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Conquest Changes and Latest Cataclysm Hotfixes (April 26th)
Apparently conquest earned for rated PvP was changed to a flat amount regardless of team rating this patch. This was not included in the patch notes, but it's a fairly interesting change--one that's already generating a fair amount of negative feedback on Blizzard's official forums. They're looking into the amounts to see if they need to be changed; right now it's 135 conquest points for winning an arena match and 335 for a rated battleground.
Of course, that's if you can even login. Patch days generally mean hotfixes and today is no exception, but at least
Zul'Aman
and
Zul'Gurub
are finally accessible if you're patient enough. There are no estimated deployment times for some of these hotfixes, however, Blizzard says sometime this morning they should be implemented for all servers.
Conquest Earned Changed to Flat Rating
In patch 4.1 the amount of Conquest earned for both Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds has been changed to a flat amount regardless of team rating, to 135 and 335 respectively. This change should of course have been in the patch 4.1 notes, but due to a fairly straight forward error, was not included.
The current r
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Introducing Wowhead News
Over the years, the blog has evolved as our database has expanded--but there's only so much you can do with the same old layout and direction. So we've moved it over to some new digs and a new URL all to go along with our new goal: to provide content right as it breaks to both our community and the World of Warcraft community at large.
http://www.wowheadnews.com
Behind the Scenes: Improved Datamining, More PTR Coverage & Consistency
We've done major tweaks to everything, but what we're most excited for is the change in direction we're heading for. Our datamining process has been streamlined to be quicker, we've expanded our PTR coverage, and we're changing the way our data is presented. We're not going to lie; in the past, the blog has been scattered in its focus. We've now refined our focus. Our guides will hit harder (like
our in-depth overview on 4.1 gearing up
does) and our content will be quicker as well as stronger.
In short: we'll be on the PTR so you don't have to and we'll break down those spell changes so you don't have to. With Wowhead News, our goal is to take the abstract and
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New Ghostcrawler Blog: How Big is Your Spellbook?
Ghostcrawler is at it again and this time he's talking about abilities--particularly the number of them for each class. When designing classes, developers aim for a magic number but, as he explains, it never quite works out. It's just not as simple as one would believe and it's an interesting balancing act making each class have the right amount of abilities to both challenge and meet a player's expectations.
There are quite a lot of differences between situational abilities and ones used frequently in rotations as well. Ghostcrawler eventually closes with tackling the humanity of it all, explaining that it's not as simple as developing for a simulation; developers have to account for players and their ability levels as well as their personal experiences. Abilities change from PvE and PvP situations quite drastically. It's no walk in the park designing not only the right number of abilities, but the right variety.
Of course, that's the fun of it--right?
How Big Is Your Spellbook?
How many abilities should a max-level class have? This is something I ponder at least once a day and is a regular topic in nearly all of our class de
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Patch 4.1: Official Video and Wowhead Guide
There's an official video for Rise of the Zandalari: Patch 4.1 posted by Blizzard to share with you today.
The days when great troll empires stretched across ancient Kalimdor are long past. Millennia of war and internal strife have stripped these nations of their power, lands, and glory. As Azeroth recovers from the destruction of the Cataclysm, the world's divided troll populations face a bleak future. These dark times have spurred the trolls of the Zandalar, the historically wise and scholarly tribe from which all trolls originated, to take drastic action. They have embarked on a bold crusade to save their race by uniting trolls into a single mighty empire. With the Zandalari's aid, the fallen capitals of the Gurubashi and Amani nations -- Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman -- are already rebuilding, replenishing their forces for a bloody campaign to expand their territories.
Yet Vol'jin and his Darkspear trolls are not aligned with the Zandalari. They have sworn to stand with their Horde comrades -- and even work with the Alliance -- should the trolls ignite a new war on Azeroth. Soon, Vol'jin might be forced to act on his p
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Noblegarden Guide (Apr 24 - 30)
Noblegarden
is coming up this weekend and Wowhead is here to help. As with before, you can find out what vanity pets there are to add to your collection, how to get
Tome of Polymorph: Rabbit
, and every last detail you need to become a noble by using
our in-depth guide
.
http://www.wowhead.com/guide=noblegarden
If you have comments or questions about the guide and/or the event itself, post them here and we'll try to give you a hand. Have a great weekend collecting eggs--both virtual and real ones, if you celebrate!
And hey, while you're celebrating the spirit of Spring in-game, remember to check out
the Noblegarden contest
we're running with WoW Official Magazine. We've had a great response so far! It's been a lot of fun watching people try to figure out the puzzles we've whipped up.
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Wowhead Noblegarden Contest -- CLOSED! Winners selected!
UPDATE: Contest is closed. Winners can be found
here
. Emails were sent out to the winners.
Spring is in the air and
Noblegarden
is coming to Azeroth. This year, it's coming to Wowhead as well. We've teamed up with the talented folks from
WoW Official Magazine
to provide you with a
Brightly Colored Egg
hunt you'll remember. So grab your
Egg Basket
and hop around Wowhead's database for a chance to win
some fabulous prizes
--WoW Official Magazine subscriptions, Blizzcon 2010 art portfolios, Wowhead premium time, and even a Murloc plushie!
In the spirit of the season, this particular contest is a scavenger hunt! The Wowhead community team has hidden ten
Brightly Colored Eggs
with in our database somewhere and it's up to you to find them before the holiday leaves both Azeroth and Wowhead until next year. We'll provide you the clues, but you'll have to do the rest of the sleuthing on your own.
For every item you find by visiting its database entry, you'l
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New Ghostcrawler Blog: Critical Hits (And Misses)
Homogenization is a dirty word according to Ghostcrawler. He also describes the difference between being complicated and complex. In this blog, he discusses what's happened in the combat rules throughout World of Warcraft--the changes they've made to critical hits, healing, and each class' particular niche. Most notably, though, he alludes to 4.1's changes and how more may be on the way. Those new tooltips for debuffs that affect healing done--like
Mortal Strike
--are intentionally vague because its previous 10% reduction is being analyzed.
Read below to see what developers really think about critical hits and the design changes World of Warcraft's been subjected to over the years. As always, be sure to give your two cents after. Have the changes Ghostcrawler and company implemented been a critical hit--or a miss?
Critical History Lesson
In the original combat rules of World of Warcraft, melee classes could get 200% crits while casters could only get 150% crits. This was back when all the designers presumably played rogues instead of mages, which according to the forums is what we all play now (which makes our dungeon testi
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Ask the Devs #6 Topic Selected: Guild Advancement
After a week pause, Blizzard's community outreach feature "Ask the Devs" is back. This time they're fielding questions on the topic of Guild Advancement. It's a good chance to ask about the recently introduced guild reputation system, the state of 10 and 25-man raiding, current content's effect on guilds, and even things like server firsts.
Of course, it'll only be interesting if you make it--so get asking and get out your
Lucky Charm
for a chance to have your question answered and read by Blizzard developers themselves.
As this is a global Q+A, threads will be made available to both US and EU. EU players can submit their questions
over here
and the US thread is
over here
.
Check out Blizzard's previous Q+As:
Ask the Devs Q+A #1: General
Ask the Devs Q+A #2: PvP
Ask the Devs Q+A #3:
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Xfire Comes to Wowhead
Xfire
has always been a platform known for its superior streaming video content for all types of gamers. From intense StarCraft 2 matches to World of Warcraft raids, Xfire has live feeds that cover every niche of the vast gaming landscape. That's why we here at Wowhead have recently partnered with XFire to provide Wowhead users with the most popular live streams relating to all aspects of WoW from their site right in the comfort of ours.
From now on the community tab of Wowhead will have a new portal link:
Xfire live streams
. From this section of our site, you'll be able to see a frequently updated list of their most popular World of Warcraft streams as they unfold. From PvE to PvP content, picking on an individual stream of your choice will open it as a larger size allowing you to view it in higher resolutions without even having to leave Wowhead. Of course, if you click on the Xfire link, you can find the livechat and other Xfire features that allow you to interact with the person's stream you're watching.
Pretty awesome, right?
http://www.wowhead.com/xfire
If you want your chance to appear on Wowhead's video page, you can
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Site Update: Captcha Options, New Subforum, and Spoiler Tag
Our developers work hard, but usually it's all about the database or the blog--they're always finding new ways to speed up datamining or make the database's user experience smoother. The forums sometimes are a quiet third or fourth to the behemoths of the site. But that's not the case today. Thanks to some work behind the scenes and feedback from our community, we have a handful of new updates to make the Wowhead community's forums a better place!
Firstly, as you probably know, there's this thing called CAPTCHA and it keeps spam bots out. It also makes posting less than fun--it can be hard to read and sometimes refreshing is necessary. We've gotten several requests to have options for users or to at least enable the old system for users, so we have. You can use reCAPTCHA, the system the site currently users, or you can try out the Wowhead version. To change this, simply go to 'Settings' and select it from there under the 'CAPTCHA' header.
Secondly, there's a new forum in these parts:
the Computer Hardware forum
. A lot of threads crop up at inopportune moments in the wrong place. Sometimes they're of the "Can my PC run X" variety. We also frequently get discounts from partners to
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Patch 4.1 - PTR Build 13875 - Spell Changes and New Item
A small PTR patch update was just issued--it's just a confirmation of what
Tuesday's patch notes told us
essentially. Since this is a release candidate build of the patch as was the prior one, there were no major changes and you can expect the patch soon; hopefully it will be out by the end of the month or in the first weeks of May.
There is also a new item, probably from the fishing dailies:
Water-Filled Gills
. It can be opened and is blue quality.
Notable changes include:
Death Strike
now heals for 20% instead of 15% (this is a tooltip fix)
damage doubled (for cats only!)
had its effect on the GCD halved
Hit the jump to read these in full.
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PTR Patch 4.1 Notes Updated (4/12)
The PTR Patch 4.1 notes were updated this evening to reflect the spell changes seen earlier today.
Notable changes include:
All guild achievements had their requirements significantly reduced.
's damage has been doubled.
Several changes for
Shaman
.
Selfless Healer
received a buff last PTR patch and that's now been reverted.
Classes
Druid
's damage has been doubled.
Talent Specializations
Feral
Berserk
is no longer on the global cooldown.
Death Knight
Talent Specializations
Unholy
again applies 15/30/45% additional damage to Plague, Scourge, and Festering Strike, up from 12/24/36%.
Paladin
Talent Specialization
Retribution
Selfless Healer
: The damage bonus from this talent now has a 30-second duration, up from 10.
Shaman
[spell=81
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Patch 4.1 - PTR Build 13860 - Spell Changes
Another day, another patch on the PTR. These ones are a short list and there are no new items; this is likely because it's getting close for the patch to hit live and we're getting down to the final stages of minor changes before it can ship.
Paladin
s had their previous PTR buff of
reverted to from 30 seconds to 10
Shaman
received three changes; a slightly longer cooldown on
(up from 15 sec to 25) and changes to their
Earth Shield
that made it less effective with simultaneous buffs to
(up from 15% to 18%)
Death Knight
s had
changed from 36% to 48%
had its cooldown changed from 4 hours to 1, meaning levelers may actually use it!
Guild achievements have had their requirements significantly reduced and will be easier to obtain
Hit the jump to read these in full.
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Patch 4.1 Dungeon Finder Call to Arms - Blizzard Clarification
Blizzard just posted some clarification regarding the recently announced
Dungeon Finder Call to Arms feature
. With this upcoming change, highly demanded roles such as tanks and healers would receive special rewards after completing a dungeon through the system. Apparently Blizzard has listened to player feedback and plans to make the reward--
Satchel of Exotic Mysteries
--be BoA, allowing players to send such bags to their mains from their alts and vice versa.
We’ve been following discussions and reading feedback on the Dungeon Finder Call to Arms feature, and appreciate everyone’s opinions on the topic. We wanted to share a few items though that supplement the recent announcement:
The additional reward for completing the Dungeon Finder Call to Arms (called the Satchel of Exotic Mysteries) will be Bind on Account; able to be freely sent to other characters on your account once you receive it.
An error existed in the announcement regarding flasks and potions being picked based on your spec. This is not the case. If someone earns a Satche
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Patch 4.1: Map Animation, Vanity Pet Changes, and a Resort Town Preview
Fresh from a foray onto the PTR, Wowhead volunteers Neutronimity and Perculia have brought some exciting news about some notable additions to Azeroth. While they're not a new raid nor a new legendary, they're still important in their own way. After all, it's the little things that make World of Warcraft so memorable!
The first discovery was that there's a new map animation. When users open their maps, they will now
see
it. This was first brought to our attention a week ago by Wowhead user Satelitko. They even went as far as to make
a video of the animation
.
The second discovery, this time by Neutronimity, was that companion pets now stay with their owner through thick and thin. Did you hearth away? Zone? Or even log off? Don't worry, they'll stay summoned. A small change to be sure, but a very practical one; summoning your vanity pet every time you left an area was easy to forget.
Of course, we've saved the best for last. The third discovery is pretty big. It's also a little weird. Perculia discovered a brand new resort off in the mountains of the border between Feralas and Silithus while flying around on the PTR this morning. The amount of detail put into t
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Site Update: Maps Show Flight Paths
World of Warcraft is big. Huge, even. There are a lot of flight paths and it's hard to remember all of them. Don't worry, though, as we've been working on solving that problem: Wowhead is now tracking them all! Next time you're leveling and you're looking for flight paths, we've got you covered.
To use this new feature, simply go to a continent in our database, select 'Show on Map,' and choose your preferred faction. Markers will then show up for the area's flight paths as well as any zeppelin or boat path on the continent. It's a great way to see an overview of paths to zones you intend to tackle next; it's especially helpful now that there are so many new flight paths in World of Warcraft. Try it now--check out
Eastern Kingdoms
or
Kalimdor
to see this new feature in action.
Remember, we here at Wowhead are always looking for new features to bring to our site to improve our user experience. If you have any feedback on what you would like to see here,
open a thread in our feedback forums
or send an email to .
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Blizzard's Fourth Q+A Answered, Achievements Next Topic
Blizzard just posted their next set of answers to the fourth Q+A they held recently. There are extremely varied answers this time around--most likely because the questions were generally all over the place! From enchanters and their wand creating past to oversized belts, this session of "Ask the Devs" is filled with interesting tidbits throughout and is a solid read.
Surprisingly, Blizzard even touches on dyes at the end with its final question about customization, saying that "dumping a bunch of dyes on the game" might make an effect "where some players might have fun playing around with the system for a bit" but that "a lot of players might change their colors once or twice and then forget about the feature after that." Blizzard, why you playing us like that? From hardcore to casual, a lot of players would remember that system--more than you think!
Oh, and those heirlooms being transferable between realms? "Someday."
There will be more of these sessions coming up in the near future as well. The topic of
Achievements
is slated to be tackled next.
Some of the topics of the questions they were asked include:
Tier Design: Will Blizzard Return to Class Inspired Tier Aesthetic Design Rather Than Dun
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New Ghostcrawler Blog: Stat Allocation
The patch right before Cataclysm reinvented the wheel. It made spirit a bread and butter stat for all healers, it introduced mastery, and it normalized almost everything. In his latest developer blog, Ghostcrawler talks about stat allocations. He also hates on Paladins for one paragraph.
Kidding--well, sort of. Maybe the Paladin hate isn't entirely uncalled for, either. We do have three specs and, as Ghostcrawler contends, that's a hard puzzle to solve. Blizzard doesn't like Intellect plate, but it doesn't like any other solution either. Give us Holy Paladins mail and we're just shaman. Make our spellpower derive from strength and we'll be Retribution Paladins that can heal extraordinarily well.
Ghostcrawler also breaks down loot tables, supply and demand, and how slot machine bosses like those from Baradin Hold and Vault of Archavon feel for both developers and players. It's an interesting read and a good insight on why things are the way they are and how the Cataclysm model is here to stay. After several expansions and six years, it looks like Blizzard feels like they've found the best solution. Read on to find out why.
The developers talk
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Ask the Devs #5: Achievements
Got questions? Well, Blizzard might have answers--if you're one of the lucky few, anyway. The "Ask the Dev" segment is becoming quite a regular thing on the Blizzard community forums and by now you should be no stranger to it; for several weeks, we've been getting the chance to pitch a question to the brains behind World of Warcraft and have it answered. This week, they'll be talking about achievements. From how they come up with new achievements to the controversial immortal achievements, there are a lot of questions to be asked and it should be an interesting read when it gets posted next week.
Of course, it'll only be interesting if you make it! So get asking and get out your
Lucky Charm
for a chance to have your question answered and read by Blizzard developers themselves.
As this is a
global
Q+A, threads will be made available to both US and EU. So far, EU players can submit their questions
over here
and the US thread is
over here
.
Be sure to check out Blizzard's previous Q+As:
[url=
http://www.wowhead.com/blog=185039/blizzards-first-q-a-answered-pvp-selected-topic-for-ne
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April Fools' 2011 - We Won't Forget You, Crabby
Yet another April Fools' Day has come and gone softly into the night, leaving in its wake a bunch of jokes and rumors. This year seemed tame to the previous one, where we heard about everything from top guilds merging to aquariums being added, but sometimes tame is good--especially where being pranked is concerned. All in all, there were still some great jokes around the WoW community to be found and fun to be had.
Some of our favorites were:
WarcraftPets
told us about a newly implemented companion loyalty
. I mean, as Breanni puts it, Hunter pet loyalty is gone--but where exactly did it go?
A guild some of you may have heard of, Paragon,
came up with an elaborate guide to an encounter involving a certain Firelord you may also have heard of
.
Wings of Chaos and Divine Wings
made us sad when we realized they weren't
really
available.
WoWInterface introduced their own authenticator[
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