Time for another Garrison preview! Today we’ll take a look at the Alliance Garrison Barracks, Gearworks, Barn, Menagerie (sort of), Sparring Arena And Trading Post!
Both the alliance and horde guards in the garrisons got new armor in the last patch, and it looks like players will be able to obtain them!
@Holdodlig yes!
— Mumper (@mumper) July 26, 2014
@Holdodlig a few ideas, nothing locked down yet. — Mumper (@mumper) July 26, 2014
We’ve got a bunch of new Alliance Garrison Previews for you! Over the next couple of days we’ll check out all of the tier 1 and tier 2 garrison buildings that we can. To start off we’ll take a look at the Alliance Garrison Tier 3, the bunkers, stables store house and the herb garden!
After the stability issues last time there’s new raid testing coming on monday!
Quote from: Blizzard
On Monday, July 28, we will continue Warlords raid testing. As this is early in the overall beta raid testing cycle, it is quite possible that there will be technical or gameplay issues that disrupt the testing. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.Remember that Heroic difficulty scales for any group size between 10 and 30 players, so feel free to assemble and bring a group of any size within that range. Our general plan is to test every encounter on Heroic difficulty first, and then test sections of the raid on Normal and Raid Finder, alongside targeted Mythic tests.
Each encounter should be available at approximately the listed times below on all Beta servers.
Monday, July 28
Oregorger – Heroic Blackrock Foundry
10:30 PDT (13:30 EDT, 19:30 CEST)
Twin Ogron – Heroic Highmaul
16:00 PDT (19:00 EDT, 01:00 CEST)
As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a beta environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session, change the boss being tested, or cancel a test entirely, due to bugs, fire, server hardware issues, etc. Keep an eye on this forum for the latest information, and thank you in advance for testing and providing feedback.
Important Testing Notes
Q: How do I get into the raid zone?
A: In Stormwind, Orgrimmar, Dalaran, Shattrath, the two Vale Shrines, and your garrison, you may speak to Nexus-Lord Donjon Rade in order to teleport into the raid zone while it is open for testing. (The option to teleport into a zone will not be available when the zone is not open for testing.) Note that new teleport NPC locations have been added to other expansions’ capital cities, as well as near the zone portals in Stormwind and Orgrimmar.
Q: What character should I use to test the raid?
A: Whichever you prefer. We will be scaling players’ effective level to 100 for raid testing, and their item level to an appropriate threshold for the encounter(s) being tested.
Q: How long does testing last?
A: The primary purpose of testing is to give us the information we need to balance the encounters, evaluate how mechanics are playing out in practice, and identify bugs. Once we’re satisfied that we’ve received that information for a given boss, we’ll be shutting down testing. Usually this takes anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours, but there are no guarantees.
We got a tiny update on the Chopper from Azeroth Choppers.
Quote from: Blizzard
The Horde chopper is on its way, and you need to log in now to claim it!
Your votes for Azeroth Choppers were counted, and one faction’s war cry roared loudest: the Horde bike will now be turned into a mount in World of Warcraft! Anyone who logs in to the game between now and September 30, 2014 will automatically have their account flagged to receive the Horde chopper upon the release of the upcoming Warlords of Draenor expansion. Everyone can (and should!) claim their chopper by logging in now, but as a reminder, only your Horde characters will be able to mount up and take it for a ride.
It turns out we’ll return to Tanaan Jungle (after the intro event) in a later patch!
@ChromWolf Those level ranges are correct. Rest of Tanaan will be in a content patch (it’s the Iron Horde’s primary seat of power).
— Lore (@CM_Lore) July 24, 2014
Quote from: Blizzard
It’s not just Frostfire and Shadowmoon. Most Draenor zones have additional content at level 100. For example, there’s a bunch of content involving Shattrath at level 100 that we alluded to in the recent Talador preview:Even once the Iron Horde is routed out of Shattrath, the city will not remain safe for long, as new foes are waiting to emerge and lay claim to the city. The Sargerai are a sect of draenei who have aligned themselves with the Shadow Council to usher Gul’dan’s twisted schemes into fruition.
As to Tanaan, the rest of the zone has always been planned as patch content. The area past the Dark Portal is where the Iron Horde has amassed the majority of its army and resources. Naturally, it’s going to take some time for the Alliance and Horde to prepare to assault that directly.
And then finally/sadly, the WoD Beta patch has not finished being applied yet due to a power outage.
Quote from: Blizzard
Unfortunately due to the power outage that occurred our staff was forced to leave the office. As such, we won’t be able to finish the push tonight and bring the realms up.
Today we take a look at the Gorgrond Outpost and the quest around the Sparring Arena!
A new artcraft blog has come out today, this time for the female tauren!
Quote from: Blizzard
We’re here with a brand-new Artcraft! I’m your host, Chris Robinson, senior art director on World of Warcraft, and today we’re showing you where we’re at with the female Tauren.
The original female Tauren had a lot of issues with too-angular geometry and stretched-out textures. It’s not her fault—it’s just what we had available to us at the time. Our new process has allowed us to add a lot of detail to her hair, fur, horns, and hooves, to build a far more detailed and expressive face, and to add a lot of definition to her musculature (while retaining her shape and silhouette).
One other change of note: Warcraft character design is commonly known for its stylized long arms, large hands, and big feet, but the female Tauren’s hands were just completely out of control. We brought them down to a more consistent size with the other updated models, and were also able to add a ton more detail and dexterity in the process.
We hope you enjoy her new look—let us know what you think in the comments!