We still think a 6.1 patch seems like a pretty reasonable point where flying would become available in Draenor, likely with some kind of aforementioned prerequisite. Maybe it’s gold, maybe it’s some kind of epic quest, maybe something more straightforward. But we’re staying open to changing that post-release if it seems like it’s working out really well and we want to keep rolling with it. I’m digging that there seems to be a pretty reasonable mix of beta experiences here though. Definitely looking forward to feedback when we get to the max-level content too.
In other news we got a new artcraft post last week, showing off the new male draenei model.
Welcome once again to Artcraft! I’m Chris Robinson, art director of World of Warcraft. This Artcraft is another quick one, but still packed with goodies. Today we’re showing you our work on the male Draenei. The original was one of the better character models in the game, so it didn’t require a ton of translation—but with higher-resolution textures and more polygons to work with, we were able to bump up his fidelity quite a bit, as well as improve how we convey emotion through a new animation rig.
That’s all for now—thanks again for continuing to follow along as we develop these updated character models. See you next time!
And finally the pricing for naxxrammas in hearthstone got announced!
We’re skimming the slime pools, stitching together our finest Abominations, and preparing the Necropolis for an Adventure you’ll never forget—Curse of Naxxramas is coming, and we know you’re just dying to get in and play! In today’s blog, we’ll discuss the details on how you’ll access Curse of Naxxramas, and unveil the Naxxramas Heroic Mode.
Your All Naxx-cess Pass
Naxxramas is a floating necropolis, home to a host of undead bosses ready to challenge worthy opponents eager to test their card-slinging mettle. To undertake the challenges that lie within each of the five wings of the Adventure, one must first gain access to their secrets. But don’t worry too much about the price of entry—much to Thaddius’ chagrin, it won’t cost you an arm OR a leg.
Naxxramas will open its gates one wing at a time, with a new wing opening each week. The wings of Naxxramas will open in the following order: Arachnid Quarter, Plague Quarter, Military Quarter, Construct Quarter, and Frostwyrm Lair.
Players who begin their adventures in Naxxramas during the launch event will gain free access to the first wing: the Arachnid Quarter. The launch event will last roughly a month or so, meaning you’ll have plenty of time to get your foot in the door—we’ll have more details to share about that later on. The web-choked corridors of the Arachnid Quarter are home to the bosses Anub’Rekhan, Grand Widow Faerlina, and Maexxna. Defeating these bosses will add new cards to your collection and give you a taste of the dangers that await you deeper inside Naxxramas.
After the Arachnid Quarter, the next four wings can be purchased for 700 gold per wing or $6.99 USD per wing. Players can earn the in-game gold needed to unlock the next wing of Naxxramas by completing various quests or emerging victorious from the Arena, or they can choose to unlock the next available Naxxramas wing using real money.
If you’re looking to swing open multiple gates at once, Curse of Naxxramas bundle packages are also available. Spiders are just so good at making things into neat little bundles. . . .
For European Naxxramas Wing Entry details, please go here.
For Australian Naxxramas Wing Entry details, please go here.
Keep in mind that purchasing Curse of Naxxramas wings in bundles does not open or grant access to those wings faster than the one-wing-a-week schedule, but it does ensure that you’ll be able to dive into the next challenges as soon as they unlock.
If you play Naxxramas during the launch event and decide to purchase the remaining wings with real money, you’ll only have to purchase the 4-Wing bundle to access the remaining wings once they become accessible.
If you unlock additional wings with gold and wish to purchase a wing bundle at a later time with real money to unlock any remaining wings, you can still take advantage of the bundle pricing. For example, if you enter the Arachnid Quarter during the launch event and unlock it for free, then purchase the second wing with gold, the remaining three wings can be purchased with real money at the 3-wing bundle price listed above.
Remember to enter the Necropolis during the launch event so you don’t miss out on all the creepy crawly fun that awaits you in the Arachnid Quarter—for free!
Heroic Mode
Once you’ve defeated all of the bosses within any given wing for the first time, you’ll unlock the Heroic mode of that wing. Heroic mode bosses are significantly more difficult than their normal versions, and they will prove to be a challenge for even the most veteran Hearthstone players. Defeating all of the bosses in Naxxramas on Heroic mode will unlock a new card back for your collection.
The undead horrors of Curse of Naxxramas: A Hearthstone Adventure are dying to meet you. We hope to see you creeping through the necropolis with your own “All Naxx-cess Pass” soon!
The Alpha realms have gone down after 1 day of having the new Shadowmoon Valley and Tanaan Jungle Alpha build! Since then people have reportedly gotten beta invites that say the Warlords of Draenor beta will begin Friday, June 27, at 2:00 PM PDT.
At the same time a Community Manager has announced on the Hearthstone forums that the plan is to release Curse of Naxxrammas in july! Remember this can change as there are still a lot of things that need to be done for it.
Just wanted to give everyone a head’s up that we are currently targeting to release Curse of Naxxramas during the month of July. Unfortunately, we still have a lot of implementing and bug fixing to get through, so please stay tuned!
With that said, we are also targeting to reveal pricing details regarding Curse of Naxxramas next week on July 1st, so please keep an eye out for that.
Lili is a new support hero with an ability set that helps her to very effectively aid her teammates throughout the game.
She has lots of ways to protect herself and allies, and she doesn’t need to be babysat.
You’ll see a lot more from her in the showmatch commentary at the end of the panel.
Brightwing
Brightwing has the ability to passively heal any allies nearby.
She can also transform enemies into animals.
Brightwing is a versatile support hero capable of teleporting from ally to ally, healing them and providing them with the help they need to succeed in battle.
Zagara
Zagara has map-wide components to her design.
She can drop Creep Tumors to spread Zerg Creep, which helps speed up her movement speed, as well as the speed of her summons.
What’s more, Zagara can use her Nydus Worms to hop back and forth around the map, giving her plenty of opportunity to Creep up and siege multiple lanes at once.
Murky
When we talked about putting Murky in the game, we initially struggled with what to do with him. Making him a really powerful hero just didn’t seem to fit quite right (he is a Murloc, you know.) Instead, we chose to make him very, very weak, but incredibly persistent.
Murky can lay an egg which he can use to respawn near instantly upon being killed. If his egg is destroyed, Murky will face the same respawn timers as other heroes do, so be sure to hide it well!
Murky is going to die A LOT, but he’s a hero who eventually overwhelms enemies across multiple battles. He doesn’t need to win every fight; he just needs to win once.
We also shared a sneak peek of three additional new heroes who are also in development: Chen, Kael’thas, and Sylvanas!
Pax East panel video:
Now onto Hearthstone, where we’ve gotten the first preview of the PvE adventure mode!
Quote from: Blizzard
Hearthstone’s highly anticipated single player Adventure Mode has been officially announced today at PAX East: Curse of Naxxramas, A Hearthstone Adventure!
The Curse Comes!
The ancient necropolis Naxxramas, a base of operations for the powerful lich Kel’Thuzad and his plague-bearing undead host, comes to Hearthstone in a single player PvE Adventure that anyone can undertake! Progress through one of the five unique wings of the dungeon and gain new cards for your Hearthstone collection by defeating the iconic bosses that you’ll face along the way – the oversized arachnid Maexxna, the fungal horror Loatheb and the shambling abomination Patchwerk are just a few of the horrors that await your challenge. Each boss has their own unique cards and Hero Powers at their disposal to challenge even the most seasoned of card-slinging adventurers!
New Cards!
Progressing through Curse of Naxxramas and overcoming the challenges that lurk within will reward you with all new Hearthstone cards! Once you earn these cards, you can start playing with them in your decks right away. A total of 30 new cards will be added with Curse of Naxxramas – Check out a few of the shambling creatures of the undead that are just dying to be a part of your collection below!
Peer Into the Plague Quarter
One of the bosses you’ll be pitted against within the Plague Quarter is the devious plague cauldron master Heigan the Unclean! His Eruption spell will put your minion’s dancing skills to the test, and Mindpocalypse will make you think you’ve got the upper hand! Speaking of hands, Heigan definitely never washes his. Gross.
Defeating Heigan will net you a brand new card to add to your collection, and the completion of each wing will reward you with a guaranteed new Legendary card!
All New Game Board!
Curse of Naxxramas will have its own unique game board Hearthstone players battle on while they are in the adventure, complete with brand new interactive corners! What could possibly lurk within that quivering mass of eggs? Do you really want to find out?
Test Your Might with Class Challenges!
On top of all of that, nine unique Class Challenges lie in wait within Curse of Naxxramas. These challenges put a difficult twist on existing encounters within the adventure and will put your Hearthstone skills with a specific class to the test! If you’re able to overcome the Class Challenges that face you, you’ll be rewarded with new class-specific cards to add to your collection.
Make Tracks to Naxx!
Curse of Naxxramas will open its gates to challenge Hearthstone players over the course of 5 weeks, opening wing by wing. The first wing of Curse of Naxxramas, The Arachnid Quarter, will be available free for all Hearthstone players. If players wish to venture further into Naxxramas to collect all of the new cards for their collection, each wing besides the Arachnid Quarter can be purchased with in-game gold OR real money. As each wing is released, the cards available in each wing will also show up in your Arena picks, even if you have not earned them for your personal collection yet!
Beware the Necropolis!
We hope you enjoyed this first look into Curse of Naxxramas, A Hearthstone Adventure. Curse of Naxxramas is planned to release simultaneously for PC, Mac and iPad. A release date will be announced at a later time.
With the first official Hearthstone Season starting, the iPad version is being released as well. It’s currently available in New Zealand, Canada and Australia, and will be released in other parts of the world soon.
The Hearthstone iPad rollout begins: today, we’ve launched Hearthstone for iPad in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, with other regions around the world to follow soon!The iPad version of Hearthstone brings all of the features and excitement of deck-building and dueling your friends that’s currently available for PC right to your fingertips. Wherever you have an Internet connection, you can log in to Hearthstone and amass your card collection, play a friendly game or two against your buddies, or test your skills in Play or Arena mode!
Your Hearthstone collection and data is shared across all devices, so if you’re playing from your PC or Mac at home, you won’t miss a beat when you take Hearthstone on the go with the iPad!
Launching Hearthstone in a limited set of countries allows us to focus on the end-to-end player experience and make sure it’s awesome before we move on to the rest of the world. If you don’t live in Australia, Canada, or New Zealand, you don’t have much longer to wait to get your hands on Hearthstone for iPad—Murloc Scout’s honor.
Keep an eye on playhearthstone.com, Hearthstone on Facebook, and Hearthstone on Twitter for the latest news and rollout updates!
Blizzard seems to be getting more into the habit of making how to/tutorial videos as today they posted not one, but two videos! One on how the starting experience will be in Heroes of the Storm Alpha, and the other on how you can get the Hearthsteed. They didn’t stop there but they also posted an article on how the instant lvl 90 boost works. Check it all out below!
A Character Boost can be used on any character on your Battle.net® account that isn’t already level 90—even a brand new one. The only condition is that the character must be on a Mists of Pandaria® or Warlords of Draenor® game account.
World of Warcraft®: Warlords of Draenor includes a Level 90 Character Boost for one character on the upgraded game account. If you want to purchase a Character Boost without the expansion, the service is available in the World of Warcraft Shop.
How it works After you get a Character Boost for your account, whether it’s the boost included with Warlords of Draenor or through the World of Warcraft Shop, you’ll see the option to boost a character when you log into the game and visit your character selection screen.The Level 90 Character Boost icon will appear near the top of your character list. When you click it, the game will walk you through boosting a character and choosing their talent specialization.Note: Character Transfers will not be available to boosted characters until 72 hours after the boost. If you try to transfer a recently boosted character, you’ll see Error 20078.
What you get Gear, Gold, and BagsAfter boost a character to 90, they’ll receive a set of spec-appropriate gear, a set of bags, and some gold to get started. Any gear the character already had will be moved to their bags. If there isn’t enough space in their bags, their old gear will be mailed to them instead.Professions
Character Armor Class
Professions Granted
Cloth
Enchanting
Tailoring
Leather/Mail
Leatherworking
Skinning
Plate
Blacksmithing
Mining
If the character is at least level 60 before the boost, their primary professions and First Aid will be leveled up to rank 600. Other secondary professions will not be affected. If the character doesn’t have primary professions, they’ll be given class-appropriate professions according to the table on the right. Characters who receive this profession boost will need to learn recipes from a profession trainer in-game.
If the character you choose to boost is not at least level 60, their professions will not be boosted. Mounts and Riding Skill
Boosted characters will receive all riding skills up to Artisan (up to 280% flying speed) and all regional riding skills up to Pandaria (Cold Weather Flying, Flight Master’s License, etc.).
If your Battle.net account doesn’t have any flying mounts, your boosted character will receive their faction’s basic flying mount (gryphon for Alliance, wyvern for Horde). What happens next
Your character will be moved to the Vale of Eternal Blossoms in Pandaria and their action bar will be populated with the most essential skills for their class and spec. When the boost is done processing, they will be ready to play immediately.
If you’re a returning player, welcome back! We have guides available for new, returning, and veteran players alike who want to know more about World of Warcraft:
Please be careful when you select a character to boost. Level 90 Character Boosts are irreversible. Once a boost is complete, Customer Support will not assist with altering anything relating to the boost.
The tables are set and the tavern music is playing—Hearthstone is live!
The Hearthstone beta is complete and we wanted to take a moment to thank all of our participants for their incredibly valuable feedback and support. If you haven’t had the chance to jump into the game, now is the perfect time to check out the fast-paced strategy card game that’s fun for everyone. If you’re new to Hearthstone, getting started is simple: Just visitplayhearthstone.com and click on the “Play Free Now” button. Once your download is finished, fire it up and click on the Hearthstone icon. Install Hearthstone, then hit the “Play” button and you’ll be on your way.
As soon as you jump in you’ll challenge iconic Warcraft characters, including the ferocious Hogger, the mischievous Millhouse Manastorm, and the wise Lorewalker Cho. As you progress through these introductory missions, you’ll hone your card-slinging skills in preparation for a climactic battle against Illidan Stormrage! You are not prepared . . . for this much fun!
Once you’ve completed the introductory missions, you’ll have access to all of Hearthstone’s exciting offerings. Practice against the AI and you’ll be on your way toward unlocking all nine of the original World of Warcraft classes: Mage, Priest, Druid, Rogue, Shaman, Hunter, Paladin, Warrior, and Warlock! You can also challenge your friends to a duel, test your might against other players in ranked and casual Play mode matches, or fine-tune your mastery of deck construction for fantastic rewards in the Arena. An endless variety of decks are just waiting for you to build and play!
With the release of the game a new patch has been released, including the possibility to unlock the Hearthsteed mount for warcraft and adjustments to ranked play mode!
The latest Hearthstone patch is coming! With this patch, we’re fixing a ton of bugs, adding some extra awesome Ranked Play rewards, making a couple minor adjustments to card balance and . . . well, there’s a lot of stuff here! Let’s tackle this big patch together, feature by feature, shall we?
Ranked Play Rewards and Changes
We first announced our plans for Ranked Play rewards at BlizzCon during our Fireside Chat panel, and now they’re ready to be unleashed! First off we’ve got the Golden Heroes.
To get a Golden Hero of your very own, all you need to do is win 500 Ranked Play games with any given Hero. After you hit 500 wins, your experienced Hero will gain a gold border, animate, and gain a golden animated Hero Power. Your opponent will be able to see your Golden Hero as well! Impress your friends and opponents alike. Check out the awesome animations on Jaina, Garrosh, and Thrall in this video!
The next Ranked Play reward is the extra fancy alternate card back! Participating in each official Ranked Play season will offer a new card back that you’ll get at the end of each season. Card backs replace the default artwork on the reverse side of your decks. The game interface will allow you to easily swap between any card back you’ve added to your collection. More information about the first official Ranked Play season and its card back rewards will be announced at a later time.
We’ll be making an additional change to Ranked Play as well, so we can ensure a more fun experience for everyone as we transition from season to season. Many players have felt like the start of each Ranked Play season was difficult since rankings were reset for all players, regardless of how far they progressed that season.
With this patch, you’ll receive bonus stars at the start of each season based on your performance from the previous season. This way, players that have progressed far into any given Ranked Play season will not be challenging those potentially new to the game or stomping all over players who are trying Ranked Play for the first time.
You’ll receive one bonus star for each rank you achieved in the previous season. For example, if you attained Legend, Innkeeper (Rank 1), or Black Knight (Rank 2) rank in any given season, at the start of the next season you would start off at Questing Adventurer (Rank 16) rather than Angry Chicken (Rank 25).
Balance Changes
In order to ensure a fun and balanced game for everyone, we’ll be making changes to two cards in this patch: Tinkmaster Overspark and Nat Pagle.
Tinkmaster Overspark is now a 3/3 (up from 2/2) and now reads: Battlecry: Transform another random minion into a 5/5 Devilsaur or a 1/1 Squirrel.
Tinkmaster Overspark is a neutral card that silences and often shrinks big creatures. This reduces the amount of big, fun creatures in the environment. We think this change will increase the amount fun creatures in the environment, and bring him more in-line with his cost and overall power. Tinkmaster should still show up in certain types of decks, but will no longer be appearing in every high level deck.
Nat Pagle now reads: At the start of your turn, you have a 50% chance to draw an extra card.
Nat Pagle will now draw a card at the start of your turn rather than at the end. Nat had too much draw power for a card that is fairly hard to counter so early in the game, making it almost an auto-include for many decks. This change reduces the power of the card and gives players more time to counter the card before it starts.
Any changes made from here on out will be because we deem them absolutely necessary.
Stay Connected!
A reconnect feature has been added to Hearthstone! Whether you’re in the middle of a heated match in Ranked or Casual Play or racking up the wins in the Arena, our reconnect feature will allow you to try to seamlessly get back into your game in progress.
If you’re disconnected from a game, the reconnect feature will give you 60 seconds to re-log into Hearthstone to keep the action going. In order to maintain the fast pace of the game for both you and your opponent, if one of you happens to disconnect mid-match, the game will continue as if either of you were still playing. Try not to be gone too long, or that turn timer may be sizzling down when you get back!
Speaking of staying connected, you can now play Hearthstone in other regions across the world! Whether you prefer to duel in the Americas, Europe, or Asia, you can swap your region with just a couple of clicks in the Battle.net Desktop App. Keep in mind that your Hearthstone collections, friends, and progress are unique per region and won’t transfer over.
Bugs SMASH!
Thanks to your feedback and continued efforts in reporting bugs in the Hearthstone beta, we’ve been able to tackle many of the issues players have been experiencing. We have addressed all known circumstances and issues that result in minions swapping places on the board and cards overlapping in hand. These bugs were a result of many factors, and both were particularly challenging to address. We appreciate your patience as we worked diligently on resolving these issues.
You can see additional bug fixes in the patch notes below!
From all of us on the Hearthstone team, thank you so much for offering feedback, reporting bugs, testing our Play modes, testing balance, and helping us evolve the game into something everyone can enjoy. Your feedback is incredibly valuable to us, and we all hope that Hearthstone is a game that you’ll love for years to come.
Hearthstone Patch Notes – 1.0.0.4944
General
Golden Heroes have been added and now can be unlocked after winning 500 Ranked games with a Hero! Track your progress on the deck selection screen in Ranked Mode.
New card backs have been added. Collect these by doing awesome things such as participating in each Ranked Season!
The Hearthsteed mount reward has been added and can now be obtained for your World of Warcraft account! Win 3 games in Play or Arena mode to acquire one of your own!
You can now connect to other regions (Americas, Europe, Korea, Taiwan) of Hearthstone regardless of the region that is set on your Battle.net account. Account progress and card collections are saved separately per region. This feature will become available once the patch is live in all regions.
The “Players Near Me” feature is now enabled by default. You can disable this feature in the Options Menu.
The queue timer now only shows up after you’ve been waiting a while.
The total amount of gold that an account can hold at any given time has been set at 20,000 gold; gold cannot be earned on accounts with 20,000 or more gold until some gold has been spent. This cap is intended to combat certain methods of gold acquisition that violate our Terms of Service. The spirit of fair play is extremely important to us, and we will continue to monitor gold acquisition activity closely to ensure a fun and enjoyable game environment for everyone.
Certain Expert cards have been changed and the amount of dust that you get from disenchanting these cards have been temporarily increased such that it is equal to the amount of dust that it would have originally cost to craft those cards. Affected cards are:
Nat Pagle
Tinkmaster Overspark
Ranked Play
During each Ranked Season change, players may now start the new season at a rank higher than the default Angry Chicken rank, depending on the rank that was obtained at the end of the previous season. You’ll receive one bonus star for every rank you achieved in the previous season.
The Angry Chicken rank now starts with 0 stars, instead of 1. Bawk!?
Arena
Arena rewards at 10, 11, and 12 wins no longer reward common non-golden cards.
Visuals
Many new card effects have been added. +3 Sparkles/+5 Shinies.
Minions who have Taunt and Stealth now have an effect that more clearly indicates that Taunt is temporarily disabled during Stealth.
Mass disenchanting now has new and improved graphics. Now you can mass disenchant in style!
The UI that pops up when challenging a friend to a duel has been improved. Wow, so challenge.
Minions that have been blessed by Blessing of Wisdom now show the trigger “lightning bolt”. Talk about a bright idea!
Gameplay
If you disconnect from a game, you now have 60 seconds to try and reconnect and pick up from where you left off.
The Expert AI has been sent to Hearthstone training camp and should now be more challenging.
If a player’s deck contains all Golden cards, a Golden Coin will compliment your deck if you happen to go second.
Unlocking a hero now plays that Hero’s emote. Well met!
Secrets can now only activate on your opponent’s turn.
Activating your own secrets feels a little strange, but mostly, the ability to do this was preventing us from creating new and powerful secrets that trigger off of events you can easily control (like a minion dying). They end up functioning just like spells, instead of trying to bait your opponent into a bad play. This change keeps secrets working like traps you lay for your opponent, instead of spells that you cast and use on your own turn.
Card Changes
Nat Pagle now reads: At the start of your turn, you have a 50% chance to draw an extra card.
Nat Pagle will now draw a card at the start of your turn rather than at the end. Nat had too much draw power for a card that is fairly hard to counter so early in the game, making it almost an auto-include for many decks. This change reduces the power of the card and gives players more time to counter the card before it starts.
Tinkmaster Overspark is now a 3/3 (up from 2/2) and now reads: Battlecry: Transform another random minion into a 5/5 Devilsaur or a 1/1 Squirrel.
Tinkmaster is a neutral card that silences and often shrinks big creatures. This reduces the amount of big, fun creatures in the environment. We think this change will increase the amount fun creatures in the environment, and bring him more in-line with his cost and overall power. Tinkmaster should still show up in certain types of decks, but will no longer be appearing in every high level deck.
Bug Fixes
Water Elemental (Mage) will now properly freeze armored heroes as intended.
Ancestral Healing (Shaman) will now always attempt to heal a minion for its full Health regardless of its current Health.
The issue where minions randomly swap battle positions with other minions is a result of many factors and issues. All known circumstances and issues that result in minions dancing randomly around have been resolved.
Cards now better respect personal space while in a player’s hand. Similar to the minion swapping issue, all known circumstances and issues that result in cards overlapping with other cards in a player’s hand have been resolved.
The New Deck button in the Collection Manager no longer stays highlighted if you quickly click the Done and No buttons after selecting a hero.
The Hearthstone client will no longer remain in the foreground when you click on another program.
You can now select a friend in the friends list by clicking on their medal in Play mode.
If you were playing a friendly game when daily quests were granted, you are now correctly notified after the game.
The Repair Bot’s healing ability now generates an entry in the game history.
Fixed an issue that could cause the buttons to stop working for a short moment when transitioning back to the main hub.
Fixed an issue that prevented some accounts from properly receiving friendly challenges.
Fixed an issue that prevented some accounts from joining Play, Practice or Friendly games if they have a custom deck in their collection.
Fixed an issue where entering a new Arena run while getting a new daily quest can cause the Arena purchase and the back buttons to be unresponsive.
Fixed an issue where you will receive a toast stating your friend has just come online if you log into Hearthstone and that friend was already online.
Fixed an issue where attempting to create a new deck would cause the game to time out after about a minute.
Fixed an issue where backing out of a deck list while its deck tile is animating to the top of the list will cause the deck list buttons to become unresponsive.
Fixed an issue where cards opened in packs or earned from defeating heroes may not appear in your collection after restarting the client.
Fixed an issue where clicking on the Last Played player area in friends list opens up the Add a Friend prompt without automatically filling in the player’s BattleTag.
Fixed an issue where the credits can be played while in the Today’s Quests screen.
Fixed an issue where the quest Level Up! is completed upon reaching a total level of 10 instead of level 10 on one Hero.
Improved many graphical effects and fixed various graphical and game behavior issues.
Fixed a number of audio and sound issues.
Mac
Toggling full screen mode on some resolutions and monitors will no longer cause the window borders to be visible.
Fixed a graphical issue that could occur when changing resolutions.
Loading into a game will no longer cause graphical issues while on high graphics settings.
The system menu bar will no longer display over the client in full screen mode.
Using Alt + Tab to switch focus while in full screen mode will no longer cause the dock to appear over the client.
And then finally, the official announcement for the Hearthsteed!
Show off your love for Hearthstone’s fast-paced card-slinging action by charging across the battlefields of Azeroth on a magnificent Hearthsteed!
This epic flying mount is awash in a mystical blue glow; its rocky exterior just barely manages to contain the power that lurks within! When you’re ready to take to the skies, the Hearthsteed manifests ethereal blue wings, ready to carry you off to your next adventure.
How to get a Hearthsteed of your very own
Interested in adding the Hearthsteed to your World of Warcraft mount collection?
Getting your hands on this unique flying mount is simple . . . and fun! Just win three games of Hearthstone in “Play” or “Arena” mode to get the “Mount Up!” Hearthstone quest reward. The next time you log into World of Warcraft, the Hearthsteed will be waiting for you in the nearest mailbox.
Earn this special mount and you’ll also receive the World of Warcraft “Hearthstoned” achievement for all characters on your Battle.net account.
The week’s nearly over and there have been a few interesting things over the past 2 weeks from blizzard. Starting with blizzard coming out with many numerical facts about World of Warcraft. Such as that there have been 100 Million WoW accounts created of the past 9 years. Click on the image for the full details!
The folks over at ReadyCheck Podcast got to talk to some developers, from which you can find the full transcript of the interview here. One of the more interesting questions/answeres, however was the following:
Moldran:
Going back to Burning Crusade, one thing that I really liked about it was the difficulty of the heroic 5-mans. Recently I was playing Mists of Pandaria 5-mans and they were laughably easily. Are there any plans to reintroduce difficult 5-mans, or will it just be challenge modes?
Quote from: Blizzard
Ion Hazzikostas:
To some extent we’re looking to make heroic dungeons in Warlords of Draenor more difficult than they were in Mists. They aren’t going to be as difficult as they were in Burning Crusade, but we want to have a more robust tier of normal dungeons at max level for people who just want to casually queue up get some more or less guaranteed loot without too much of a challenge. We like heroic dungeons to require a bit more coordination, but we do recognise that there is this audience for really hardcore Burning Crusade-style or Challenge Mode-style dungeons. However, in Challenge Mode right now, the focus is so much on speed you don’t get that feeling of having to go through and mark your CC, polymorph that, sap that, for example. But we’re actually exploring the possibility of having Challenge Modes, as well as the speed component, also offer a chance at some gear rewards, LFR quality perhaps, so someone who doesn’t want to do LFR can do some hard content with friends and get epics that way. Further down the line, we have this new Mythic raid difficulty – we’re not planning on Mythic dungeons at launch, but that’s something that we could do. If we wanted to have an additional tier of difficulty, that option is open to us. It’s not a really good fit for random matchmaking, which is something we learned quickly at the start of Cataclysm, since there would be a lot of frustration. We do recognise that there is a lot of really cool play there, a lot of interesting MMO co-ordination in a smaller group, so we want to find a way to do it.
* NB: To clarify, Ion was indicating that they would like to offer rewards for completing hard dungeons with a deliberate pace, utilising CC etc., as opposed to speed runs through Challenge Modes. Apologies for the lack of clarity.
Continuing on to last week, Hearthstone is now officially in Open Beta and they also released a pretty cool intro trailer for Hearthstone! You can click here for the open beta announcement and here to go to the hearthstone download page.
And then to end our recap, last week the 2nd Heroes of the Storm Developer Q&A as well as a live match took place! Check out the Q&A here and the live match shoutcast by Developer Dustin Browder and Starcraft Caster Day9 here.
