In preparation of the 6.1 release this week we released a How To guide this morning for obtaining the Garrison Jukebox.
We also released the newest podcast. We are not sure what went wrong the the audio, but after roughly the first 6 minutes the audio evens out a bit.
In just 1 week 6.1 will hit the servers!
Here you’ll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 6.0.3. 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.
Patch 6.0.x Information
Classes
Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
Before the weekend the latest hotfixes were put on the hotfix blog and the 6.1 PTR patch notes were updated as well! The latest PTR build has been marked as a release candidate, so be sure to check out all the changes coming when the patch does get released!
You can find the updated 6.1 PTR patch notes here!
Here you’ll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 6.0.3. 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.
Patch 6.0.x Information
Classes
Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
Battlegrounds and Arenas
It’s time to catch up on a couple of things!
Our heroes of the storm beta key giveaway contest has ended! Tommorow we will contact the winners via Direct Message on twitter!
If you did not win, have no fear! There are other give aways going on in the community, as well as by blizzard themselves! Here are a few of them:
Blizzard has released a new preview of the twitter functionality coming to WoW in 6.1.
It’s easy to get started; all you need is a Twitter account! Under the Social section of the in-game Interface options, just check the Enable Twitter Functionality option, and then the Sign In button. You’ll be taken to a standard app approval page that will allow you to send out Tweets using the in-game UI.
Once you’ve authenticated the app, you can initiate a new Tweet by typing /share into chat, or by clicking the small share icon 
that’ll appear in-chat next to Achievement and item drop notifications. You can also add an Achievement or item directly to a Tweet with the Twitter UI open by shift+clicking the Achievement or item.
Tweets from within World of Warcraft are only ever initiated by you, and we will never automatically send out Tweets on your behalf—we’ve disabled Addons from sending them too. Our goal is to make it easier for you to Tweet while playing World of Warcraft, and more convenient to share fun moments with friends.
Of course if you don’t use Twitter or don’t want to see any of this stuff, just don’t check the ‘Enable Twitter Functionality’ box and it’ll stay out of your way.
We’re excited to see how people enjoy this new feature, and encourage everyone to jump on the 6.1 PTR to test it and provide feedback.
FAQ
Q: When authorizing the World of Warcraft app it says authorizing it will let you see who follows me, allow you to change my profile, and some other things; why do you need access to do all that?
A: The Twitter app authorization system only has a few tiers of access that we as app developers can choose from, and the one we chose was the most basic with the least access required. It will list out a bunch of features this integration does not use, and have no plans to use, like those mentioned. The World of Warcraft Twitter app only exists to allow you to Tweet while playing WoW if you want to, and only you can initiate and send out a Tweet.
Q: So I’m going to see a bunch of Tweets in-game now?
A: No, there’s no in-game Twitter feed; this feature just sends Tweets outside of the game.
Q: What if I don’t want to see anything related to Twitter in-game?
A: If you don’t authorize a Twitter account through the Interface option you won’t see anything related to the feature.
Q: Are you going to start requiring Twitter use for in-game activities?
A: No, we just think it’s a cool convenience feature for those who do like sharing their gaming activity on social media—if you don’t like doing that, no problem.
Q: Isn’t this going to cause a lot of spam, or issues with people sending out inappropriate content from the game?
A: This doesn’t add any functionality that isn’t already achievable through Twitter. This simply makes it more convenient to link items and share achievements and screenshots while playing.
Q: Is there a separate login per-character, or is this account-wide?
A: Your Twitter authorization is Battle.net account-wide. Any WoW license (as well as any characters) within the same Battle.net account will be able to Tweet from an authorized Twitter account. You’d want to sign out of Twitter through the Interface options before logging out of the game if you don’t want the authorization to persist between logins.
Q: My child uses my WoW account sometimes; will they have access to Tweet from my Twitter account?
A: The Twitter authorization will remain active until you log out of it through the Interface options.
Q: I don’t use Twitter, but I do use some other social platforms, when could this be implemented for those?
A: We’re starting with Twitter, but the /share functionality certainly could be expanded to other social platforms if you would find it useful. We’d appreciate your feedback and ideas on where we could go next.
Q: This seems cool but I haven’t tried Twitter yet, how can I get started?
A: Twitter has a helpful guide to get you started, and we maintain a list of official and employee accounts right here that you can follow to start building your list.
Q: How moddable is this by Addons?
A: The UI is fairly locked down to keep access to sending Tweets secure, and ensure that you—and only you—are choosing when to send them. Addons may still perform some light functions, such as helping to populate the chat field in customizable formats.
Game Designer Ion Hazzikostas, or Watcher, has taken to the forums to talk about the BRF tuning, which some players are experiencing as overtuned later into the instance.
Tuning in general is a very interesting topic, and one that sees a huge amount of discussion around the office, whether in formal planning meetings early in the design process, or yesterday morning when a coworker stopped by our office to offer a stern glare and some choice words about Oregorger.
As background, Blackrock Foundry itself is a bit of an experiment with a significant split-release initial raid tier. In Cataclysm, the initial 4.0 patch had three raid zones that opened immediately, with a total of 13 bosses (14 on Heroic), and the amount of content felt overwhelming to many. In response, in Mists we partitioned 16 bosses into two separate releases, with Mogu’shan Vaults opening the second week of the expansion, and Heart of Fear and Terrace following a month later. While this helped somewhat, many players still felt rushed, with new bosses unlocking far faster than they could keep up.
And so for Warlords, we added a more significant two-month gap between Highmaul and Foundry, allowing a significant portion of the playerbase to make real headway in Highmaul before we unveiled the remainder of the initial raid content. But that larger gap, while offering what we consider improved pacing, also made Foundry feel like a whole separate tier, which changed expectations slightly. If you quickly cleared half of Normal Highmaul the week of release, would you be able to clear half of Foundry just as quickly? If you had finished working your way through Normal Highmaul and had moved on to Heroic Highmaul when Foundry opened, would Normal Foundry be comparatively easy since you’ve now been raiding Heroic content?
In several ways, we intended Foundry to complement, rather than supplant, Highmaul. If we had wanted Foundry to be a fresh start and a clean slate, we would have had it completely obsolete all Highmaul gear, the way Normal Jin’rokh dropped items that were 13 item levels better than loot from Heroic Sha of Fear. But Highmaul remains relevant, and Foundry exists as a direct continuation of that progression. While Normal Highmaul was designed with the expectation that players would arrive with dungeon items, Normal Foundry expects players who are mostly Highmaul geared. Thus the numerical targets, in terms of healing and damage throughput, for even an early boss like Gruul or Beastlord Darmac, are comparable to what Ko’ragh demands in Highmaul. So just because you now find Kargath to be simple, does not mean that Oregorger will be equally easy prey. But players who had success in Highmaul should all be able to continue into Foundry, stake a foothold there, and continue to progress in their difficulty of choice. And those who are still working their way through Highmaul will continue to find invaluable items there, which will help them eventually delve deeper into the Foundry.
As for the structure of the zone, Foundry is a winged instance, in the style of Naxxramas or Icecrown Citadel in the past, and we intend for bosses to become more challenging the deeper into a given wing you go, but for the different wings to be largely equal in overall difficulty. Groups who jumped right into the Blast Furnace encounter after downing Gruul and Oregorger likely found themselves in over their heads, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the Furnace encounter is “overtuned” — rather, in essence, you were skipping from bosses 1-3 all the way to bosses 7-9. The early bosses of other wings will offer a more suitable challenge, and will offer valuable item upgrades to help prepare you for the end bosses of each wing, and of course for Blackhand himself.
(continued)
A new round of hotfixes have been deployed and there are a couple more issuse in Blackrock Foundry that the blues are aware of!
Over the course of Blackrock Foundry’s testing, we’ve made a handful of changes to encounter mechanics that are not currently being communicated in the Dungeon Journal. The Dungeon Journal will be updated with those changes in Patch 6.1, which is currently on the PTR, but we’d like to share those changes to minimize confusion.
Changes to the encounters that are already live, but not in the Dungeon Journal:
Known issues that will be fixed in Patch 6.1:
There is also a new round of hotfixes in, check them out below!
Here you’ll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 6.0.3. 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 6.0.3.
Patch 6.0.x Information
February 5
Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
Battlegrounds and Arenas
Classes
Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
During the last night we released all our quickstart raiding guides for Blackrock Foundry, which will be opening later today for the US and tommorow for the EU! Their main goal is to help you quickly get progressing in BRF, once the raid is released and we have footage for video guides we will update the guides with the written and video guides.
Normal/Heroic Gruul Raiding Guide
Normal/Heroic Oregorger Raiding Guide
Normal/Heroic Beastlord Darmac Raiding Guide
Normal/Heroic Flamebender Ka’graz Raiding Guide
Normal/Heroic Hans’gar and Franzor Raiding Guide
Normal/Heroic Operator Thogar Raiding Guide
Normal/Heroic The Blast Furnace Raiding Guide
Normal/Heroic Kromog Raiding Guide
Normal/Heroic The Iron Maidens Raiding Guide
Normal/Heroic Blackhand Raiding Guide
