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Author: Mezzy

Host and author of WoW Weekly podcast, guides and website. I have played WoW since classic, enjoy MMORPG’s and game design in general.

Fireside Chat – Hearthstone Mobile Development Update

Quote from: Blizzard
Fireside Chat - Mobile Development Update

Greetings to all card-slingers around the world!

Some time has passed since we last sat down and pow-wowed, and in that time a lot has happened. Since launching Hearthstone®: Heroes of Warcraft™ back in March, we’ve:

  • Let players’ fingers do the dueling with the arrival of Hearthstone on iPad
  • Survived the creepy-crawly wings of the floating necropolis of Naxxramas
  • Added Windows 8 Touch compatibility
  • Raised a mug in celebration of our 20 million players across the world

Infographic_HS_Lightbox_CK_500x250.jpg

We’ve created this infographic to share some less well-known (but still important!) metrics we’ve hit together along the way. Check out just how many Hounds have been Unleashed, the number of minions turned to adorable Sheep, and other interesting statistics.

Throughout the past year, many of you have been asking about the release date for Hearthstone on Android. The team has been hard at work to bring Hearthstone to that platform, and is making great progress. We’re taking things one step at a time and we’ve got our sights set on a release for Android tablets, our next new platform, before the end of the year; we’ve just got a few more mana crystals to polish and some Angry Chickens to chase down.We’re also close to having Hearthstone out to our iPhone and Android phone users, but it’s become clear that we need a little more time to get that version right. While we have a build up and running internally, it needs a bit more work, and we don’t feel like we’ll be ready to share it with you until early next year. It’s very important to us that the phone experience for Hearthstone is just as accessible as the tablet and PC versions. One of the biggest challenges with that is revamping the user interface so it feels intuitive and offers the same quality Hearthstone experience, but this time from the palm of your hand.

Releasing Hearthstone on iPhone and Android phones is something we’re incredibly excited about, but ultimately we’d rather take the extra time to make Hearthstone’s user interface on the phone customized to feel great for the platform, rather than a port that doesn’t taken into account the limitations of a smaller screen.

As always, we can’t thank you enough for making the game what it’s become. From the never-ending Fireside Gatherings you’re hosting around the globe, to the insane victories you’re  sharing via videos and streams—and even the tough love we get at times—we’re all constantly blown away by our amazing community.

See you at BlizzCon. We can’t wait to show you what’s to come!

-The Hearthstone team

6.0.2 Hotfixes: October 21, Mission Exhaustion Being Removed

Quote from: Blizzard
6.0.2 Hotfixes: October 21

Here you’ll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 6.0.2. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below take effect the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. We will continue to update this list as additional hotfixes are applied.

Hotfixes have been listed by the date they’ve been implemented. The hotfixes have also been compiled by category for those wanting a quick summary of all hotfixes that have been applied since Patch 6.0.2.

Patch 6.0.2 Information

By Date
By Category

October 21

Classes

  • Druid
    • General
      • Dash should now correctly remove root effects when used.
      • Stampeding Roar should now correctly remove root effects when used.
    • Feral
      • Rake should no longer incorrectly stun the target if the attack misses while the Druid is stealthed.
    • Talents
      • Resolved an issue where Boosted Characters may sometimes be unable to learn Faerie Swarm.

Raids

  • Siege of Orgrimmar
    • The Fallen Protectors: Sun Tenderheart’s Calamity ability should no longer deal an excessive amount of damage.
  • Throne of Thunder
    • Resolved an issue where the Feat of Strength achievement “I Thought He Was Supposed to Be Hard?” was being incorrectly awarded to characters that have died during the fight.
  • Firelands
    • Beth’tilac: Smoldering Devastation should no longer deal an excessive amount of damage.
  • Throne of the Four Winds
    • Conclave of Wind: Rohash’s Deafening Wind ability should no longer deal an excessive amount of damage.
  • Icecrown Citadel
    • The Lich King: Necrotic Plague should no longer deal an excessive amount of damage.
  • The Eye of Eternity
    • Malygos (Phase 3): Damage dealt while riding a Red Drake now scales with the player’s item level.
  • Sunwell Plateau
    • Grand Warlock Alythess: Flame Touched should no longer deal an excessive amount of damage.

Scenarios

  • Blood in the Snow: Freezing Circle should no longer deal an excessive amount of damage.

Battlegrounds and Arenas

  • Characters that are in-transit on a flight path should now be able to accept a Battleground or Arena queue.

Max Level Garrison Mission Update

The exhaustion penalty is being removed in an upcoming beta build. This means you’ll be able to send your followers on more missions right away after completing an important maximum level mission!

Quote from: Blizzard
As it happens, exhaustion is going away in an upcoming build. The level 100 missions will feel much more like level 90-99 missions, although with longer mission times and slower repop rates than level-up missions have.
Rewards aren’t changing. In fact, gold went up in some cases and mission times and follower/threat requirements went down in some cases to make the rewards feel more worth it.

For example, level 100 missions of ilvl 600 that reward gold require 2 followers (instead of 3), only take 4 hours to complete (was 8+exhausting), and reward 60 gold (was 50 before).

Warlords of Draenor Garrison Guide

Over the lifespan of the WoD Beta we’ve covered a lot of what you can expect from the Garrisons. however because there’s so much information to cover here’s a complete guide with just about everything you need to know as well as links to our various videos/guides.

The basics

You get your garrison almost right after you finish the Tenaan Jungle intro event. You get a set of quests that take you through all the waves and motions of the Garrison mechanics. Let’s go over each of those mechanics.

Resources

When going about the daily goings of your garrison you’ll need resources. You can earn these from multiple sources: The garrison resource chest, quests, garrison missions, rare mobs and garrison buildings such as the lumber mill and the trading post. Once you reach maximum level you’ll mainly earn the resources from the garrison chest, garrison missions and garrison buildings.

You’ll use resources for things like building buildings, upgrading them and sending followers on missions.

Plots/Garrison Leveling

garrisons picWhen you build up your garrison you can build the garrison buildings in plots. The type of plot determines which buildings you can put on them. There are more buildings per type of plot than there are plots, which means you will have to make a choice as to which buildings you want. This matters because you get perks depending on the buildings you choose (more on that in the buildings section).

You will need to level your garrison up to get more plots. Your garrison starts at tier 1 and you can level it up to a maximum of tier 3. See the below table for the amount of plots per tier.

Tier Amount of Plots
1 1 small, 1 large
2 2 small, 1 medium, 1 large
3 3 small, 3 medium, 2 large

 

Tier 2

To level your garrison up to tier 2 you will simply need to have completed both buildings in the plots. You will then get the quest to upgrade your town hall. To do so you have to click on the town hall in the architect interface and click upgrade.

At tier 2 you will also get quests depending on your level to unlock new buildings, these don’t cost extra plots.

Level Required Building
92 The Mines
94 The Fishing Shack
96 The Herb Garden
98 Pet Menagerie

Tier 3

To level your garrison up to tier 3 you simply need to be level 100. The upgrade itself will require 5000 gold and 2000 resources.

Buildings

As mentioned before the plots determine which buildings you can build. At garrison tier 3 you can build 3 small, 3 medium and 2 large buildings. Each building has 3 levels and depending on the level you’ll get perks from having those buildings. Check below for all the different buildings and their perks so you can start thinking about which buildings you will want to build first when you get your own garrison. To build and level up your garrison you will need to get blueprints.

 

Type Blueprint How to Obtain
Level 1 blueprints Become available to you when your Garrison reaches Tier 2.
Level 2 Small building blueprints Reach level 96 or complete the Talador zone
Level 2 Medium building blueprints Reach level 98 or complete the Spires of Arak zone
Level 2 Large building blueprints Reach level 100 or complete the Nagrand zone
Level 3 blueprints Become available as you complete certain achievements across Draenor

Level 3 blueprints are account-wide. Once you unlock one on a character, it’s available to all characters on your account.

Large

Barracks

Perks

Level Perk Comment
1 Unlocks patrol missions. Patrol missions have higher than normal follower experience rewards.
2 Allows a follower with the bodyguard trait to accompany you as a guardian in Draenor zones.
3 Increases your follower limit by 5 and grants access to racial guards and banners.  Level 3 Perks Video

Dwarven Bunker

Perks

Level Perk Comment
1 Doubles the chance for your quest rewards to get a rare or epic Bonus Upgrade, and increases the potency of the upgrade.
Allows the collection of armor scraps from the orc clans of Draenor for armor transmogrification use.
2 Opens up work orders for follower weapons and armor in exchange for garrison resources. Also, new armor transmogrification items unlock.
3 Grants 1 of your 3 seals of tempered fate (raid bonus loot roll) at no cost each week.

Gnomish Gearworks

Perks

Level Perk Comment
1 Unlocks a personal engineer that creates a powerful invention each day. Exceptional work!
2 Your engineer gains access to five new and amazing devices.
3 Allows the creation of a siege vehicle once per day. Drive it to victory in Draenor! (Can be used in Ashran)

Mage Tower

Perks

Level Perk Comment
1 Allows the collection of ogre waystones from Ogres on Draenor.
These waystones can be used to power an Ogre Waygate of your choice on Draenor. Also occasionaly triggers Runes of Power during combat.
2 Unlocks access to a second Ogre Waygate for a total of 2.
3 Unlocks access to a third Ogre Waygate for a total of 3.

Stables

Perks

Level Perk Comment
1 Enables the capture and training of special mounts on Draenor.
Also allows you remain mounted while interacting with objects in outdoor Draenor zones.
 Taming Quest Video
2 You will no longer get dazed by enemies while riding mounts in outdoor Draenor zones.
3 Increases mount speed in Draenor by 20%.  6 Stable Mounts Video

 Medium

Lumber Mill

Perks

Level Perk Comment
1 Allows you to mark small trees in Draenor for harvest. Harvested Timber can be converted to work orders for garrison supplies.
2 Allows you to mark medium trees for additional Timber.  You can earn a special follower via the lumber mill.
3 Allows you to mark large trees for even more Timber.

Trading Post

Perks

Level Perk Comment
1 A merchant shows up each day selling trade goods. Also allows the trade of crafting reagents for garrison resources.
2 Grants access to the Sha’tari Defense or Laughing Skull factions. Also unlocks the ability to acquire parts from around Draenor to build an auctioneer.
3 Increases reputation gain in Draenor by 20%.

Barn

Perks

Level Perk Comment
1 Allows you to capture clefthoof, elekk, wolves and talbuk for leather and fur. used for leatherworking and tailoring recipes.
2 Allows you to capture boars and riverbeasts for rare meats used to create the most powerful food. Expected to use for raiding food.
3 Allows you to capture elite beasts to harvest for savage blood, used in all epic crafted armor and weapons. Required for crafting the best armor and weapons.

Gladiator's Sanctum

Perks

Level Perk Comment
1 Increases your out-of-combat regeneration in outdoor Draenor zones and allows the collection of broken bones from defeated enemy players (used for Conqueror’s Tribute).
2 Enables safe fall and underwater breathing in outdoor Draenor zones. Also enables the Nemesis quest series for defeating enemy players of specific races.
3 While below 35% life, all damage taken is reduced by 50% in outdoor Draenor zones. Grants access to the Highmaul Coliseum gladiator tournament. Coliseum Video preview

Lunarfall Inn

Perks

Level Perk Comment
1 Each day, a visitor offering a dungeon quest with generous rewards will spend the day at your inn.
2 Recruits random followers each week. You can specify traits and abilities you’re especially interested in.
3 Unlocks the particularly lucrative treasure hunter missions.

Small

Profession Buildings

Perks

Level Perk Comment
1 Allows the production of profession items. Enchanter’s study allows disenchanting of items.
2 Allows followers with profession trait to work here, granting a unique bonus. Also allows up to 14 work orders at a time.
3 Allows up to 21 work orders at a time.

Salvage Yard

Perks

Level Perk Comment
1 Allows Salvage to be occasionally recovered from missions
2 Increases your chance at recovering Salvage from missions. In addition, you may now discover follower items in Salvage
3 Greatly increases your chance at recovering Salvage from missions. In addition, you may now discover player items in Salvage.

Storehouse

Perks

Level Perk Comment
1 Enables access to your personal bank and increases the total number of active work orders for all buildings by 5.
2 Enables access to your guild bank.
3 Enables access to an Ethereal Trader for Void Storage and Transmogrification and increases the total number of active work orders for all buildings by 15

The Salvage Yard

The salvage yard is the only building for which you will need to earn the level 1 blueprints in a seperate way. You will need to finish the goblin chain quests to the east/southeast in Spires of Arak at lvl 98. Together with the work orders from the Dwarven Bunker, the salvage yard is your main source of follower gear upgrades. But not only that, you can get legitimate item upgrades as well as character creation screen transmogrification sets. Check out some of the possible items below (note the dkp values are from a custom addon)!

The non full set upgrades are now either +3, +6 or +9 item levels.

Followers

As you adventure through Draenor you’ll get the chance to build up your own private army. You can earn these followers through exploring, questing, achievements and dungeons. You can send these followers on missions to earn follower experience, gold and other tidbits. There’s a few things you need to know about these followers.

  • You can have up to a maximum of 20 active followers (25 with lvl 3 barracks)
  • Once you have more than the maximum amount active you cannot send followers on missions until you put followers on inactive (right click follower to do so) until you have the maximum amount of active followers again.
  • Followers can be leveled up to lvl 100
  • Followers have uncommon (green), rare (blue) or epic (purple) quality. These determine the amount of abilities and traits the follower has.
  • Abilities and traits counter mission dangers or give your followers buffs during missions to increase the chance of succesful missions. They can also have profession traits, in which case you can assign them to the appropriate profession building via the architect interface.
  • Once a follower is level 100 they can continue to gain experience until they are of epic quality.
  • Once a follower is level 100 they will have an item level, starting at 600. You can upgrade their gear, which will be needed for harder missions.

For an overview of all the followers we’ve found check out these guides.

Missions

Missions are your way to keep your followers busy. Once you have your very first follower you will be sending them on a mission right away. Missions have many rewards, from gold to experience to follwer item upgrades there’s plenty of reasons to keep sending your followers on new missions. You can choose which follower you send on which mission in the mission interface by dragging them to the open follower slots.

The list of missions you get can grow for a bit, so if you can’t log on for a day there’s no harm done, you’ll still be able to send your followers on plenty of missions without falling behind in leveling them up! Missions at maximum level have 4 tiers, corresponding with follower item level. There are even raid missions, Kalgan explained them a while back:

Once you have followers at ilvl 615, the second tier of level 100 missions unlocks, at 630 the third tier unlocks (includes missions with ilvl 645 gear for your character), and when you have followers at ilvl 645 the fourth tier unlocks.

The fourth tier is special in that they show up rarely, but they’re raid missions for your followers that reward your character with raid quality loot of a tier higher than you’re currently running. If you’re doing LFR, you’ll get normal quality raid loot, if you’re running normal raids you’ll get heroic quality loot, and heroic raiders will get mythic quality loot. Mythic raiders will get mythic loot and 1k gold.

These missions show up rarely enough that you won’t be able to deck out your character in these items before the next raid zone shows up, but having a handful of them will give you a nice edge.

(Note: DKP Value in item is from a custom addon)

Monuments

In your garrison you will be able to put up monuments that commemorate the feats you’ve achieved in draenor. There are currently 6 monuments to earn and 3 slots in a tier 3 garrison to place them in. You can earn them in the following ways:

  • Get 5000 honorable kills in Draenor
  • Craft 50 epic items with an item level of at least 600
  • Complete mythic raiding achievements
  • Win 2000 pet battles in Draenor
  • Collect 100000 Apexis Crystals
  • Complete a likely legendary ring achievement

The monuments are purely cosmetic and allow you to customize your garrison a bit.

Invasions

You will be able to take part in invasion events. In these your garrison is under attack and you’ll need to defend it from various invaders. The fun part of these is that your followers will fight alongside you and that you’ll be able to earn points and try and earn rewards with these!

Outposts

In each zone other than your garrison zone you’ll get to build a garrison outpost. At each outpost you’ll have be able to build 1 building, with the choice from 2. Once you’ve built it you will have access to a garrison ability in that zone. Check out the table below for the overview.

Zone Building 1 Building 2
Gorgrond Lumber Mill Sparring Arena
Talador Mage Tower Artillery/Armory
Spires of Arak Inn Trading Post
Nagrand StablesPerk: Special Mount For Combat, allowing casting while moving Siege Works

 

Concluding Remarks

Garrisons are a big part of WoD (but optional for the most part), and this guide certainly shows it. There are many aspects to it and it might seem like much, but once you play with it yourself and start building your garrison it is actually quite easy to deal with. If you’re a collector you’ll enjoy going around Draenor to collect the followers and build up your own private army!

Metallica Performing Live at BlizzCon® 2014

Quote from: Blizzard
Metallica Performing Live at BlizzCon® 2014

We’re thrilled to announce that Metallica will be performing the closing concert at BlizzCon 2014, playing before a sold-out convention crowd on the night of November 8! If you didn’t score tickets to the show, don’t worry—you can still get a front-row seat from home with the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket.

BlizzCon is a gaming convention like no other. With developer panels, exclusive interviews, intense eSports tournaments, the legendary Friday night contests, and what’s sure to be an unforgettable concert from Metallica to close out the show on Saturday, this year’s event is one you won’t want to miss.

The BlizzCon Virtual Ticket lets you catch all of the action online, live and in high definition. You’ll also get access to this year’s epic collection of in-game goodies for World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm. Visit the Battle.net Shop to order your Virtual Ticket, and check out the press release for more details on Metallica’s performance.

6.0.2 Hotfixes: October 20

Quote from: Blizzard
6.0.2 Hotfixes: October 20

Here you’ll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 6.0.2. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below take effect the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. We will continue to update this list as additional hotfixes are applied.

Hotfixes have been listed by the date they’ve been implemented. The hotfixes have also been compiled by category for those wanting a quick summary of all hotfixes that have been applied since Patch 6.0.2.

Patch 6.0.2 Information

Hallow’s End

  • Exquisite Costume Set: “The Lich King” no longer has a Hallow’s End requirement and costs 500 Tricky Treats to obtain (down from 1000). Note that we’re aware of item tooltip on the vendor incorrectly displaying number of charges available on the item as 1.

Classes

  • Death Knight
    • Talents
      • Death Pact’s healing absorption effect should now be applied correctly while the Anti-Magic Shell effect is active.
  • Hunter
    • Talents
      • Binding Shot should now correctly stun players that are mounted or in a shapeshift form.
  • Mage
    • Armor Sets
      • Time Lord’s Regalia (Tier 13) 2-piece set bonus now increases Haste by 2 per stack (down from 50 per stack).
  • Rogue
    • General
      • Priodic healing effects should no longer occasionally cause the Rogue to break out of Stealth.

World Environment

  • Azuremyst Isle has been temporarily removed from cross-realm zoning.

Quests

  • Like Bombing Fish In A Barrel: Resolved an issue where Goblin Fishing Bombs were not killing the Sting Rays.
  • Rolo’s Riddle: The item to start the quest chain should be obtainable once more.
  • Through a Glass, Darkly: Platforms should now spawn in correctly, allowing players to complete the quest.
  • Legendary Cloak Quest Line
    • The Thunder Forge: Sha Beast’s Dark Bite ability should no longer deal an excessive amount of damage.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

Raids

  • Siege of Orgrimmar
    • Raid Leader’s lockout state will now always be used when entering a Siege of Orgrimmar Raid instance.
    • Spoils of Pandaria: Resolved an issue where Kor’kron Blood Axe would occasionally invite themselves to the encounter.
    • Resolved an issue where Tusks of Mannoroth was obtainable on Normal difficulty.
  • Throne of Thunder
    • Drakkari Frost Warden’s Frost Bulwark ability should no longer absorb an excessive amount of damage.
    • Megaera: Venomous Head’s Acid Rain ability should no longer deal an excessive amount of damage.
  • Dragon Soul
    • Spine of Deathwing’s Blood of Deathwing effect should no longer be able to critically strike or Multistrike against players on Heroic difficulty.
    • Resolved a number of issues where some spells and abilities dealt an excessive amount of damage.
  • Icecrown Citadel
    • Professor Putricide’s Mutated Plague ability should no longer deal an excessive amount of damage.
    • The Lich King’s Ice Pulse ability should no longer deal an excessive amount of damage.
  • Ulduar
    • Algalon the Observer’s melee damage has been reduced by 40%.
  • Black Temple
    • The Illidari Council: Lady Malande’s Reflective Shield should no longer reflect back an excessive amount of damage.
  • Blackwing Lair
    • Resolved an issue where characters in Spirit Form may be unable to interact with the Orb of Command to reenter the Raid instance.

Dungeons

  • Shado-Pan Monastery
    • Shado-Pan Disciples should no longer be following players around the dungeon after they have been defeated.
  • Blackrock Caverns
    • Karsh Steelbender’s Heat Wave ability should no longer deal an excessive amount of damage.
  • Throne of the Tides
    • Lady Naz’jar’s Lightning Surge ability should no longer deal an excessive amount of damage.
  • Zul’Gurub
    • Resolved a number of issues where some spells and abilities dealt an excessive amount of damage.

Battlegrounds and Arenas

  • Arenas
    • Characters that have obtained the Gladiator: Season 15 achievement should now receive a Prideful Gladiator’s Cloud Serpent in the mail.
    • Alchemist’s Flask should no longer be usable while in an Arena match.

Professions

  • Enchanting
    • Peerless Stats should now correctly have a cast time and reagent cost.

Items

  • Ai-Li’s Skymirror can no longer be used on players that with the Tree Disguise Kit transformation.

Bug Fixes

  • [Requires a realm restart.] Resolved an issue where damage-over-time effects applied by an NPC or creature that have despawned can deal an excessive amount of damage.

Updated: New Level-90 Crash Course Videos

Blizzard has updated their crash course videos with the pre-patch changes!

Quote from: Blizzard
Updated: New Level-90 Crash Course Videos

Update October 20, 2014 – All of the videos below have been updated for WoW 6.0.

Want to leap into action with a new class at level 90 but not sure how to begin? In our new videos—one for each of WoW’s 11 classes—we’ll give you a crash course on how to play your new level-90 character. To help you get started, these videos focus on one damage-dealing (DPS) specialization for each class.

Click your class of choice below to begin your training!

Death Knight
Death Knight
Druid
Druid
Hunter
Hunter
Mage
Mage
Monk
Monk
Paladin
Paladin
CrashCourse-Priest_Embed-188x109.png
Priest
CrashCourse-Rogue_Embed-188x109.png
Rogue
CrashCourse-Shaman_Embed-188x109.png
Shaman
Warlock
Warlock
Warrior

Warrior

For more advanced guides or to learn more about other class roles, check-out the Boosting 101- New to 90 Guide and Wowhead’s Boosted 90s Essentials Guide and Class Guides.