World of Warcraft Gossips

Shamans getting nerf (windfury)

2006-06-06T15:39:00.000-07:00

On the Blizzard forums, after inviting feedback from the Shaman community regarding the upcoming changes to the class in 1.11, Eyonix has posted this little gem which will make all Shaman players not happy.

"Player feedback concerning the Shaman review has been gathered in North America, Europe and Korea -- and it's been been offered to the Class Design team. It's doubtful that any additional changes will be made to the Shaman before the patch is live on the realms, but we will certainly be discussing your feedback and watching closely how the specifics of the incorporated changes play out.

Once I'm able to discuss the feedback you've provided in greater detail with the Design team, I'll be sure and share with you their response." Eyonix

2 players cleared BRD

2006-06-03T17:15:00.000-07:00

Paladin and Warrior lvl 60 clear all Blackrock Depths on their own and show a video to proof it. Only one purple item.

Check video here.

Blizzard backround downloader possible security risk?

2006-06-03T17:09:00.000-07:00

Seems that customer confidence in Blizzard's World of Warcraft Background Downloader is lowering, possibly in the wake of trojans targetted specifically at players of the popular MMORPG. Since this link is to the official Blizzard Flamefests, I'll go ahead and copy it here, since posts like this one tend to disappear:

PEER-TO-PEER BACKGROUND:
First off, to all the non-techies, let me explain a little bit how the torrent system works...

The way downloads occur is instead of your computer connecting to a centralized server where a data patch is located, your computer is connected to a semi-virtual network (called a peer-to-peer network) of sorts to other computers that are trying to download the same data. What happens is the patch data that you are trying to download gets cut up into a pie of very small pieces. These pieces are usually put into the "virtual network" by a "seeder" which would normally be Blizzard initially. Then once say piece A has been distributed to computers 1 through 10, the seeder can send piece 2 to computers 1-10, and computers 1-10 can now act as "seeders" to the other computers on the network acting as distribution points.

The reason why this method is effective is that now you can actually take advantage of the network speeds of all of the computers in the virtual network, instead of Blizzard having to have HUGE network capacities to send the data to 6+ million subscribers, all on a Tuesday at noon.

It distributes the data.

Now, on to the problems...

PROBLEM #1: IN-GAME LATENCY
The reason why they call it a "torrent" network, is that it can be VERY fast. It can be so fast that you can actually overwhelm your own network connection by having so much data flying at your computer that sometimes your provider can just drop your connection over it. What many people DON'T understand is that to successfully have data come through the network (and your firewalls) certain ports need to be "opened up", which why people are always talking about it not working or never downloading. This is usually because they have not set up their ports to allow the data to come through appropriately.

ONE THING TO MENTION HERE -- JUST BECAUSE YOU DO NOT SET UP YOUR PORTS TO ALLOW DATA TO COME THROUGH ON THIS KIND OF NETWORK *DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE DATA IS NOT COMING TO YOU*.

If you don't set up your firewalls to allow the data, it is STILL SENT TO YOU, it just bounces off your firewall. Think about that for a minute. Network lag / latency in the game is caused when the information that is coming down the network is being slowed down in some way or dropped and never gets to you. USUALLY lag and latency issues, when they occur happen somewhere further up the network chain at either your ISP or on a network backbone. HOWEVER, in this instance, you are getting bombarded by data coming from other users and it is all being directed at YOUR connection.

This is great -- right? It speeds up our patches! YES!

BUT, remember, you weren't PLAYING when that used to happen. There were no packages of data being communicated by your computer about your character, them swinging, running, casting, anything... Because it patched when the game wasn't running. NOW, it is patching WHILE the game is running.

The reason for the latency is that all of those little data packages about your environment in the game are being hidden in a "torrent" of data package data being flung at your computer from the other computers on the "peer-to-peer" network.

Oh, and remember, as a participant on this network, not only are you DOWNLOADING information, but you are UPLOADING it to other computers on the network as well. This can also compound this latency problem.

Many programs that participate on networks of this sort allow for a "throttling" mechanism. Which if Blizzard continues using it in the background, should SERIOUSLY be considered.

PROBLEM #2: JUST ASKING TO BE HACKED
Look at this:
1) 6+ Million subscriber base;
2) Blizzard implements a "background downloader" that the majority of users will never know how to or why they should properly configure that requires open ports;
3) A gold / character selling industry that is multi-million dollar, that in many cases either develops or has developed exploits by altering the game to gather money in game for sale for real cash.

This wasn't a problem when the downloader did it's thing, patched, then quit (thereby leaving the open holes into your computer closed, or at least only open while it was running).

NOW with it running in the background, all I would have to do is figure out how to send some bad data down the wire to any computer on the network (and since it is a peer-to-peer network, I can get the list of addresses on it) that would hijack the downloader, package my little virus or spyware, or better yet an application that read your account name and or password right out of memory since the game is currently loaded and send it back to a centralized server.

This my friends is EXACTLY how systems get hacked.

Not only is there incentive to do it (6+ million user base, a vehicle to do it -- the downloader, a group already capable of doing it and the lack of moral ethics to do it).

SUMMARY:
Blizzard, I realize (as a developer myself) that you were just trying to help the user base by distributing the network load. And I'll assume you had that as your first intention (not that you were trying to radically reduce your network infrastructure costs by using your user base as a distribution mechanism).

I have reported over and over about people using WoWglider and whatever other tools are out there, and no one seems to do anything about it... (5 times I have reported people, they have been running 4 weeks straight 24/7 gold / bot farmers in Western Plaguelands: Savageblos (alliance) and Maller (horde) on Whisperwind). I get emails saying action has been taken, but they are always there -- is there some sort of collusion occurring? Maybe letting IGE and others run bots, could they be reimbursing you for the favor? I just simply can't explain it. Maybe you are setting them up for a sting (well I can hope it isn't more sinister).

You guys SAY you care about hacking, but based on the track record and ESPECIALLY THIS --- WHAT ARE YOU GUYS THINKING!?!

Even if you are in bed with these gold farming entities (hopefully that isn't the case), do you really think they won't take advantage of this.

This would be nuts money for them.

I sure hope you have implemented EVERY STINKING KIND OF ANTI-BUFFER-OVERFLOW code in that background downloader.

I can't even imagine the visions of sugar-plums dancing in IGEs head right about now.

Warcraft Weekly 06/02/2006

2006-06-02T17:30:00.000-07:00

"We invite our players to take a moment and relax by reading through the newest edition of the Warcraft Weekly, as it provides direct links to threads created and responded to by the World of Warcraft community team." Eyonix

Check it here

Why WoW won over other MMOs

2006-06-02T17:11:00.000-07:00

"There was a discussion about EQ2's UI on the FoH's forums and it made me think that too often people tend to completely ignore the most obvious things. While they tend to consider what is instead absolutely irrelevant.

So here why WoW racked up millions of subscribers worldwide and why it dwarfed every other mmorpg:

First Postulate on Mmorpgs Subscriptions: If you suddenly double the minimum hardware requirements, then even your potential subscribers base is HALVED (if not worst, considering the scaling).

There, I said it. WoW's success is for the biggest part contained in that line. No need for thousands and thousands of pages and design researches. Just one fucking line.

Hello? Accessibility barriers. The GREAT MAJORITY of people on the internet have computers that SUCK. This is why browser-based games are popular. Not because they are "casual" games, but because they embrace a MUCH BIGGER potential subscribers base.

Crappy internet connection, instable, badly configured system, old drivers, conflicts, incompatibilities. All these are the NORM for PCs. Not everyone is a geek who assembles his computer, runs benchmarks, reads hardware reviews and figures out obscure quirks in the Bios of the motherboard. This is also why the consoles are much more popular. Not everyone has the patience and dedication to swallow that. In particular after having spent considerable amounts of money for that hardware and STILL managing to see games running like crap."

Read the rest of the article here

Software to end lag in wow?

2006-06-01T17:54:00.000-07:00

EndLagNow.org is a powerful software application that finally gives you the ability to not only measure the Lag you are living with in your games, but also to understand where your problems are coming from.

Check Here

WoW Internet hunting

2006-06-01T09:38:00.000-07:00

An article today over at the International Herald Tribune shines a light on an interesting phenomenon that's making headlines in China; internet hunting.

No, it's not when you click the mouse on those 'shoot the duck' pop-up ads; internet hunting is nothing less than a virtual mob of people tracking down the perpetrator of an alleged indescretion online & basically making their life a living hell any way they can. It began with the case a couple of years ago where a woman seen being abusive to her pet in public was tracked down online & harrassed mercilessly by hundreds of Chinese internet users, and the latest case started right in our beloved World of Warcraft.

As the article states, a player named Freezing Blade apparently discoved a communication between his wife & an acquaintance that led him to believe the two were having an affair. So, he gathered a group of online friends & proceeded to 'hunt' the other guy. Soon, the 'hunt' included literally thousands of other players & net users, in what might be a bigger manhunt than the FBI has conducted in years.

The net can be a powerful tool for a variety of things, so I'm surprised it's taken this long for online revenge to make the news. I just hope none of my ex-girlfriends ever reads this and gets any bright ideas. In any case, it's a fascinating read. Check out the full article right here.

Blizzard isnt done with Shaman Changes

2006-06-01T09:29:00.000-07:00

Eyonix over at Blizzard has just posted this message in the Shaman Discussion Forum :

" Okay, first I'd like to apologize for my recent absence. From your guys' perspective, I realize such wasn't very optimal in terms of timing. With that being said, now that I've returned, I'd like to simply jump right back into a productive rhythm. Among five-dozen other items on my plate, I plan to meet with several designers over the next couple of days and touch base on the state of many matters.

What this means to this particular community is that I plan to meet with those responsible for changes being made to the Shaman. I humbly request that you use this thread to provide me with some of your major questions and concerns. Try and keep your responses not only constructive, but "short and sweet" if at all possible.

It's going to be a busy week for me, but I'll do my best in providing you with both feedback and information."

To read/take part in this thread, click here.

PvP Culture in WOW

2006-05-31T08:41:00.000-07:00

The grind to get a high rank can be really tiring. Many players feel this way. Frybread from notaddicted.com posted a very interesting article yesterday on the topic.

"The difficulty with World of Warcraft’s PvP system is decay. After a couple months you can climb your way to rank 10, but if you slack off and get a job, watch a few movies with your friends or go out of town on the weekend, you’ll be back to rank 9. To climb the ranks in WoW you have to play constantly. There is no such thing as vacation. There are no holidays, no leniency. The system is more of a hardass than any boss and needier than any girlfriend.

5 hours every day might seem like a lot of time. 35 hours per week, a full time job in France. In World of Warcraft it’s enough to get you in the best guilds, drop the biggest monsters and wear the best raid gear.

But it’s not enough to get rank 14."

Read the rest of the article here.

Account Theft

2006-05-31T08:40:00.000-07:00

Nowadays having your account stolen for any MMO is a huge concern for many players, including myself.

The website onrec.com looks at this issue in the article Online games targeted by cyber-crooks.

List of materials needed for each Tiers3 Armor Sets

2006-05-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

Those materials and the god needed for Frost Sets armor, Blizzard prolly want ppl to visit gold websites more than previously :p.

The List of materials required for each Tiers3 Armor set :

http://wowwalkthroughs.free.fr/Tiers3ArmorSet.html

200,000 Active Gold Farmers in China and news about The9 and World of Warcraft

2006-05-30T10:10:00.000-07:00

An interesting article on The9, the World of Warcraft licensee in China, at VNUnet.com discusses the public dispute between Blizzard and The9 over the future of their relationship. This is an excellent business article with a number of interesting datapoints thrown in. The biggest problem is that Blizzard did not consider the "upside" success of World of Warcraft in China and wants to renegotiate its license. The other issue is that there have been some serious quality of service issues with The9's service that are causing problems (and probably weren't adequately addressed in the initial contract).

Read the rest of the article Here.

WoW dominates MMOG Market

2006-05-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

MMOGChart, a data tracking site that collates and tracks data on the MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) market, has just released the latest version of its report!

It shows that World of Warcraft is still going strong, and far ahead of the rest in terms of market share and subscriptions, with slightly more than 50% of the MMOG market share just by itself!

Is pvp Broken?

2006-05-29T09:05:00.000-07:00

At Video Game Generation, there is an interesting article discussing the flaws in the current PvP system.

"The one word that can be used to describe World PvP in World of Warcraft is "broken." Now, the average lowbe who gets killed every 15 seconds in Stranglethorn Vale on a PvP server will argue that it isn't, and in that sense World PvP is not dead. After all, who am I to tell some level 60 alpha-geek that raids 40 hours a week to get epics that he can't smash some level 38 in the middle of a jungle? See, the random ganking isn't a problem; it's the lack of any sort of PvP objective. The vast majority of us will get extremely bored sitting in Stranglethorn Vale killing level 38 characters."

Read the rest of the article here

New Blizzard Forums !

2006-05-29T01:44:00.000-07:00

They are gonna change the forums, with some new ones.

"A tidbit for you as we move into the weekend: the new forums are closing in on completion. We aim to start testing them, together with all of you, very soon. :) " Thundgot

Source

Rogue T3 Amor stats changed

2006-05-29T01:26:00.000-07:00

New Base stats :
Helm: 18 str 30 agi 29 sta, 1% hit 2%crit
Shoulders: 22 str 22 Agi 15 sta 1% hit 1% crit
Gloves: 66 AP 20 sta 1% hit 1% crit
Boots: 64 AP 18 sta 1% hit 1% crit
Belt: 23 str 24 agi 20 sta 1% crit
Leggings: 31 str 32 agi 25 sta 1% hit 1% crit (These may be wrong)
Chestpiece: 48agi 28sta 1% hit 1% crit
Bracers: Unknown, assumption is that they're the same because they were the best-allocated piece of the old set
Ring: 30agi 10sta 1% hit

Old Base stats :
Helm - 18 str 31 agi 30 sta 1% hit 2% crit
Shoulders - 25 agi 24 sta 1% crit 1% hit
Chest - 48 agi 28sta 1% crit 1% hit
Bracers - 24 agi 14 sta 1% crit
Gloves - 11 str 29 agi 22 sta 1% hit
Belt - 18 str 24 agi 23 sta 1% hit
Legs - 43 agi 26 sta 2% hit
Boots - 31 agi 19 sta 1% hit
Ring - 30 agi 10 sta 1% hit

Rogue T3 armor set changed

2006-05-28T17:03:00.000-07:00

Blizzard changed stats on Bonescythe Gauntlets, maybe they plan to change stats on some other parts aswell. As for gloves its a nice change (imo).

Naxxramas Compendium (guide) : items, boss, videos, maps

2006-05-28T16:03:00.000-07:00

I have been working on it with 2 friends, we will keep it up to date until Naxxramas is released on Public servers, tell us what you think about it, check it out here :

Naxxramas compendium (guide)

Buying your way to virtual gold

2006-05-28T03:22:00.000-07:00

ON MANY DAYS, 23-year-old Andrew Caruso can be found trotting through the pixilated green videogame shrubbery of the virtual online world of "World of Warcraft." Attached to the back of his character is a giant, highly coveted orange hammer of Ragnaros. This weapon is so rare, so valued, it took Caruso five months of what he calls "24/7 playing" on his computer to achieve the level 60 status to acquire such a weapon.

Check the rest of article Here

University of Washington plays the most Warcraft - Wednesday, May 24, 2006

2006-05-28T03:09:00.000-07:00

Which Universities have the most gamers? University of Washington tops the list for
visitors to MapWoW. Washington is known for its computer software and game development programs, so it's not too much of a surprise. Several other tech-heavy schools make the list including RIT, Purdue, Virginia Tech (Hokies rule) and Georgia Tech. A few big name schools win out on sheer number of students, such as University of Michigan, The Ohio State University, and The University of Texas (go horns!). The state of California has the most universities in the top 25.

Forget academic or pre-season football rankings, here are the Top 25 Schools ranked according to number of visitors to MapWoW.

1. University of Washington
2. University of Michigan
3. Rochester Institute of Technology
4. Stanford University
5. University of Minnesota
6. Purdue University
7. Georgia Tech
8. University of California, Santa Cruz
9. The University of Texas
10. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
11. Virginia Tech
12. University of Maryland
13. Texas A&M University
14. University of Wisconsin
15. University of California, Los Angeles
16. University of California, Irvine
17. the Ohio State University
18. Iowa State University
19. University of Florida
20. Harvard University
21. University of California, Berkeley
22. Cornell University
23. North Carolina State University
24. University of California, Davis
25. Arizona State University

To find your school in the complete ordered list of 1109 universities, it is available here

Naxxramas : Patchwerk dead

2006-05-28T03:02:00.000-07:00

Patchwerk the First Boss in Abomination Wing got killed for the first time by Alliance, he dropped one nice ring, which could be considered as a sidegrade compared to Ring of Godslayer :

Naxxramas : Anub'Rekhan Kill movie (Horde)

2006-05-28T02:43:00.000-07:00

World first kill by a PUG raid group without any GM assistance, the fight has been recorded with fraps : check it out here

Anub'Rekhan dropped the following :

On a second Alliance kill, they dropped :

Will EX-Ranked get NEW PvP Sets

2006-05-27T01:49:00.000-07:00

Drysc posted his answer about this question :

"The PvP rewards added are being provided as new items for players that want to achieve those ranks. The ranking system is intended to allow players of a current rank access to specific PvP rewards, and those rewards are what is available to a character of that rank. From a design standpoint, opening retroactive rewards to players potentially devalues the efforts of players who attempt to maintain their rank or climb to a higher rank. For players who chose not to maintain their rank, their accomplishments are hopefully something the player enjoyed or found rewarding, and they obtained the rewards due to them at that time.

The changes made to the rank 12 and 13 items were done to bring the overall stats of the items more in line with what those ranked items should be. We recognize that some of the changes made have veered from the original stats, and the original reasons people fought to obtain these sets. With that said were going to be bringing some of the stats back in line with what the sets originally had, but still increase the values. If you have feedback regarding items that you feel changed too much, we'd appreciate that feedback so we can evaluate that feedback for further tuning. " Drysc

Source

Awesome Fishing News in 1.11 : Stonescale Eel Swarm added

2006-05-27T01:44:00.000-07:00

Posted on WoW forums :

Found in Tanaris.
I toured the entire Tanaris coast and found only one of these near Zalashji's Den.

Caught 4 Stonescale Eels from this swarm and nothing else.

Checking Ferelas and Azshara for schools now.
Edit: Found 4 in Ferelas. Heading to Azshara.

Finally they added it °^^°

Ashbringer Evolution through the different patchs

2006-05-27T01:09:00.000-07:00

Who would have guess than Thunderfury gfx,was actually the Ashbringer's one?

New AD Enchants requirements (1.11)

2006-05-27T00:51:00.000-07:00

So far this is the info i gathered for new AD enchants in 1.11.

The frost and shadow resist leg/head enchants require the following:

"The Ice Guard" (+10 frost)
10 Insignia of the Crusade
30 Gold

"The Shadow Guard" (+10 shadow)
10 Insignia of the Crusade
30 Gold

Insignia's come from doing odd (repeatable) jobs for The Scarlet Crusade.

The nature resist leg/head enchants require the following :

To get the +20 nature enchant, go ZG and hand in either Arcanum of Focus/Protection/rapidity, only one of those 3 is needed to get nature enchant.

As for :

Power of the Scourge	Permanently adds to a shoulder slot item increased damage and healing done by magical spells and effects up to 15 and also increases your chance to land a critical strike with spells by 1%.
Resilience of the Scourge	Permanently adds to a shoulder slot item increased healing done by magical spells and effects up to 31 and also increases your mana regen by 5 mana per 5 sec.
Fortitude of the Scourge	Permanently adds to a shoulder slot item increased Stamina by 16 and also grants 100 armor.
Might of the Scourge	Permanently adds to a shoulder slot item increased Attack Power by 26 and also increases your chance to land a critical strike by 1%.

They all requires an item from certains boss in Naxxramas.

Viscidus Alliance Kill movie

2006-05-27T00:38:00.000-07:00

The Alterac Deviants killing Viscidus, from a druid's point of view, which is probably the most hard part for an alliance guild about this encounter.

You can check it out here : Viscidus kill movie (Alliance)

PvP Changes in 1.11 : BGs and the Deserter Debuff

2006-05-26T17:34:00.000-07:00

There have been changes made to how the Deserter Debuff is applied.

The new changes should prevent players from being debuffed inappropriately.

You should receive the deserter debuff anytime you leave a battleground instance prematurely.

That means:

If you /afk out, or if auto-afk is turned on.

If you leave through the battleground portal.

If you hearth or otherwise teleport out.

"We're specifically looking for bugs that involve the deserter debuff. If you find conditions that you should get the debuff and don't, or if you find conditions where you should not get the debuff and do please report them. If you can find any sort of exploits or bypasses of the new system please post them here as well.

Thank you all ahead of time for your help, this will probably be the first of several focused testing tasks we will do for 1.11." Hortus

Source

Deathdealer's Vest Nerf in 1.11

2006-05-26T16:55:00.000-07:00

Original: (1.10)

Deathdealer's Vest
Binds when picked up
Chest Leather
253 Armor
+19 Strength
+37 Agility
+28 Stamina
Classes: Rogue
Durability 120 / 120
Requires Level 60
Equip: Improves your chance to get a critical strike by 1%.
Equip: Improves your chance to hit by 1%.

New: (Patch 1.11 on PTR)
Deathdealer's Vest
Binds when picked up
Chest Leather
253 Armor
+76 attack power
+31 Stamina
Classes: Rogue
Durability 120 / 120
Requires Level 60
Equip: Improves your chance to get a critical strike by 1%.
Equip: Improves your chance to hit by 1%.

Blizzard keeps nerfing the DD set from rogue, was boots in 1.10, now in 1.11 its DD shoulders (-10 stamina) and DD vest (see above).

Nurfed UI incremental update

2006-05-26T16:02:00.000-07:00

The very famous Nurfed UI just got updated today by Tivoli, he should be release the Final version within the next few days, which will work in both 1.10 and 1.11.

You can download it here on Nurfed Forums : Nurfed UI

GUIDE: Buffs for endgame 40-man PvE, v.1.11

2006-05-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

A World of Warcraft played named Bandobras made a real nice guide.
This guide was written for players new to the endgame 40-man raiding experience, and for the more experienced players interested in an overview of the possibilities in relation to maximizing ones potential in raids. The guide concerns potions, consumables, enchantments, in short: buffs. The guide is adapted for all classes. Preparing yourself using the buffs mentioned in this guide will boost your raid significantly.

Its definitely a must to read and bookmark it.

Check it out here

Naxxramas : Instructor Razuvious tips movie

2006-05-26T04:27:00.000-07:00

The purpose of this video is for notetakers to see those debuffs and prepare their own raids.

DK Boss movie

Noth The Plaguebringer encounter movie in Naxxramas

2006-05-26T04:20:00.000-07:00

A fight against Noth the Plaguebringer in Naxx. Just shows our one attempt at him before being deemed bugged by dev (but only because he didn't reset properly).

The Plaguebringer movie

Warcraft Weekly - 05/26/06

2006-05-26T01:53:00.000-07:00

"Below are several links which lead to threads appearing throughout our forums that contain comments made by the World of Warcraft community team and World of Warcraft game designers. Please, take a moment and check out the latest topics. " Drysc

World of Warcraft Battleplan Vol. 3

Battleplan Discussion Follow-up

New Oceanic Realms

Customer Service Forum

Two New Realms

Patch 1.11 Public Test Realms Now Live

Two upcoming Raid changes in 1.11

New PvP Armor Sets

Metzen Discusses Lore

Blood Elf and Draenei Racial Abilities

Mage Review

Shaman Review

Additional Shaman Talent Changes

Warrior Shield Slam Improvement in 1.11

Tier 3 Raid Sets Preview

Source

AQ 20 Guide : The Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj

2006-05-26T01:05:00.000-07:00

TenTonHammer released a nice guide for AQ20, also known as The Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj, if you are having problems to handle some encounters in AQ20, go check it out :

Authentication Maintenance 5/26/06

2006-05-25T18:33:00.000-07:00

"We will be performing maintenance on our authentication hardware tonight beginning at 12:01 AM PDT, May 26th and lasting until approximately 1:30 AM PDT. During this time players may be unable to log in to the game, forums, or account management sites. We will provide an update if this current schedule changes. " Drysc

Source

Two Upcoming Raid Changes

2006-05-25T17:25:00.000-07:00

Tigole announced two changes that will affect instances within the next few days on the PTR (Public Test Realms) :

"--First, by popular demand, we'll be removing the release timer in instances. This includes dungeons, battlegrounds and raid instances.

--Second, we're going to have to institute an anti-exploit measure on certain encounters. Certain encounters (almost entirely raid bosses) will prevent people from zoning into the instance while that encounter is engaged. If you attempt to zone into the instance while that encounter is engaged, you will be resurrected at the entrance (outside). We will be making adjustments to the entrances to Molten Core and Blackwing Lair to compensate for this. Combat resurrections, soulstones, reincarnate etc. will still work fine. This is primarily to combat graveyard rushing in instances. Again, this will only be on a few select encounters, almost entirely limited to raid bosses. " Tigole

Source

New Realms

2006-05-25T17:10:00.000-07:00

Two new PvP realms have been opened today Demon Soul and Jaedenar. These realms are on the new World of Warcraft site with all new hardware and are open for character creation.

Source

Burning Crusade : Racial Abilities and Bestiary Update

2006-05-25T16:51:00.000-07:00

"Since our showing at E3, we have seen many threads and articles discussing the Blood Elf and Draenei racial abilities, and were happy to see so many players excited about these two new races! In some cases these conversations have included misinterpreted or otherwise incorrect statements of the abilities of these two new races. Below we have listed the abilities that were shown at E3 for both the Blood Elf and Draenei. Please keep in mind that these abilities may change before the release of The Burning Crusade expansion. " Drysc

Blood Elves

Arcane Affinity
Racial Passive
Enchanting skill increased by 15.

Magic Resistance
Racial Passive
All resistances increased by 5.

Mana Tap
30 yd range - 30 sec cooldown
Drains 50 mana from your target and charges you with Arcane energy for 10 min. This effect stacks up to 3 times.

Arcane Torrent
Instant - 2 min cooldown
Silence all enemies within 8 yards for 2 sec. In addition, you gain 5 Rage/12 Mana/20 Energy for each charge of Mana Tap currently affecting you.
The above Mana value is indicative of a level 1 character as Mana values for this ability will scale with level.

Draenei

Gemcutting
Racial Passive
Jewelcrafting skill increased by 15.

Shadow Resistance
Racial Passive
Shadow Resistance increased by 10.

Heroic Presence
Racial Passive
Increases chance to hit by 1% for all party members within 30 yards.

Blessing of the Naaru
40 yd range
1.5 sec cast - 3 min cooldown
Heals the target of 50 damage over 15 sec.
The above Heal value is indicative of a level 1 character as value will scale with level.

"Again, the above information is only related to what we have shown at E3. It is entirely possible that these abilities or their values will change before release of the expansion." Drysc

Source

Also Blizzard updated their website by adding new contents in their bestiary. The bestiary page for World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade has been updated with two new creatures from the upcoming expansion. Learn more about two of the new species you'll encounter in Outland, the mystical warp stalkers and the vicious ravagers.

They also added more in screenshots sections.

New World of Warcraft Fan Art

2006-05-25T16:38:00.000-07:00

The Blizzard F an Art Section has been updated with new pieces of artwork.

Money Making for Dummies Pt. 1

2006-05-25T05:29:00.000-07:00

A World of Warcraft player called Galitrune has submitted a really nice guide into the WoWvault Community Database entitled Money-Making for Dummies Pt. 1.

Interview with a Blizzard Assistant Game Designer - The Burning Crusade

2006-05-25T04:45:00.000-07:00

This is an interview with Blizzard employee Kristen DeMeza from E3 2006. She is an Assistant Game Designer and is part of the team in charge of world events in World of Warcraft. She talks about the upcoming Burning Crusade Expansion Pack for WOW.

WOW_Expansion_Interview.mp3 8.8 MB

Map of Sapphiron Lair and Kel'Thuzad Citadel

2006-05-25T04:10:00.000-07:00

A WoW player named Jaxine created this map from the minimap files, enjoy. Sapphiron's Lair is shaped somewhat like Onyxia's - circular dome room. Kel'Thuzad's room is just down the hall and looks interesting.

Draenei Race details on WorldofWar.Net

2006-05-25T04:05:00.000-07:00

The WorldofWar.Net Draenei page has been updated with a whole stack of info for the new Alliance race. If you want to know more about the new race :

Draenei Webpage on WorldofWar.Net

Recruit a Friend, Get Free Game Time!

2006-05-24T18:47:00.000-07:00

There's never been a better time to invite new allies to join your guild, as we've just launched the Recruit-A-Friend program. Just log in to the account-management section and click the "Recruit-A-Friend" button or go directly to this page to start sending free 10-Day trial keys to your friends. Rest assured that your valiant efforts will be rewarded: for every one of your friends who converts to a full subscription and pays for a month of game time, you will receive 30 days of free game time credited to your account!

Blackrock Spire, Battlegrounds, the coming Naxxramas Necropolis...the world of Warcraft has never been more dangerous, so you'll need all the help you can get if you want your side to prevail in the coming conflict. The time is here to recruit your allies and stand united under one banner. Good luck, and see you soon in Azeroth! Click here to Recruit-A-Friend!

Source

World of Warcraft at E3

2006-05-24T18:46:00.000-07:00

Blizzard recently attended E3 in Los Angeles, California. The coverage included news about the expansion and impressions and interviews with lead game designers Jeff Kaplan and Tom Chilton, lead producer Shane Dabiri, senior game designer Scott Mercer and assistant game designer Kristen DeMeza.

Gamespot UK gives their thoughts about the features, races, and areas that will be featured in The Burning Crusade.
Yahoo! has an interview with Jeff Kaplan where he discusses some of what to expect in The Burning Crusade.
Games Radar has an article detailing the history of the Draenei, the new Alliance race.
VE3D has named World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade as the Best Expansion Pack.
WorldofWar.net has an extensive interview with Scott Mercer. See part one and part two.
BlueAlien.org has an audio interview with Kristen DeMeza.

Naxxramas : Anub'Rekhan Down (First Boss Spider Wing)

2006-05-24T15:29:00.000-07:00

Anub'Rekhan drops Set Bindings for Priest, Mage, Warlock :

Anub'Rekhan also dropped a new loot, nice plate bracer :

Anub'Rekhan Kill Shoot :

Source

1.11 G15 Keyboard LCD Screen (New)

2006-05-24T06:49:00.000-07:00

There were posted some of the cool images that WoW 1.11 will support on the G15's LCD screen:

Here is another, I just noticed this one tonight:

The whole keyboard picture :

Direct DL - Blizzard enGB 0.11

2006-05-24T06:11:00.000-07:00

Mirror 1
Mirror 2

Anub'Rekhan Encounter Movie in Naxxramas

2006-05-24T05:55:00.000-07:00

A trial attempt at the first boss (Spider Wing) of the new patch 1.11 instance.

Anub'Rekhan Encounter Movie in Naxxramas

Nice Talent Calculator

2006-05-24T05:20:00.000-07:00

It looks like this website will be up in June 2006, i am looking forward to see their contents, at the moment, they got a nice talent calculator which is updated with the lastest 1.11 changes.

Talent Calculator

PTR Patch - Naxxramas Changes

2006-05-24T04:46:00.000-07:00

Drysc posted a concise list of Naxxramas Changes :

"We're in the process of releasing a new patch for the PTRs which includes the following changes for Naxxramas. "

Plague Wing

Players should no longer be able to fall from the balcony in the plague wing.

Heigan the Uncleans entry door will not open until Noth the Plaguebringer has been killed.

The Plague wing entry room will now completely respawn when a group wipes.

Spider Wing

Anubrekhan: Fixed Frozen Rune positions in Anub'Rekhan's room. They were previously unselectable / unusuable.

Anubrekhan: Fixed Locust Swarm and Impale animations.

Spell effects will appear more aligned on several mobs.

Abomination Wing

Patchwerk: The door beyond Patchwerk will now only open if he is killed.

Patchwerk: Aggro shouts have been slowed down so he doesnt spam introductions in chat and audio.

Patchwerk: He will no longer travel outside of a given range.

Thaddius: Zone-wide shouts will no longer have audio vocals.

Embalming slimes are now on a three minute respawn timer.

Sewage slimes are now on a three minute respawn timer.

Patchwork Golem no longer looses aggro on war stomp.

Mad Scientists: Fixed problems with portraits and textures.

Deathknight Wing

The endless slime pits in the Deathknight wing now have proper collision and slime.

Deathknight Understudies have been changed from level 61 to 60 and their Shadow Resistance set to 0. This should make the regular periodic resists happen less often.

Deathknight Understudies now lose aggro after casting Mind Exhaustion.

Shades of Naxxramas no longer infinitely spawn a portal.

Living poison slimes before Patchwerk have been spaced out a little more to give players a little more room to try and avoid them.

General

Mr. Bigglesworth will no longer respawn. R.I.P. =(

The "Echoes of War" quest requirements were changed from requiring the Heart of Anub'Rekhan and the Head of Instructor Razuvious to 8 Deathknight Captains and 3 Venom Stalkers.

Various creatures now move faster.

Stealth detection has been applied to most creatures in the zone.

All Non-Boss creatures in the zone now has a leash distance.

Added vendor Jimmy McWeaksauce to the center of Naxxramas. Jimmy sells the following items and is generally a cool guy:

Free Repairs
Free Res sickness removal
Spell reagents
Tome of Tranquilizing shot
Rogue poisons

Link

PTR Patchnotes: Undocumented UI Changes

2006-05-24T02:04:00.000-07:00

Aeus from EU Blizzard had this to share about interface customization... quote:

- The interface event processing has been optimized while zoning.
- Your interface windows are no longer closed when you zone.
- You can now bind the mouse wheel to button actions.
- You can now rebind the screenshot action.
- When you kill a creature, the combat log will report "You have slain X!"
- Reloading the UI requires user input.
- Mouse look now overrides normal UI input, and if the world area loses mouse focus, mouse look is turned off.
- Fixed cursor tooltip positioning in widescreen video modes.

Thanks

Blizzard and World Series of Video Games

2006-05-23T20:20:00.000-07:00

We are proud to announce that Blizzard will be part of the Lanwar event taking place in Louisville, KY, from June 15 through June 18. Lanwar is the first stop in the World Series of Video Games, a series of tournaments and events around the world where gamers can get together and compete for glory, honor, and awesome prizes. As part of the Lanwar event, we will be hosting a series of tournaments and contests for Starcraft, Warcraft III and World of Warcraft. For more information, please visit our Lanwar webpage .

Ragnaros Speed Kill in 1 min 16 secs

2006-05-23T20:03:00.000-07:00

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9024435764919244981

They came with 33 mages, 1 warrior, 1 paladin, 1 priest, 1 druid and 3 warlocks.

I am mostly impressed 33 mages managed to more or less keep themselves alive, was entertaining to see, though Blizzard stated than 10 lvls 70 could take him easily.

1.11 and Naxxramas loot update (part3)

2006-05-23T16:12:00.000-07:00

I will keep it updated and sorted within the following days.

Melee Cloak:

Caster Cloak:

Melee trinket:

Caster trinket:

Idol/Relic:

Melee Ring:

Caster Ring:

Melee Neck:

Caster Neck:

Ranged Weapon:

Caster Ranged Weapon:

Melee Weapon:

Caster Weapon:

Shield:

Cloth Armor:

Leather Armor:

Mail Armor:

Plate Armor:

Naxxramas Loot Update (part 2)

2006-05-23T09:49:00.000-07:00

In the spider wing, Anub'Rehkan seems to have interesting drops :

Also, The Ashbringer 2 hand sword isnt a myth anymore, it is in loot table from Naxxramas, I have been told you need to cleanse it, then it will turn legendary:

The will of the Ashbringer is simply wispherings from the blade, 12 differents whispers added in 1.11, the alleged whispers : http://www.big-upload.com/c9d595c8c4a523f40f5f6513fa745b23

Highlord Mograine seems to be the one who drops the Corrupted form of Ashbringer :

Massive Battlegrounds Enhancements Incoming !

2006-05-23T08:42:00.000-07:00

It's been a few months since any really good World of Warcraft gossip was leaked so I figured start-up the rumor mill once again.

Sure WoW might not have the best PvP system out there, but more times than not I have a blast playing Battlegrounds. The only problem is the wait -- the oh so long wait -- to get into a match. Often I have to wait hours to get into a match, especially if I want to play Alterac Valley, and then once I’m in I usually end up playing against the same old players time after time after time.

Well good news is coming to all you Battlegrounds veterans out there … and a lot sooner than you think! Blizzard is hard at work right now creating new enhanced Battlegrounds servers. These servers will no longer be regulated to a single realm, but cross-linked across Realms to create an diverse PvP experience! Right now they are planning on linking 16 realms together per Battleground server for massive PvP action. You could imagine how this can really help out the Battlegrounds situation, not only will the queues go much faster but you'll finally get a chance to fight across Realms.

And the best part? This enhancement is going to be released very shortly; most likely by patch 1.12 or 1.13 at the latest. But to be honest that’s nothing compared to what they're planning for the future.

Imagine the features of Battle.net combined into the world of Battlegrounds: Worldwide rankings, tournaments, ladders, and more, only for the entire world of Battlegrounds. Yes, Battlegrounds will undergo its most radical change during the release of Burning Crusade expansion with Battlegrounds becoming a true worldwide tournament! Of course with The Burning Crusade slated for release at the end of this year, if not next year, this is still a long way off. But at least the interim patch should greatly increase the Battlegrounds experience.

With Blizzard finally getting around to linking the Realms up to each other does that mean that we might actually start to see more cross-realm game features? Who's to know, but Blizzard sure didn't buy 1500 new servers just for fun!

Source : Gaming Steve

Naxxramas Map with Boss locations

2006-05-23T05:12:00.000-07:00

A World of Warcraft player Cryect made a real nice map from Naxxramas, the map is pointing out Boss locations.

Naxxramas Loot update

2006-05-23T02:51:00.000-07:00

Razuvious seems to drop shoulder piece for paladin, hunter, shaman, and druid.

He also drops 1/40 piece of the caster legendary. They are making legendary staff much easier to obtain than blind luck of TF/Sulfuras. You just have to pass on everything else and collect 40 pieces from 40 boss kills it seems. This is good for us since some of the hardcore casters will spend all their DKP on the staff while we can get the shared items.

Insatiable Blade
70-131 1.6 speed
one hand sword
62.8 DPS
+1 crit
+1 to hit
+26 AP

Trash Mob dropped

Misplaced Servo Arm
82-153 1.8 speed
one hand mace
65.3 dps
Chance to proc 100-150 nature damage (person got this said it procs every 3-4 hits)

Stygian Buckler
Shield
3106 Armor 56 Block
15% chance when struck to slow the attack by 50% for 5 seconds (NASTY PVP Shield)

Link

Warcraft Weekly for the week 05/19/06

2006-05-23T02:32:00.000-07:00

Warcraft Weekly was posted for the week of - 05-19-06. There are several links which lead to threads appearing throughout our forums that contain comments made by the World of Warcraft community team and World of Warcraft game designers. Please, take a moment and check out the latest topics : link

World of Warcraft and coke in China?

2006-05-23T02:28:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOSrapbPrzU

EU Migration Plan

2006-05-23T02:25:00.000-07:00

Blizzard Europe wanted to update those on the European side of things...

We must reserve the right to close down or redirect any migration at any time due to population concerns. Please keep this in mind when choosing to migrate.

Please note that all destination realms are marked as Full. This does not mean that they are actually fully populated - it's there to avoid new players from picking these realms for their new characters.

May 22nd - 26th
Frostmane --> Tarren Mill (new realm) 22nd and 23rd
Grim Batol --> Tarren Mill (new realm) 25th and possibly 26th
Deathwing --> Kazzak
Dunemaul --> Stonemaul
Ravencrest --> Tarren Mill (new realm)
Zenedar --> Tarren Mill (new realm)

May 29th - June 2nd
Stormrage --> Wildhammer (new realm)
Turalyon --> Wildhammer (new realm)
Twilight's Hammer --> Bladefist
Al'Akir --> Burning Blade
Bloodfeather --> Daggerspine

June 5th-9th
Bloodhoof --> Wildhammer
Thunderhorn --> Wildhammer

Thanks

Tigole's words on Naxxramas Testing

2006-05-23T02:23:00.000-07:00

Tigole from Blizzard wanted to share this intel with us today...

We're very pleased that so many people have shown interest in Naxxramas testing. We realize that there are still issues with Charcter Copy. These will be fixed ASAP.

We'll be on the PTR's watching raids, fixing bugs and tuning the dungeon. If you have an organized Naxxramas raid planned, post in this thread and we might come and watch you. When we watch, we often help out with repairs, buffs and resurrections to expedite testing.

We really appreciate your presence on the PTR. Your feedback is always welcome. If you're going to be raiding, please post the Date, Time, Guild or Character name (so we can find you) and server type and location (PvP, PvE, EU, US, KR)

Thanks

Burning Crusade, Patch 1.12 and 1.13

2006-05-23T02:22:00.000-07:00

Crossing through the Dark Portal, which you can already see in the Blasted Lands zone, you're instantly greeted by the sight of shattered desolation. Similar to the orange-hued, sandy wastes of the Blasted Lands, the area just beyond the Dark Portal serves as your introduction to Outland, an entirely new world linked to Azeroth via the dimensional gateway.

Named Hellfire Peninsula, the huge zone that greets you once crossing over from the Blasted Lands is the last stop on The Path of Glory - the road the Orcs marched down on their way to invade Azeroth. The Path of Glory is paved with the bones of the Draenei and is a profoundly horrific sight... stretching for miles into Hellfire Peninsula, it's no wonder the Draenei harbor such a deep-seated hatred for their one-time allies.

Larger in size than the Eastern Plaguelands, Hellfire Peninsula is the home of three key points of interest: Thrallmar the Horde quest hub (completing quests yields increased reputation with Orgrimar); Honor Hold the Alliance quest hub (yielding rep with Stormwind); and Hellfire Citadel the giant, instanced "level-up dungeon." Thrallmar and Honor Hold both serve as their factions expeditionary bases, but Hellfire Citadel is controlled by the Fell Orcs, the remnants of the Orcs that didn't make it through the Dark Portal who have succumbed to the curse of the demon blood that sustains them.

It is within Hellfire Citadel that the Fell Orcs have trapped Magtheredon, a pit lord, and tap his tainted blood to feed their unending thirst. While Magtheredon is essentially a raid-boss for those who get to the new level cap of 70, Hellfire Citadel has numerous wings to explore, each tailored to a specific level range, so that any 60+ level character will feel right at home (or as "at home" as you can feel surrounded by bloodthirsty Fell Orcs).

In addition, Outland will contain numerous outdoor "points of interest," outdoor PvP hubs that grant specific bonuses to the faction that holds them. Bonuses such as granting extra experience, increased damage or access to new flight paths serve as incentives for capturing individual PvP hubs in the zone. These outdoor PvP hubs won't be limited to just the Outland, however, and Blizzard plans to implement them across Azeroth as well when they issue the Patch 1.12 content update.

But Outland is not comprised solely of orange rocks and soot. As you penetrate deeper into the world the Draenei once called home, you'll discover Nagrand, a zone that resembles a lush version of the Barrens. Untouched by the corruption of Gul'dan's foul magic, Nagrand provides a dramatic change of scenery with a neutral town designed for the Horde and Alliance to fight over. Set in the center of a huge plateau with only four narrow bridges to grant entrance, this Switzerland of Nagrand (as yet unnamed) will offer quests to whichever faction can conquer and hold it.

Bordering Nagrand, the enchanted Terokkar Forest is home to the main Outland capital of Shattrath City. Shockingly different in appearance from both Hellfire Peninsula and Nagrand, Terokkar Forest is covered with towering trees sporting spikey clusters of leaves.

These new zones are gigantic, especially Hellfire Peninsula, and are designed to accommodate huge populations of characters with minimal latency issues (little lag, yay!). Because of Outland's size, new flying mounts will be made available for use within the zone, though how players acquire these mounts is still being discussed (it'll probably be some combination of paying gold and completing special quests). We got a chance to see the enormous Netherdrake, a black dragon with glowing wings that case themselves when the beast lands.

Traveling at approximately the speed of an epic mount when grounded, taking to the air yields a much faster velocity, and some higher-level areas will actually require the use of flight in order to reach them. Still, you can't just fly anywhere, if you journey too far from the edges of Outland, you'll be blocked by the shearing turbulence of the netherstorm. While you cannot attack from your Netherdrake, others can attack you, and can cause you to dismount and fall to the earth (and, yes, you'll take fall damage, but not a lot).

Blizzard has about three more content patches planned before the holiday 2006 release of The Burning Crusade, but that could change at any time. In addition to the content updates of Patch 1.11 and the outdoor PvP upgrades of Patch 1.12, Blizzard is planning a brief world event that will focus more on the build-up to the opening of the Dark Portal than the actual opening itself for Patch 1.13.

Link

Naxxramas : First Views + Razuvius (Spoilers)

2006-05-23T02:21:00.000-07:00

Naxxramas is a raid instance that, even upon first view, is totally immersive to the player. The music is unique. The environment intricately detailed, and even the trash mobs offer strategies that are not shared with other instances in the game.

I wanted to share my experience with the mobs and how greatly scripted the Razuvious Fight is.

Deathknights: The guys hit decently hard, but that's not the main issue. After finding out that they raised undead creatures from the dead that lay around us made these beasties our first target in kills to come (Targetting was a breeze, btw, thanks Blizzard!)

Deathknight Captains: With a whirlwind that you really can't shake a stick it, we opted to spare our more close-encounter type players and ranged these nasties down. We kept that away from our magic users and they also posed little threat.

One of the two of these were so terrifying that they caused us to run around, much like the proverbial headless chicken. We opted to fight in already well cleared areas to prevent any accidents.

Shades: Everyone loves balls of darkness being thrown at them. Not only was our entire raid being hit continuously by shadowbolts, but they opened a portal with unharmable ghosts pouring out of it. In some cases these portals disappeared, but in one case, they were permanent, and the ghosts made short work of anyone who ventured near the portals.

Dark Touched/Death Touched Warriors: Not really sure what they did, but they were fairly simple to deal with, we killed them after deathknights, but before deathknight captains, and always before the deathkinght cavaliers.

Deathknight Cavaliers: With an aura dealing over 1000 damage, we opted to keep this meanie a good distance from us, until everything that was alongside him was downed.

Death Lord: Not entirely sure what he did, but we made short work of him. Just had our main warrior, acec, get up in his face, and we killed him before his two rider friends.

Undead Stallions: Really a treat to kill. Nothing to it!

"Rattlegore clones": They sure don't make them like they used to. They can be shackled and die quite easily.

Necroknight: With arcane explosions constantly hitting our party, we opted to kill these guys first. That explosion was a source of a lot of damage.
-----------------------------------------------

Razuvius

4 Understudies, circled around this great evil, bowing to his will, and practicing the dark arts in lieu of that will.

Intructor Razuvious must certainly have been finding time to go to the gym between teaching classes. He was hitting our MT for 8-12K damage, and our cloth for... well.. you don't want to know.

It became evident very quickly that having a warrior sacrifice his life to try to keep his attention would do little more that just that, sacrifice his life.

We were out of ideas. We were at a loss for understanding. But! Just then, a priest of unknown name attempted soemething marvelous!

Mind Control!

It seems that through their studies, the understudies were unable to gain enough mental aptitude to withstand that brain melting that only priests can offer.

Not only were they mind controllable, but they had taunt and shield wall! It became evident that they were to be the tanks for this nasty. Only problem is that once the MC broke, their minds were exhausted (stupid undead) and couldn't be controlled for another full minute.

We setup MC rotations and tanks associated with each understudy, but unfortunately with a group of warriors so unfamiliar to one another, it was a rough execution.

Additional things to note:
- Clear out the room near him, the mobs all join him when the encounter is started
- He can be kited, he is not quick enough to catch even a walker.
- Curse of Shadows and points invested in shadow line may help in keeping the MC breaks limited.

Undocumented changes in 1.11 patch notes

2006-05-23T02:19:00.001-07:00

General
* A permanant version of Aqual Quintessence (called Eternal Quintessence) is provided after completing the Hydraxian Waterlords quest chain. This is avaliable to players who have a reputation level of Revered. See Duke Hydraxis for more information.
* When dueling, all other duelers have unique icons over there heads (skulls, diamonds, shields, etc)
* When standing there is a global cooldown of 1.5 seconds.
* Temporary weapon buffs (such as poisons, enchanting oils, sharpening stones and shaman weapon buffs) will no longer be removed when zoning. These buffs will also persist when logged out.
* Added brand new loading screens for Scarlet Monastary.

PvP
* New item rewards have been added for those who have achieved Rank 14 in the PvP Honor System.
* Players can no longer queue up other players with the deserter debuff for a battleground by forming a raid and having the leader in a different subgroup, and joining as a group.

Mage
* Ignite - Appears to not be "rolling". Unconfirmed, possible bug.
* Evocation - Cooldown reduced to 8 minutes.
* Cooldown on the use of a Mana Gem has been decreased to two minutes.
* Pyroblast - Cooldown removed. (Confirm?)

Rogue
* *Chain targeted spells and abilities (e.g. Multi-shot, Cleave, Chain Lightning) will no longer hit stealthed or invisible units unless visible to the caster.

Warrior
* New Talent: Vitality - Increases the maximum stamina of the warrior by 2% per level at a maximum of 10% *Unintended addition, will be removed in next build*
* Talent Improved Bloodrage has been redesigned. It now increases the base rage you get from Bloodrage by 3/5 rage.
* Execute - Now has a blueish color on hit.

Items
* Zandalarian Hero Charm - Initial effect has been reduced to 200 damage and 400 healing. The effect is now reduced 25 damage and 50 healing every spellcast.
* Deathdealer Shoulder - 10 stamina removed.

Quests
* New repeatable quests have been added to the goblin cities to help re-establish reputation with the Steamwheedle Cartel. These NPCs are representitives of the Steamwheedle Cartel so those with negative reputation can intereact with them.

User Interface
* Buffs that have 'charges' now display how many in the buff icon.
* Debuffs are now colored coded by type. Green border is poison, purple is a curse, light blue is magic, etc.
* A leader of a raid can put symbols on a target similar to Hunter's Mark. These are purely cosmetic and assist with the organization of a raid.
* Default UI now reports quantity of an item looted, on the loot output channel. For example, "Player received loot: [Dense Stone]x3"
* Bank bags now have a higher contrasted background than before (white stone rather than dark blue).
* Inventory/bank bags are now scaled down and take up less amount of space on the screen when opened.
* Extra game tips have been added to the loading screen.
* When right clicking a player's name in chat, the whisper option has been replaced with a target option. This option does not work if the player is not in your interest area.
* Several technical LUA changes (for UI mod authors): here

World Environment
* The hills south of where Lord Kazzak spawns have been leveled, making them climbable.

Technical
* Native support for the Logitech G15 keyboard has been added. ( http://bitbasher.net/wow/g15wow.jpg )

Upcoming Naxxramas Hotfix

2006-05-23T02:19:00.000-07:00

In the next few hours Blizzard hopes to hotfix Naxxramas on the PTR so that the raid lockout resets every day.

Naxxramas Attunement in 1.11 PTR

2006-05-23T02:17:00.000-07:00

Drysc tells us to help give players quick and easy access to Naxxramas on the 1.11 PTR we have created a specific NPC available in front of Lights Hope Chapel which will offer a teleport to Naxxramas. Please be aware that you must be in a raid group in order to receive this teleport.

Blizzard Website Update : PvP Armor Sets in 1.11

2006-05-23T02:16:00.000-07:00

Blizzard updated their website with 1.11 PvP armor stats. Now Epic pvp items set are considered like lvl 78 item. This was intended to go with Naxxramas itemization : PvP Armor Sets