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Preparing to Launch Warlords of Draenor & Celebrate 10 Years of World of Warcraft

Blizzard came out with more information today about the 10 year anniversary event for WoW. The most important details is that the 10- year anniversary celebration will begin in-game on Friday, November 21 and will last until Tuesday, January 6, 2015 at 10 a.m. PST. The first raid (Highmaul) will open on December 2nd 2014. At the same time the pvp season will start! See the full announcement below

Quote from: Blizzard
Preparing to Launch Warlords of Draenor & Celebrate 10 Years of World of Warcraft

With Warlords of Draenor set to launch on Thursday, November 13, we’ve seen a few questions about how that fits in with our plans for the upcoming 10-year anniversary content. We’re looking forward to celebrating this epic milestone with you, and we want to make sure everyone has plenty of opportunity to take part while still being able to fully enjoy what the expansion has to offer.

The 10- year anniversary celebration will begin in-game on Friday, November 21 and will last until Tuesday, January 6, 2015 at 10 a.m. PST. Everyone who logs in during this time period will receive the incredibly cuddly, feisty, and fiery new Molten Corgi to love, pet, and call their own. You’ll also be able to participate in a pair of special events to commemorate the occasion.

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Maximum Molten Core

One of WoW’s classic 40-player dungeons, Molten Core, will be available in Raid Finder during the anniversary period for level 100 players. Making it through the underground gauntlet and defeating Ragnaros will reward players with a Core Hound mount and a Warlords of Draenor Raid Finder–quality helm (100% guaranteed!). For a walkthrough of the dungeon as it stands today, check out our Revisiting Heroism’s Past – Molten Core guide.

Southshore vs. Tarren Mill—The Battle Continues

To recapture the feeling of the endless tug-of-war of early WoW PvP, we’ll be opening a Team Deathmatch–style Battleground based on the timeless struggle between Southshore and Tarren Mill. We’ll have two different brackets for players to take part in: one for levels 90–99 characters and another for level 100. Unlike the old days of Tarren Mill vs. Southshore, there will be a clearly defined victor, so you’ll need to work as a team or face crushing defeat. A win will gain you a shiny new title: either Tarren Mill Terror for the Alliance or Southshore Slayer for the Horde.

Onward into Warlords of Draenor

With the release of Warlords of Draenor, all unrated PvP Battlegrounds, Skirmishes, and other unrated PvP activities will be available immediately. The new rated season will begin Tuesday, December 2 at 8 a.m. PST.

We also wanted to make sure that everyone had time to level up before we opened our first Raid dungeon, Highmaul, in Normal and Heroic modes. These will open at the same time as the rated PvP season (December 2), with Raid Finder and Mythic modes opening the following week. We’ll provide a complete schedule in the future for those who wish to start planning their new Raid calendars. For more information on the new Raid structure for Warlords of Draenor, be sure to read our Dev Watercooler series: Raiding Azeroth – Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Patch 6.0.2 Up On The PTR!

Patch 6.0 has gone up on the PTR! This is the Warlords of Draenor pre-patch, not WoD itself. However all mechanic and system changes will be in this patch! For a full overview check out the patch notes here.

Quote from: Blizzard
Hello Folks,

We’re in the process pushing the latest 6.0.2 PTR Build to the Battle.net app. You should be able to install the 6.0.2 PTR via the Battle.net app shortly.

As a reminder, the Battle.net app is mandatory in order to play WoW, and all updating/installing will now go through it. If you don’t have the Battle.net app, get it here! http://us.battle.net/en/app/

If you have an older version of the PTR build, you may need to uninstall it if your version doesn’t automatically update. In order to install the PTR, make sure the Region/Account dropdown box is set to PTR: Mists of Pandaria. Example Picture

More troubleshooting steps can be found in this support article.

Key things to note with this build:

  • Build version is version 6.0.2. 18838.
  • The Mac Version of the PTR client is not working quite yet. We hope to have it working in the near future, but I do not have an ETA at this time.
  • Character Copy is currently down on the PTR. Like the WoD Beta, we’ll be using the new in-game character copy option. The button is already present but copies are currently disabled.
  • There is currently a known crash that occurs when changing to/from Windowed Mode while in game, or changing the Resolution in-game. We’re working to fix that, although it may require a new build.

Raid Testing Schedule – September 9, WoD Loading Screen

Quote from: Blizzard

On Tuesday, September 9, we will continue Warlords Mythic raid testing. As always given the nature of beta, 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.

Mythic difficulty is designed for a fixed-size 20-player group.

Each encounter should be available at approximately the listed times below on all Beta servers.

Tuesday, September 9

Hans’gar & Franzok – Mythic Foundry
10:30 PDT (13:30 EDT, 19:30 CEST)

Blast Furnace – Mythic Foundry
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.

With tonight’s new beta build the WoD loading screen was added to the game!
WoD Loading Screen smaller

Lords of War Part Two – Grommash, Raid Gear From Garrison Missions

The Lords of War series is back with Grommash Hellscream!

It seems you will be able to get more than just LFR quality raid gear from rare Garrison raid missions. Kalgan(Tom Chilton) explains how you can even have a chance at mythic raid gear:

Quote from: Blizzard
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.

Quote from: Blizzard
The nature of the tuning here is such that it’s absolutely not going to impact any sort of cutting-edge progression racing during the early days/weeks of a new tier. It’s more of a helping hand later on. And because the availability of these missions depends on your character’s actual raiding progression, they aren’t replacing or trivializing the importance of actually going into raids and killing bosses.

Without getting into exact numbers, being classified as a “Heroic raider” or “Mythic raider” or the like requires multiple weeks of experience in a given zone at a given difficulty. And if you’re worried about the impact on gearing up for the next tier, an occasional chance at a random Mythic piece pales in comparison to the dozens of Mythic items your farm clears will be bringing in every week, with the ability to trade items around and target specific drops through bonus rolls. This will be a drop in the bucket by comparison.

Garrison missions (or lack thereof) aren’t going to impact any sort of world-first or realm-first competitions. But this system does help keep the system relevant to a broader range of players, and as overall gear levels improve over the course of a tier.

Developer Live Q&A With Dave Kosak And Cory Stockton

Blizzard had a Live Q&A on their livestream on twitch with Dave Kosak and Cory Stockton, here’s a summary of it (the VoD will be added later):

  • Originally the Garrisons were really big and it didn’t feel like something you built yourself.
  • You will not have access to the highest tier items with Garrison profession buildings if they are not one of your character’s professions.
  • When you’re in a group you can choose whose Garrison you enter.
  • Your friends can help you fight off the Garrison invasions.
  • The rare mobs and treasures give you a break from regular questing.
  • The max level areas will feel most like the timeless isle, they’ll be dynamic
  • Every week or so you’ll get a new weekly garrison story quest.
  • For the legendary ring you’ll be working with Khadgar to make it.
    • There will be no pvp quests.
    • There will be no rep grinds.
    • You’ll be able to start the quest at lvl 98.
  • Instead of dismissing followers you’ll be able to just deactivate them.
    • There will be a (gold) cost for reactivating them.
    • You will be able to reactivate one per day.
  • Outside of the 7 racial factions if you’re a Death Knight you’ll also be able to get DK guards for your Garrison.
    • You’ll need exalted with Knights of the Ebon Blade.
  • The Shadow Hunters will be Vol’jins bodyguards and eyes and ears.
  • Rexxar is in the max level content.
  • Magtheridon will probably not be in WoD.
  • The workshop will have an item called “the nuke” which has a day cooldown.