at least the recruitment, according to a few offers he posted online). This new game is most likely why the partnership between UDE and Blizzard died.

It's really hard to get more details on the game but I wouldn't be surprised if all the old cards were revived online to give new players a chance to acquire them. Of course, just like everything else, nothing is official and you shouldn't believe me until someone in blue actually confirms that.

12/02 Realm Performance

Quote from: Nerimash (Source)
Some highly populated realms, as well as some realms in highly populated Battlegroups, are currently experiencing performance issues during peak playing hours, which, depending on the realm, can occur both inside and outside instances. This is caused primarily by high concurrent Icecrown Citadel activity, the start of Arena Season 8, the release of the new Vault of Archavon boss encounter and the “Love is in the Air” seasonal event.

To help address some of these issues, we’ve applied a hotfix to optimise certain database requests during the weekly maintenance, in addition to a variety of other related adjustments. We will continue to monitor the affected realms and will be making further adjustments to continually improve performance where possible. We know the performance issues have been a frustrating inconvenience for the players on these realms — we very much appreciate your patience while we implement additional short- and long-term solutions.

US – Urgent Maintenance

Quote from: Crygil (Source)
We will be performing urgent maintenance on the realms, listed below, to resolve performance issues beginning at 2:00AM PST on February 13th. We anticipate that these realms should be playable by approximately 7:00AM PST.

Aegwynn, Agamaggan, Aggramar, Akama, Alexstrasza, Alleria, Aman'Thul, Arathor, Argent Dawn, Arthas, Azgalor, Azjol-Nerub, Azshara, Baelgun, Balnazzar, Barthilas, Blackhand, Blackrock, Bleeding Hollow, Bloodhoof, Bloodscalp, Bonechewer, Boulderfist, Bronzebeard, Burning Blade, Burning Legion, Caelestrasz, Cho'gall, Chromaggus, Crushridge, Daggerspine, Dark Iron, Darkspear, Dath'Remar, Destromath, Dethecus, Detheroc, Draenor, Dragonblight, Dragonmaw, Draka, Drakkari, Drak'thul, Dreadmaul, Dunemaul, Durotan, Earthen Ring, Eitrigg, Eldre'Thalas, Elune, Emerald Dream, Eonar, Eredar, Feathermoon, Firetree, Frostmane, Frostmourne, Frostwolf, Garithos, Garona, Gilneas, Gorefiend, Gorgonnash, Greymane, Gul'dan, Gundrak, Gurubashi, Hakkar, Hellscream, Illidan, Jubei'Thos, Kael'thas, Kalecgos, Kargath, Khaz Modan, Khaz'goroth, Kil'jaeden, Kilrogg, Kirin Tor, Korgath, Kul Tiras, Laughing Skull, Lightninghoof, Lightning's Blade, Llane, Lothar, Madoran, Maelstrom, Magtheridon, Malfurion, Malorne, Malygos, Mannoroth, Medivh, Moonrunner, Mug'thol, Muradin, Nagrand, Nathrezim, Nazjatar, Ner'zhul, Perenolde, Proudmoore, Quel'Thalas, Ragnaros, Ravencrest, Rexxar, Runetotem, Sargeras, Saurfang, Scarlet Crusade, Sen'jin, Shadow Council, Shadowmoon, Shadowsong, Shattered Hand, Silver Hand, Silvermoon, Skullcrusher, Skywall, Smolderthorn, Spinebreaker, Spirestone, Staghelm, Stonemaul, Stormrage, Stormreaver, Stormscale, Suramar, Terenas, Thaurissan, Thorium Brotherhood, Thunderhorn, Thunderlord, Tichondrius, Trollbane, Twisting Nether, Uldum, Ursin, Vek'nilash, Warsong, Whisperwind, Wildhammer, Windrunner, Zul'jin

Icecrown Citadel Hall of Fame – Updated
The Hall of Fame has been updated and I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of the last updates before quite some time, the Lich King's heroic mode brings the difficulty to a whole new level and we might have to wait a few weeks before we see a kill … except if top guilds manage to surprise us once again.

[html] tr.loot1:hover, tr.loot2:hover {background:#d6ffb2;}.loot1 {background-color:#FFFFFF;}.loot2 {background-color:#ebebeb;}

Hall of Fame

Heroic Bosses First Kills
Boss Guild Server Time
   Lord Marrowgar    vodka
   Paragon
   Alterac Mountains
   Lightning's Blade
   Feb. 9 21:59 GMT
   Feb. 10 10:00 GMT
   Lady Deathwhisper    vodka
   Paragon
   Alterac Mountains
   Lightning's Blade
   Feb. 10 01:13 GMT
   Feb. 10 11:36 GMT
   Gunship Battle    vodka
   Paragon
   Alterac Mountains
   Lightning's Blade
   Feb. 10 01:28 GMT
   Feb. 10 11:48 GMT
   Deathbringer Saurfang    vodka
   Paragon
   Alterac Mountains
   Lightning's Blade
   Feb. 10 06:13 GMT
   Feb. 10 14:13 GMT
   Valithria Dreamwalker    vodka
   Paragon
   Alterac Mountains
   <img src="http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/flags/europea…

Professor Putricide World First Kill by Paragon

Update – Yep, the Lich King has over 100M health in 25-man heroic mode.

Professor Putricide (Heroic) World First Kill by Paragon
Paragon just defeated Professor Putricide in heroic mode and gets another world first kill in Icecrown Citadel. They killed all the end-wing bosses and the lich king is next on the list. Congratulations to them.

However, killing the Lich King in heroic mode might be harder than it looks. According to the russian guild Экзорсус (EU-Ревущий фьорд) the Lich King heroic mode has been buffed in 10-man instances and his health was buffed from 22.5M to 29.5M, making the fight look a lot harder now. It wouldn't be surprising if the buff also affected the 25-man version of the encounter.

Sindragosa US First Kill, New content, Blue posts

Sindragosa (Heroic) US First Kill by Exodus
Exodus is the first guild in the US to kill Sindragosa in Heroic Mode and now leads the Icecrown CItadel progress with Paragon, both guilds only have Professor Putricide and the Lich King left to kill.

Additional PvE and PvP content in a future patch
Zarhym posted a very interesting comments about what's coming after Icecrown Citadel. Apparently, Blizzard plans to release a few more things before the big 4.0 patch and the expansion and we might see a few more additions to the game. Don't get your hopes too high, Zarhym also confirmed that Icecrown Citadel would be the last big raid of the expansion.

Quote from: Zarhym (Source)
With that being said, we do have some additional PvE and PvP content and changes we plan to implement prior to the release of the big Cataclysm patch and subsequent retail release of that third expansion. We'll be discussing these new features in more detail in the coming weeks.

[…] As we stated before releasing Wrath of the Lich King, we still intend for Icecrown Citadel to be the final raid of the expansion in terms of tiered progression.

Recent In-Game Fixes – February 2010 – 02/11

Quote from: Crygil (Source)
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: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=21723843880&sid=1

02/11

  • Using a "Bag of Heart Candies" with a full inventory will now cause the local postmaster to send you any candy not recieved.
  • Sindragosa will now be more consistent in her application of Unchained Magic in 25-player difficulty.

Blue posts

Quote from Blizzard staff
Can't play without healing debuffs in PvP
I agree it's an issue and we do have some plans. (Source)

Bryntroll and other proc weapons
I wouldn't worry so much about how much percentage of your damage the proc is doing. I mentioned that once when comparing various proc weapons and it became adopted as the design goal for all proc weapons. It isn't.

The only real salient comparison is Bryntroll to other two handed dps weapons of the same ilevel (or Zod's to other bows or Trauma to other healing weapons, etc.) Procs are always going to be more random than pure stats, and we can live with that. If you're very intolerant of RNG mechanics, then proc weapons probably aren't for you. If swapping from Bryntroll to another item on the same tier of content is a significant dps increase (taking class, spec and other gear considerations in mind of course), then there is a problem with the weapon. It's as simple as that. (Source)

Game balance in Cataclysm
However, we're going to back off of talking about Cataclysm for a little bit. We're excited about it, so we've been wanting to share our philosophy, plans and ideas as they relate to class design. However, it may be a little too soon. I think it's clear that some players are mistaking our excitement for Cataclysm as our giving up on Lich King. ("Cataclysm will fix it.") That's not our intent nor plan, but I can understand how you might draw that conclusion. We'll talk more about the upcoming expansion soon ™. (Source)

40-players raids
Right now our plan is to look back on 40-player raids fondly as a format by which we were able to evolve and customize what we feel to be the best raid formats for World of Warcraft. I don't believe our developers have ever stated that they'll absolutely never do a 40-player raid again, but we're really happy with the raid variety we have now with 10- and 25-player raids featuring normal and Heroic difficulties.

The game did rapidly expand from 2004-2006, but I'm not sure it's safe to assume that such a growth in the size of the player base related specifically to what was happening at the endgame. In fact, it had much more to do with the game's overall accessibility, engaging quest experiences, interesting lore, and strong game play mechanics. It was such a growth that ultimately encouraged our desire to make the raiding game more accessible to the new types of people we were introducing to the MMORPG genre.

So while we haven't rapidly expanded our player base over the last year, we've retained our record subscription numbers after five years since World of Warcraft's release. We feel this in part due to the updates we've made to the endgame. We see a greater percentage of players raiding now than ever before, and not just one or two of the easier raid dungeons as in the original game and first expansion. We're seeing much more casual-oriented players serious about fighting the Lich King, while also seeing some of the most advanced guilds in the world begin to work out the strategies for besting him on Heroic difficulty. Our next step is to go back to the early game in Cataclysm and provide additional updates and improvements to bring it closer in line with our development experience, today's technology, and the type of gamers we want to attract. This is in addition to encouraging existing players to try the game again, but have it feel much more like a new experience.

As a long story short, we'll continue to iterate upon the raiding game to improve it, but we feel we have a working formula right now. In order to appeal to a wider range of players, sheer numbers and time devoted should not be the primary determining factors of success in this game. (Source)

Is Icecrown Citadel too easy compared to old raids?
Let's keep things in perspective here. There is a very small percentage of players who have defeated every raid boss in this game consistently for five years straight now. That kind of experience is unparalleled. There's also a very thick system of online resources for providing and sharing strategies which were not nearly as robust for the original game as they are today. The community that's grown around this game has somewhat changed the way the game is played. That's okay though. That's natural.

The fact that at least 25 members of our player base have killed Sindragosa on Heroic difficulty doesn't say much about whether or not the encounter is more complicated than, say, Twin Emperors. In fact, most of the raiders I've talked to who are at, or have killed the Lich King in 25-player mode say that Icecrown Citadel has provided some of the most fun and interesting mechanics this game has yet to offer. Most of the fights today are technically more complex than the fights of old, but the difference is in the tuning and the polish.

I can think of at least a couple of bosses that took a long time for any guild to kill where bugs were a major factor. As soon as the bugs were fixed, the bosses were defeated. There were also several bosses, take Princess Huhuran for example, which weren't necessarily incredibly challenging from a mechanic perspective. The challenge came in the form of requiring that players farm resistance gear from that same instance for weeks and weeks until they stood a chance. Resistance fights have since more or less disappeared. We want the interesting mechanics of a fight and the fun factor of that fight to be what players remember, not that they had to wait for major bugs to get fixed, or farm enough of a specific type of stat to even stand a chance. Of course there are gear checks still in the game, but they're much more reasonable. They allow you to customize your character to your wishes and prove your talent by successfully performing your class/spec role, while also successfully learning and reacting to the mechanics of each fight. These are areas in which guilds like the one to which you're referring excel to an impressive degree. (Source)

02/10 Hotfixes, ICC Hall of Fame, Sindragosa Kill

Update – Added Sindragosa's kill shot.

Update – Sindragosa Hard Mode killed by Paragon
Paragon just killed Sindragosa in Heroic Mode. Congratulations to them, the Hall of Fame has been updated.

Recent In-Game Fixes – February 2010 – 02/10

Quote from: Bornakk (Source)
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: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=21723843880&sid=1

02/10

  • In the Apothecary Frye encounter, area of effect damage has been reduced against pets.
  • Dying during the Blood-Queen Lana'thel encounter will no longer prevent you from gaining Once Bitten, Twice Shy achievement.

Icecrown Citadel Hall of Fame
A couple of people yelled at me because I didn't recap first kills for Icecrown Citadel (or ToC in 3.2), apparently heroic modes won't be too easy to complete and it might take more than a week to see a Lich King kill … time to bring back the Hall of Fame! It's a lot easier to have something accurate now that the armory includes the exact time of completion of achievements, but let's face it, these days you just have to go to WoWProgress for that kind of data.

[html] tr.loot1:hover, tr.loot2:hover {background:#d6ffb2;}.loot1 {background-color:#FFFFFF;}.loot2 {background-color:#ebebeb;}

Hall of Fame

Heroic Bosses First Kills
Boss Guild Server Time
   Lord Marrowgar    vodka
   Paragon
   Alterac Mountains
   Lightning's Blade
   Feb. 9 21:59 GMT
   Feb. 10 10:00 GMT
   Lady Deathwhisper    vodka
   Paragon
   Alterac Mountains
   Lightning's Blade
   Feb. 10 01:13 GMT
   Feb. 10 11:36 GMT
   Gunship Battle    vodka
   Paragon
   Alterac Mountains
   Lightning's Blade
   Feb. 10 01:28 GMT
   Feb. 10 11:48 GMT
   Deathbringer Saurfang    vodka
   Paragon
   Alterac Mountains
   Lightning's Blade
   Feb. 10 06:13 GMT
   Feb. 10 14:13 GMT
   Valithria Dreamwalker    vodka
   Paragon
   Alterac Mountains
   Lightning's Blade
   Feb. 10 07:28 GMT
   Feb. 10 15:46 GMT
   Festergut    vodka
   Paragon
   Alterac Mountains
   Lightning's Blade
   Feb. 10 09:12 GMT
   Feb. 10 17:09 GMT
   Rotface    vodka
   Paragon
   Alterac Mountains
   Lightning's Blade
   Feb. 10 10:14 GMT
   Feb. 10 17:23 GMT
   Professor Putricide    
   
   
   
   
   
   Blood Princes    vodka
   Paragon
   Alterac Mountains
   Lightning's Blade
   Feb. 10 11:14 GMT
   Feb. 10 18:00 GMT
   Blood Queen Lana'thel    <img src="http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/i…

ICC Heroic, Plush Pets, Q4 2009 Results, Blue posts

Icecrown Citadel Heroic Mode Progress
Heroic Modes are now available in Europe and America and guilds are working hard to get their first kills! So far 5 guilds seems to have a few more kills than the others and defeated all the bosses who aren't part of the limited attempts count (Putricide / Blood Queen Lana'thel / Sindragosa / The Lich King) :

However, at this point the most succesful guild is Paragon, they defeated Blood Queen Lanathel in heroic mode and are the only guild so far that managed to kill a limited try boss. Congratulations to them.

Plush Wind Rider Cub and Gryphon Hatchling Pets Coming Soon

Quote from: Nebu (Source)
The Pet Store is about to go plush! Introducing the Wind Rider Cub and Gryphon Hatchling, the first in a new line of cuddly, crafty critters scheduled to arrive exclusively in the online Blizzard Store in the weeks ahead. Each plush companion will come with a code for a matching in-game, non-combat, account-bound pet to fly by your side in Azeroth. Both Horde and Alliance players will be able to adopt either pet once they hatch in the online Blizzard Store. Keep your eyes on the sky — and the official World of Warcraft website — for more information.

Activision Blizzard Q4 2009 Results
Activision published their results for the Fourth Quarter of 2009 and released a handful of information, nothing really new here but it's worth a recap.

  • Cataclysm will be released in 2010.
  • Starcraft 2 will be released in 2010, the beta starts in February.
  • The slides mention "value added services" a couple of times, it is most likely linked to Bornakk's post hinting at a "premium" service for the Auction House available from web.
  • World of Warcraft still has 11.5m subscribers, it didn't change much since last year's announcement.

Nothing really much more interesting on the World of Warcraft side here, you can always check Activision's website if you like staring at big numbers.

Blue posts

Quote from Blizzard staff
Why NOT balance the game around 1v1?
I can answer that in three different ways:

  • 1) Because there are healers.
  • 2) We aren't going for a design where every player is a one person army with a counter for anything that gets thrown against you. We want you to have to rely on your allies. We want you to have weaknesses that someone else can exploit. How you handle your own weaknesses while trying to exploit those of your opponent is one of the ways you can demonstrate skill.
  • 3) It's ultimately a social game and the PvP experience is largely designed as team vs. team. (Source)

Lovely Charm Ulduar Farming Nerf (Come on, you all knew it was a huge exploit)
If you are wanting to farm a lot of them for all of your alts, that's your call, but it shouldn't be trivial to get a ton of them and something you finish in 1-2 days if that's the case. The event is pretty long now, so there is time to farm them and now, yes, you may actually have to put some effort into it – that's all. (Source)

Death Knight (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Lack of Death Knights in Arenas
It's easy to make statistics support a lot of different arguments if you aren't careful. Yes, overall the percentage of DKs compared to other classes in 3s is low. But if you look at the actual highly rated comps, DKs are in the second most common comp after RMP. So using stats like this, what you're really arguing is that DKs don't have a lot of comps in which they function really well (compared to say paladins or shaman who have a few different options). Or put another way, they have great synergy with warriors and maybe hunters. That's a different argument from saying DKs just can't do well in Arenas. If you're a good DK, clearly it's possible to get 2200+ rating or into the SK 100 or even into the top 10.

[…] Look, I'm not an analyst, but I was a scientist, and I had a lot more statistics training than a lot of folks in the business sector are required to take. I've published papers in peer reviewed journals and taught college and all of that. So, yes, this is actually something I understand pretty well. (By contrast, programming is not something in which I am prepared to converse. I know the little bit of C++ that I've picked up from a long time in the industry, but I'm no programmer, nor do I pretend to be, nor do I need to be to do this job. But I do understand stats.)

One of the things I understand is that it's complicated stuff. Being able to treat data fairly and support it with conclusions is not trivial, and honestly probably not the kind of thing you can realistically expect a lot of players without prior experience to be able to do. Very few people can do it period. And there is nothing wrong with that. Nobody is expecting a degree in statistics to be able to talk about class design or even class data. But that doesn't mean a number can be whatever you want it to be either. There is no simple measure of "Arena awesomeness" just like there is no measure of "maximum encounter dps" or "tankiness" or "healiness."

If your contention is that there aren't many kinds of comps in which a DK can be competitive, I think there are data to support that conclusion. The data that have been presented do not support "DKs suck." That is why I am constantly trying to advocate just not going there. If you feel DKs are weak, then argue that point. But you likely need more than simply linking to Arena representation as your proof. (Source)

Warlock (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Destruction needs a little more DPS
As I said before, we suspect Destruction will need a little more dps but we want to apply it in such a way that doesn't make Destruction the only logical choice for raiding warlocks. We're also cool with certain specs being better for certain fights. Having a three way tie in every conceivable situation is probably impossible. It just needs to be close enough that you don't feel like a bonehead for raiding with the spec you prefer to play. (Source)

Mobile Authenticator now available on Android phones
A new Mobile Authenticator application appeared on the Android Market yesterday, it isn't officially announced yet but the application is indeed legit.

Quote from: Gelmkar (Source)
Hi, I've been doing some asking and it seems that this application is actually official and was launched yesterday.

The support page is also available and you can find it on Blizzard's site.

Reminder: Authenticators are great. If you want to link an authenticator to your phone go to http://mobile.blizzard.com/, a lot of phones are supported and you'll probably find yours in the list.

Recent In-Game Fixes – February 2010 – 02/09

Recent In-Game Fixes – February 2010 – 02/09

Quote from: Bornakk (Source)
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: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=21723843880&sid=1

02/09

  • Titan-Forged Spaulders of Triumph are purchasable by druids as intended.
  • Lovely Charms now stack to 40.
  • Any player who has a Lovely Charm Collector's Kit in their bags now has a chance to receive a Lovely Charm when in a group or raid and a group member gets a killing blow as long as they are within a certain range of the kill.
  • In all difficulties of the Lich King encounter, players who are tanking raging spirits are no longer valid Harvest Soul targets during phase 3, Vile Spirits in phase 3 now spawn at a greater height, and Vile Spirits in phase 3 will not be spawned as often.
  • In the 10 player Lich King encounter, Raging Spirits have had their health decreased in both normal and heroic versions and then fewer Vile Spirirts will be summoned in just the 10 player normal mode.
  • Svala Sorrowgrave in Utgarde Pinnacle should no longer get stuck in the air during her transformation phase.
  • The Blue Sack of Gems earned from completing a random heroic Occulus dungeon is no longer tradeable.
  • The Tier 10 tanking plate gloves and chest pieces now have their appropriate durability on them.