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Heirloom Vendor Change in Patch 6.0.2, Legendary Cloak Quest Last Chance – Black Prince Buff Extended

Due to the Heirloom system changes planned for later in WoD there’s some changes coming to the heirloom vendor in 6.0.2!

Quote from: Blizzard
With the upcoming release of Patch 6.0.2, we’ll be sending the vendors who sell Heirlooms for Justice Points on a nice vacation.As you might already be aware, both Justice and Valor Points are being removed as currencies from the game in 6.0.2. As we started to work on new ways to buy Heirlooms, we found that we were setting their value up for a rollercoaster ride. That’s because we’re also working on a larger Heirloom system for a future patch, and we don’t want to introduce an interim pricing scheme that could temporarily devalue Heirlooms or limit how we’d be able to give them out in the future. Rather than make players face buyer’s remorse and hand-wringing decisions about when to buy, we’re going to give the Justice Heirloom vendors some time off while we work on improving the system as a whole.

One thing to note is that this change only affects vendors that sell Heirlooms for Justice. PvE Heirlooms will still remain available at the Darkmoon Faire and the Trial of the Crusader, and PvP Heirlooms will continue to be available for Honor.

There is also a removal planned for the legendary cloak!

Quote from: Blizzard
Legendary Cloak Quest Last Chance – Black Prince Buff Extended

As your journey takes you from Pandaria to Draenor, we wanted to extend one last opportunity to obtain your Legendary Cloak—and share some important updates related to this iconic item.

Legendary Cloak Changes: Once More unto the Breach

As a part of the transition from Mists of Pandaria to Warlords of Draenor, we’ll be making some changes to the Legendary Cloak quest line and ultimately closing it out as players head into the new expansion. Once the quest is fully closed, the item will no longer be attainable, and the cloak will become a symbol of the great deeds you’ve accomplished in Mists of Pandaria.

With the release of the pre-expansion patch (6.0.2), players who are not already on the journey through this quest line will no longer be able to begin it. We will also be removing the Test of Valor step with patch 6.0.2 as a part of our transition from using Valor as a currency.

Once Warlords of Draenor launches on November 13, the Legendary Cloak quest line will be gone entirely—the quests and the cloak will no longer be obtainable, and any related in-progress quests will be cleared from your log.

But when one door closes, another door opens. In Warlords of Draenor, players will have the opportunity to earn a new Legendary item available exclusively in the new expansion: Khadgar’s Band of the Archmage.

The Gaze of the Black Prince: One Last Look

If you haven’t yet earned your Legendary Cloak, you still have one final opportunity to make accelerated progress on your quest. Rather than end the Gaze of the Black Prince buff on Tuesday, September 16 (as previously announced), the buff will remain active until the release of the Warlords of Draenor pre-patch (6.0.2). This buff increases the reputation gained with the Black Prince by 100%. It also increases the chance of obtaining items from his foes needed as a part of the Legendary Cloak quest line, including Secrets of the Empire, Sigil of Wisdom, Sigil of Power, and Titan Runestones.

Good luck on your quest, but remember that your voyage doesn’t end here. Soon, you’ll be setting your sights on the new Legendary item, Khadgar’s Band of the Archmage, in Warlords of Draenor.

To learn more about the Legendary Cloak quest line, check out our previous blog posts: I am Legendary and The Time Has Come: Legendary Quest Line.

Upcoming Tank Squish

One thing we missed in reporting was the Tank Squish announced over a week ago, so incase you missed it there are some changes coming to tanking on the beta!

Quote from: Blizzard
This post was originally made by Celestalon, posting here for extra visibility:

Hey all. I’ve briefly mentioned this in tweets, but wanted to provide some more concrete info here for you. In an upcoming build, we’re making some major changes to tanks.

But don’t freak out, tanks, this is for the better. It’d be very easy to see datamining of these changes and think the sky is falling; don’t be deceived! If you do the classic “scroll to my class, read datamined changes to my class only”, you’ll be sad and angry. And I’ll be sad that you’re sad and angry.

The core issue that we’re aiming to solve is with the power level of tanks’ defensive abilities. And I don’t mean their gameplay. Their gameplay is great, especially Active Mitigation; that’s not changing. I mean their total defensive effectiveness. Health, damage reduction (flat, percentage, random avoidance, etc), passive and active, cooldowns, etc.

Tanks have gotten a lot of power creep. A tanking specialized character should be better at tanking than a non-tanking specialized character, obviously. But by how much? 3x? 5x? 10x? It’s gotten to be more like 50x or even 100x. Fun fact as a point of comparison: Most of the Mythic raid bosses (first raid tier) we’ve been testing deal tank damage roughly equivalent to what Heroic Lei Shen (second raid tier) did, after accounting for the squish and level difference. Some even more.

So, what are we doing about it? We’re effectively doing a squish to tanks defensive effectiveness, and to dungeon and raid mob damage to tanks. This list is going to sound like a big pile of nerfs, but it’s important to understand that it’s not. It’s happening to *all* tanks, and mob damage is coming down as well, to compensate.

Additionally, before anyone points it out, yes, some of these changes affect the defensive effectiveness of non-tanks. We didn’t forget that; this was done consciously, because we think these changes should be made anyway, or we’re considering other changes to compensate them if necessary.

Here’s a summary of the actual changes (please post this around, and discuss this, not the datamining which will paint a very skewed and incomplete picture):

  • Creature damage has been retuned. In particular, the damage of creatures intended to be tanked in dungeons and raids has been drastically reduced to offset the below changes.
  • The amount of Armor on Plate, Mail, Shields has been reduced significantly.
  • Many tank abilities that increase maximum health have been reduced in effectiveness: Guarded by the Light, Stance of the Sturdy Ox, Bear Form, Empowered Bear Form, Blood Presence, Veteran of the Third War, Shadow of Death (Enhanced Death Coil), Ursa Major. In most cases, the magnitudes of these effects have been reduced.
  • Many tank abilities that passively reduce damage taken in some way have been reduced in effectiveness: Unwavering Sentinel, Improved Defensive Stance, Mastery: Critical Block, Defensive Stance, Sanctuary, Guarded by the Light, Stance of the Sturdy Ox, Bear Form, Blood Presence, Primal Fury. In most cases, the magnitudes of these effects have been reduced.
  • Many tank abilities that provide Active Mitigation have been reduced in effectiveness: Shield Block, Shield Barrier, Shield of the Righteous, Mastery: Divine Bulwark, Bastion of Glory, Guard, Stance of the Sturdy Ox, Shuffle, Savage Defense, Pulverize, Frenzied Regeneration, Tooth and Claw, Death Strike, Rune Tap. In most cases, the frequencies or magnitudes of these effects have been reduced.
  • Many tank abilities that provided long-cooldown temporary defensive buffs have been reduced in effectiveness: Shield Wall, Last Stand, Demoralizing Shout, Divine Protection, Guardian of Ancient Kings (Protection), Fortifying Brew, Barkskin, Bristling Fur, Survival Instincts, Might of Ursoc, Bone Shield, Dancing Rune Weapon, Icebound Fortitude, Vampiric Blood. In most cases, the durations of these effects have been reduced.
  • Resolve has been changed to no longer scale with Stamina, only incoming damage over the last 10 sec, and its scaling rate changed.
  • Resolve % = 100 * MAX(0, 8.5 * (1 – e^(-0.045*DamageMod)) – 1)
  • DamageMod refers to the % of a basic equal-level creature attacking you that you’ve had directed at you over the last 10 sec.

We understand that these changes will sound scary, but ask that you keep an open mind and try to comprehend the complete picture. Tuning may be pretty rough for a few builds as we iterate on these changes, so please be patient.

I’ll try to answer questions as I have time, but please understand that we’re all extremely busy trying to finish and polish things over here, so time is limited.

Thanks, everyone!

Release the Names! Character Name Reclamation Coming

Quote from: Blizzard
Release the Names! Character Name Reclamation Coming

With the upcoming Warlords of Draenor pre-patch (6.0.2), we will be releasing sidelined characters’ names back into the wild. Any characters that have not logged into the game since November 13, 2008 will have their names freed up, making them available to anyone creating a new character or using the paid Character Name Change service.

How Do I Preserve My Names?

You will need to log in to World of Warcraft and enter the game using each character whose name you wish to retain before patch 6.0.2 goes live. While it is possible no one will claim your recently released name and you might be able to snag it again, it is probably not worth the risk if you want to keep your names intact long-term.

Our goal with this great name liberation is to make sure new and returning players have a large and varied pool of names available to choose from—so log in now if you wish preserve your unused characters’ names for your journey intro Draenor.

Watcher On Healing In WoD

Quote from: Blizzard
Our target for both healing and dungeon tuning is something of a middle ground between Mists and Cataclysm. It’s important to note that healer balance is not yet final, and damage output in our dungeons (especially pure melee damage on tanks, in light of recent mitigation changes) is still being adjusted. So in terms of the raw numbers, we’re not quite there yet. The most helpful thing testers can provide is actionable feedback with regard to specific encounters (also specifying difficulty and which spec you were playing). We’re listening and making changes on a daily basis.

That said, I’d like to help clarify our goals with respect to both healer gameplay and dungeon tuning. Healing in Mists, especially in raids and especially later in the expansion, suffered from three major problems: 1) the power of healing relative to player health pools meant that injured players could be topped off almost instantly; 2) mana became increasingly irrelevant as a constraint, with many healers actively reforging out of Spirit; and 3) “smart heals” accounted for a very large portion of healing done, meaning that for some healers their targeting decisions were almost meaningless.

Now, some might be thinking, “so you’re saying healers were really strong – that sounds great to me!” The problem is that when healing was in that state, the only way we could kill someone in a raid or dungeon was with massive damage, fatal if the healer didn’t react instantly; it led to sudden spike deaths, punished latency, and made healing more like whack-a-mole and less like a series of tactical decisions. And in raids, as soon as maximizing throughput becomes all that matters, healing risks turning into a rotation performed irrespective of the encounter or the incoming damage.

Our goal is not to make healing more difficult. Note that nowhere in the above did I say that a problem with Mists healing is that it was too “easy.” We want to slow down the pace a bit, and for the challenge in healing to lie more in making decisions about spell usage and targeting, and less in twitch-reaction and sustaining a DPS-style rotation. This also means that the cost of a mistake is not a dead player, but rather a more injured one, giving you a chance to fix your error.

In Cataclysm, fresh 85s had very little mana regen, and if they attempted to heal a dungeon the way they’d been accustomed in late Wrath (e.g. lots of Flash Heals), they’d quickly run out of mana. In Warlords, players have significantly higher base regen, and less available Spirit from items, so that you’ll start off with a much deeper mana pool than is usually the case as a new max-level healer, while avoiding the problem of mana becoming irrelevant once in endgame epics.

In Cataclysm, nearly your only efficient heal was also your smallest, and it was easy to run yourself out of mana and feel helpless as you watched your group die; in Warlords even if you are running on fumes mana-wise, you can still sustain a steady stream of Greater Heal or Healing Touch or the equivalent. You aren’t helpless.

Now, as for dungeon difficulty, one of the challenges in adapting to new dungeons at the start of an expansion has been the contrast between players’ habits at the end of the last expansion when they massively outgear every dungeon, and the different approach required when undergeared and running a dungeon for actual loot drops instead of currency. The ability to recklessly pull multiple packs of mobs at once and cleave everything down is something that you earn and grow into as your gear and knowledge of the content increases – that’s never been the intended dungeon gameplay when the content was brand new, even for our “easy” dungeons in Wrath or Mists.

Normal dungeons should be pretty easy. Some of them aren’t quite there yet. But you should feel confident that you can push the “Dungeon Finder” queue button and land in a random group with a high chance of success. If you don’t feel that way about a given Normal dungeon (especially a level-up dungeon), please let us know why not. We have a solid chunk of level 100 Normal dungeon content that everyone should be able to jump into when they hit max level, and Normal dungeon loot will be sufficient to qualify you for Highmaul LFR when that unlocks.

Heroic dungeons will be somewhat more challenging, which is the reason for the Silver Proving Grounds requirement to random-queue for them. We’re not looking to recreate Heroic Stonecore or Grim Batol or The Arcatraz, but there’s a middle ground where mechanics can still matter.

Finally, it’s also worth noting that in beta, we’re scaling players down to pretty much the lowest possible level and item level at which you could be running a given dungeon. Nearly all groups in the live game will be better-equipped, but we need to make sure the content is viable at the minimum threshold.

Patch 6.0.2 Preview: User Interface

Quote from: Blizzard
Patch 6.0.2 Preview: User Interface

As players testing Patch 6.0.2 on our Public Test Realm (PTR) have already seen, we’re making a number of changes to the WoW user interface—changes that are designed to eliminate clutter, free up more of your inventory space, help you find your stuff more easily, and improve your quality of life in-game.

Map & Quest Log

In Patch 6.0.2, we’ve made a brand-new UI to bring together the Map and the Quest Log with everything you need to manage multiple ongoing adventures. Now when you browse by zone in the Map & Quest Log, you’ll find all of the associated quests you’re on, your progress, and relevant cartography.

In addition to intelligently ordering your quests, the new window (default hotkeys: M or L) gives you more information about your objectives right on the map. It also features scroll-wheel zooming, click-and-hold panning, and a handy View All Quests button—plus, if you leave it open while you’re moving, it fades so that you can see both the map and the landscape you’re venturing into.

Toy Box

All of the fun “toy” items that you’ve accumulated over the course of your travels now have a new home in the Toy Box. As with mounts and pets, you’ll right-click on eligible toy items in your inventory to send them to your Toy Box. Once learned, the toy will be accessible by all characters on your account.

If you want to expand and complete your collection of toys (or mounts or pets!), you can see each of the ones that you have not yet unlocked, along with information on how they can be obtained. As you might expect, any toy that you’ve learned can be dragged from the Toy Box and placed on a toolbar for fast access.

How to Randomize Your Dragon

There is now a Summon Random Favorite Mount button at the top-right of your Mounts collection (default hotkey: Shift-P). This smart button selects randomly from among the mounts that you’ve marked as favorites, and chooses a mount that is suitable for your current zone and situation. For example:

  • In a zone where you can’t fly, it will choose from among your favorite ground mounts.
  • If you’re swimming on the surface of a body of water and you have a Water Strider favorited, it will be chosen.
  • If you’re submerged and you’ve favorited your Sea Turtle, the button will summon it.

Right-click and select Set Favorite on your favorite mounts to get started.

Bags, Bags, Bags

In Patch 6.0.2, bags can be given designations for particular types of items. These include:

  • Equipment – Your armor and weapons
  • Consumables – Food and drink, potions, etc.
  • Trade Goods – Items that are used in professions (herbs, cloth, ore, skins, etc.)

When you go to your main backpack and click the Clean Up Bags button in the top-right, your belongings are sorted into your bags based on the designation you assigned to each bag, with overflow going into the backpack. Furthermore, there are now borders around the icons of all items that are colored to indicate item quality; recently looted items glow so that you can quickly spot them; and gray (junk) items have a gold coin icon when you visit a vendor.

Reagent Bank

You now have additional storage space in your bank! The new 98-slot Reagent Bank tab offers up extra slots for your profession materials, and an option to deposit every reagent that you’re currently carrying in your bags. We’ve also increased the maximum stack size for many materials and reagents, and when you craft anything—from anywhere—you’ll now use materials that are stored back in the bank.

But Wait, There’s More!

  • We’ve added a new tab to the Void Storage system. That’s an extra 80 slots for your long-term storage needs.
  • The dropdown menus you access when you right-click on a player portrait have been improved.
  • You can now manage your add-ons without having to log out.
  • The Dungeon Journal (default hotkey: Shift-J) has been updated with Warlords of Draenor entries.

To get a closer first look at all of the changes coming in Patch 6.0.2, please join us on the Public Test Realm (now live).

Prepare for Battle: The Pre-Expansion Iron Horde Incursion

Quote from: Blizzard
Prepare for Battle: The Pre-Expansion Iron Horde Incursion

Get ready for first contact with the Iron Horde—oh, and you’ll probably want to prepare yourself for battle. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be testing a pre-expansion patch that will bring players to the brink of great peril, as the Iron Horde begins to aggressively gain a foothold on Azeroth.

As part of this patch, players will encounter fierce new opponents and get their first chance to experience a number of updates we’re making to the game. In addition to changes to the skills and abilities for every class, this patch will introduce brand new features such as 20-player Mythic-difficulty Siege of Orgrimmar, as well as systems adjustments including stat squish and diminishing returns on crowd control. The next chapter in the World of Warcraft saga is coming at you armed to the teeth.

Treacherous Developments

The Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands has turned blood red. Hundreds of strange-looking orcs are violently pouring into Azeroth, killing everything that stands in their path. Nethergarde and Okril’lon have already fallen, and while the Horde and the Alliance moved as quickly as they could to get reinforcements to their people, they are too late. The Iron Horde invasion has begun.

In this desperate hour, King Wrynn and Warchief Vol’jin have called upon their greatest champions to join the front lines in the Blasted Lands and do whatever they can to stop the Iron Horde before the rest of Azeroth falls before them.

Word of this surprise attack sends players rushing to the Blasted Lands to reckon with the barbarous infiltration. After the fall of a high ranking Iron Horde general named Gar’mak Bladetwist, you’ll report what you’ve witnessed in the Blasted Lands to King Wrynn or Warchief Vol’jin. It’s apparent to both the Horde and the Alliance that this is only the first salvo in a much larger conflict, and the only way to win is to take the fight directly to the Iron Horde by journeying through the Dark Portal into Draenor.

The Infiltration of Blackrock Spire

An advance party of Iron Horde forces has barged right out of the Blasted Lands and pushed all the way to Blackrock Mountain, where they found refuge and supplies in Upper Blackrock Spire. There can be only one response: the Alliance and the Horde of Azeroth must face this iron incursion head on.

Available to level-90 characters for a limited time, this specially revamped five-player version of Upper Blackrock Spire sets the stage for the coming counterstrike against the Iron Horde. Here, you will face Orebender Gor’ashan, Kyrak, and Commander Tharbek as you begin to take the fight to the enemy and sharpen the skills (and swords) you’ll need to succeed on an unwelcoming alien world.

Draenor is waiting.

Updated September 10, 2014

Patch 6.0.2, the pre-expansion patch for Warlords of Draenor™ is now available for testing on the Public Test Realm (PTR). Participating on the Public Test Realms lets you test content and features before it’s available on the live realms. If you’d like to help test and provide feedback, you can start by copying a character and setting up the PTR game client by selecting PTR from the account/game region dropdown list in the Battle.net Desktop App. Once you’ve had a chance to try things out, be sure to visit our PTR Discussion forum to discuss the patch, and the PTR Bug Report forum to report any issues or errors.