Articles

MoP Beta - New UI elements and changes

Tue, 15 May 2012 11:30:23 +0000

A lot of new Interface changes are waiting for us in Mists of Pandaria. More will come, I'm sure of it, but until then here are some of the new UI elements introduced until now on MoP Beta.

"Little" Achievements

From now on, whenever you are finishing a part of a bigger achievement, you'll get a nice popup notifying you about your progress. You don't have to always track your achievements and always view the achievements window to check those little green check marks...

Spell Book

The Spellbook was changed a lot. Now you always will have those four tabs: one for your basic abilities, one for your current spec spells and the other two, inactive, where you can check the spells you could have if you respec or switch specs.
If you look below, you'll see a few more tabs too. The Core Abilities consists in the abilities you will use for sure (some kind of mandatory abilities) if you are using X spec.
The last tab, the What has changed? one, has a few lines with the class changes. There you'll find the changes that affect your class after each expansion and, maybe, each patch.

Companions and Mounts

We already spoke a little bit about these changes, especially about the companion pets, when we spoke about the Pet Battle System and Pet Journal.
Now, we have account wide mounts and pets, and it's normal to have a new interface for both. There is also a button for this new UI in the mini menu.

Dungeon Journal Upgrade

The dungeon journal was finally upgraded and it contains all the old dungeons from all the old expansions. The old raids are still missing, but I'm sure Blizzard will add them before the release of MoP.

Dungeon Queue UI

The dungeon queue window, the one it pops up when you can enter a dungeon, was upgraded a little bit. I expect to see this changes for Raids queue popup too. The a look at the image above to see how it looks now.

New popularity/reputation bar

I honestly do not know for sure how this bar will work, but you can find it when you are doing those daily quests on the farms on the Valley of the Four Winds. We will know more about this when the quests are going to become available, and that's at level 90 I think.
Till then, the bar seems to be like a big reputation bar, from neutral to fully exalted, 42999 reputation.

Upgrade your game notice

This screen will popup, when the MoP is launched and if your account is not upgraded yet.

Dungeon Finder

One screen to rule them all! Now, you'll find everything in your dungeon finder window. Dungeons, Raids, Scenarios and Challenges. The Challenges tab is not working at the moment and it has it's own look. We will talk about it when it becomes available.

Help Bubbles

Most of the interface windows allow you to toggle their help bubbles. I think this is pretty neat for the new players and for the new UI elements.

Loot Rolls Monitor

Those who are using the XLoot addon already know what this tracker/monitor is all about. Basically you can track every item and every roll for it while in a group.

Specialization and Talents

This is an expected change, since we already knew since BlizzCon 2010 how the new talent trees will look like. We have a completely new Spec, Talents and Glyphs UI. The images will speak for themselves.

Now I wonder, did I miss anything? Anything that's available? Because we still have to wait a few more builds to have a Black market, Challenges, Scenarios and PvP UI working.
Even so, what do you think about these changes?

Pandemonium: A new comic by Lukali

Sun, 13 May 2012 08:42:25 +0000

Lukali posted a new comic on his deviantart page. This time you'll see what happens when both horde and alliance were washed ashore on Pandaria.

If you missed the previous comic, you can find it here.

Check out the author's profile, Lukali at deviantart

If you read any other interesting comics or you found something you like recently, let us know.

Cross-Realm Zones Coming to Beta

Thu, 10 May 2012 20:51:40 +0000

In the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria beta, we’re introducing a new technology that will enable players to meet up and group with other players in under populated areas of the world such as low level zones or areas that other players may have outleveled or moved on from. This technology will allow players to form a group with other players from within a select pool of realms in order to quest just like they normally would while still allowing the social structures of their home realms to remain intact.

F.A.Q.
Q. Why cross-realm zones?
For many years now, the significant majority of the player population online at any given time has consisted mostly of characters at or near the level cap. This has resulted in an environment where characters that are leveling up experience a world that has fewer other players to interact with than what the world was designed for. Cross-realm zones give us the capability to ensure that level-up zones retain a population size that feels more like the high level areas of the game, leading to a more fun play experience for characters of all levels.

Q. How do cross-realm zones work?
When you’re in a zone that is set as a ‘cross-realm zone’ you’ll notice that in addition to the players you’d ordinarily see from your realm, you’ll also see (and be able to play with) players from other realms. This will happen seamlessly, and players will be able to group and quest as they normally would with players from their own realm.

Q. How will this work on boats or zeppelins?
Usually transitions will occur on area boundaries (think moving from Darkshore to Ashenvale).

Q. Can I form groups with the people I meet in the zone?
Yes! You can group and talk to others within the cross-server zone normally though trading will be restricted much as it is within raids, dungeons, or battlegrounds.

Q. Will my cross-realm group be disbanded if we move on to an adjacent zone together, like from Goldshire to Westfall or from Thousand Needles to Feralas?
Much like how cross-realm groups currently work, your party won’t be disbanded when you move through different zones, though if you’re not in the same home realm, you won’t be able to see each other if you’re in separate zone instances.

Q. Will I be able to group with my friends?
Yes, you will be able to group with your Real ID friends, provided they are within the same faction. The functionality works the same as it does for cross-realm dungeons, raids, or Battlegrounds.

Q. What level range do my friends and I have to be within in order to group?
There is no restriction on level ranges. You’ll be able to group with anyone you would normally be able to.

Q. Can I go into main capital cities while grouped with others?
Capital cities and areas with regularly high populations will not be set as cross-server areas/zones so you will not be able to enter into the same instance of a city as someone who is from a different realm.

Q. Will I be able to trade with others I meet?
Trading restrictions are in place much the same as they are in cross-realm dungeons, raids, and battlegrounds.

Q. How is group loot handled?
Group looting will function the same as it would with any group you would create through normal play.

Q. Who will I be playing with?
You’ll be able to interact with players from within a select pool of realms which will make it possible to run into a player in Redridge that you already ran into within Westfall.

Q. What areas will be shared?
This can vary from realm to realm and relies on how densely populated (or underpopulated) an area is. Capital cities and areas with regularly high populations will not be eligible for area sharing.

Q. What about resources or gathering nodes, will those be shared too?
Resources and nodes will be available to all parties within the shared area the same as always. We will be keeping a close eye on the impact of area sharing and should an area become too populated, we are capable of adjusting how many realms are able to connect to a shared area.

Q. Does this mean that Auction Houses will be merged?
No, when any player access an Auction House, they will be only able to access their home realm’s Auction House.

Arena Pass 2012 Rated Phase Begun

Thu, 10 May 2012 13:47:46 +0000

The 2012 World of Warcraft Arena Pass has now entered the Rated Phase. All matches now count towards earning exclusive rewards, so get online and play now!

Only two weeks remain to register for the Arena Pass; at the end of the Rated Phase teams will be locked and you’ll no longer be able to sign up for the service.

If you’d like to learn more about the Arena Pass phases, read about them here.

Don’t forget, players that register for the 2012 Arena Pass will also receive access to a level-90 Arena Pass realm once they have upgraded their account with a Mists of Pandaria game license. Once this current registration phase closes on May 22, you will no longer be able to register for this special bonus realm, so register NOW!

To learn more about the Arena Pass, visit the Arena Pass information page or check out the FAQ. GL HF!

MoP Beta - Pandaren Dances

Wed, 09 May 2012 10:25:02 +0000

With the latest build, the Pandaren dances, male and female, were added to the game. For those of you who wonder what are their dances about, well, the female are doing some sort of Caramelldansen and the males took their moves from LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem.

They are very well animated and in my opinion the male is extremely expressive while dancing.

Watch the video below to see their mooooveeessss!

About Bringing Achievements to the Account Level

Tue, 08 May 2012 21:53:57 +0000

We recently added account-level changes to achievements in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, and there’s still a lot of work left before we’re done. The plan here is to illustrate the intent behind our design, which should in turn help you figure out the answers to many of your questions.

Overall, we never want you to play Character A instead of Character B because of achievement concerns. If Character A had the Violet Proto-Drake, then you might not play Character B. If Character A was only one holiday away from the Violet Proto-Drake, then you may not play Character B. If Character A had completed most of the raid achievements from Dragon Soul, you may not want to bring Character B for one fight and miss out on the achievement. Having alts is cool and working on achievements is cool, but we don’t want the two systems to work against each other.

This goal is paramount and drives everything else. If we allowed you to earn extra achievement points from completing an achievement on two different characters, then you might only want to play the character with the most points and you’d feel like you had to grind through all the achievements with every alt, thus defeating the purpose of having account-level achievements.

Most achievements are account-wide
This means you only earn the points once. If you have earned an achievement on one character, you can see it on all your characters. However, and this is important, you will still see the achievement toast (the pop-up notification) if a second or subsequent character completes the achievement. We think it’s still important to recognize milestones like reaching level 80, maxing out a profession, or killing a raid boss for the first time. It's fun to have everyone congratulate you when you get the toast. Nonetheless, this will just be a new character of yours completing the achievement that you’ve already earned on your account. You won’t double up on points.

Most criteria are not account-wide
If you start an achievement on one character, you can't then finish the achievement on another (there are exceptions, so please keep reading). We didn't think it made sense for one character to get level 60 and another to get level 20 and then see the "level 80" achievement toast. If you start to explore Thousand Needles on one character, you’ll probably want to finish that achievement on the same character.

Some achievements are "meta achievements."
These are achievements that require you to get other specific achievements. An infamous example is "What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been." These achievements generally ARE account-wide. If one character earned Noble Gardener and another character earned The Flame Warden, then your account would get Long Strange Trip. (Otherwise it would be weird: it would look as if you had the sub-achievements, but you wouldn't have the meta-achievement). Even though you need Explore Thousand Needles on one character, all of your characters can contribute to Explore Kalimdor.

A very few achievements are account-only.
There are two categories of account-only achievements. One is achievements that are not possible to earn on one character. If we made an achievement to level every class to level 90, it would be account-only. (I'm not sure we will, but it's a good example.) The other category are achievements that are just brutal to complete on one character (and you’d never want to do for multiples), such as 2500 daily quests or 250K honorable kills. In these cases, the cumulative work of all your characters on those criteria will count.

Our intent is that any rewards granted from achievements (pets, mounts, titles, and tabards) will be shared at the account level.
I'm not going to promise this yet, because a lot of magic has to happen for that to work, but it's our intent. We have discussed having a character level requirement for some rewards, so that your level-2 gnome couldn’t walk around with the "Defender of a Shattered World" title just because your level-90 shaman earned it. If the gnome made it to level 80, though, you could proudly show off your title. You also won’t be able to use a faction-specific pet, mount, or title on the wrong faction. The achievement wouldn’t go away -- you just wouldn’t be able to show it off on that character. There are probably additional exceptions and details we’ll find as we dig deeper into the system.

This is the kind of system that will evolve over time, and we don’t think this has to be the way achievements work forever. As beta players start experimenting with it and offering feedback, I am certain that we will end up making even more changes.

MoP Beta - The Krasarang Wilds Preview

Tue, 08 May 2012 07:54:42 +0000

Right after I finished the preview for the Valley of the Four Winds, the Krasarang Wilds became available as well and the level cap was raised to level 88. I needed 14.6M experience to go from level 87 to 88.
The Krasarang Wilds is not the only new available area, but for the moment we will focus on it and look at the rest later.

This area lies to the south of the Valley of the Four Winds and west of the Jade Forest. Following the Pandaria quests that start from the Jade Forest, I'm almost sure this is one of the places where you will level up to level 87 after you completed the Valley of the Four Winds. It's strange though, that after you completed the quests here you'll be sent back to the Valley of the Four Winds and a few more quests are available for you there. There is also a movie, but for the moment all I could see was "This is where a move will be. We love you beta testers."

The islands at the south are inhabited by pandarens and horzen. That is a fishing area used by both sides, but looks like horzen messed up with the ocean balance and you'll have to help fixing that.

The islands at the south are inhabited by pandarens and horzen. These islands are a fishing area used by both sides, but it looks like the horzen messed with the balance of the ocean and you'll have to help out and fix that.

Here, in the south, on some islands called Anglers Wharf, we will meet another well known NPC: Nat Pagle!
He is now the quarter master of a new faction called The Anglers, and as you might expect it's all about fishing in this area. The quests are not available at level 88, but after you start gaining reputation with them you'll be able to buy a few recipes, a raft, a companion pet, some fishing poles and of course, at exalted, you'll get a mount.

Compared to the other Pandaria areas I quested in, the Krasarang Wilds is pretty dark expect for the south part of it. You will notice right from the start that the Sha are responsible for all this darkness. Most of the wild life was infested and so are some pandaren villages.

Found in two little camps, one for both factions, are some druids. Each camp hates the other camp, as always, but in the end after they face a common Mogu enemy, they stop fighting amongst each other... for a while at least.
We will meet Prince Anduin again, and as far as I know both Horde and Alliance will work with him.

The area is pretty small and after a few quests here you'll need to venture into the Temple of Red Crane where you'll have to free the Red Crane from some Sha that took over the entire temple.

There are more quests available here, but as far as I could see you need a higher level to start them.

While questing something caught my eye and I would really like to share this:

Does this quote reminds you of anything? I myself found it funny. Blizzard is well known for introducing various elements in their games to remind you of other games, movies and contemporary culture.

Like always, I took some screenshots while questing. Here is what the area looks like:

MoP Beta - Account wide mounts

Fri, 04 May 2012 13:19:12 +0000

At BlizzCon 2011, when the account-wide companion pets were announced, we heard that is there is a possibility that the mounts are going to become account-wide too. At first we were told that this might happen sometime in the future, after the launch of the Mists of Pandaria expansion.

If you are waiting for this feature you should be happy to know that this already happen and, since nothing else was announced yet, we should see it right at the launch of MoP.

If you want to see it for yourself you should login into MoP Beta realms, copy one of your characters to the Beta realms (do this step even if you already have that character copied over), and login with any other character you have on Beta.

I guess in the future there are going to be some limitations to this, and not all the mounts are going to work this way (I’m thinking of PvP and PvE mounts here), but at the moment all the mounts are available for all your characters.

Now we have account-wide mounts, companion pets and achievements. We will see if we will have any limitations to these or if all of these changes are going to make it live…

What do you think about these changes? What else would you make account-wide?

Arena Pass 2012: 4th Giveaway Contest

Fri, 04 May 2012 07:48:32 +0000

Contest closed!

You have one more week and Practice Phase of Arena Pass 2012 is going to be over. Our 4th Arena Pass giveaway contest will start now and we will throw in all the prizes we have left...

Before we talk about the 4^th contest here is what you should know about Arena Pass competition (you still have time to register!):

The registration fee is €15/£12 per account.
Create new level-85 characters with full sets of epic gear.
3v3 Arena team combat.
Earn exclusive rewards: Armored Murloc Pet and “Vanquisher” title.
Official announcement blog.
Official Arena Pass page.
EU registrations form.

Prizes

One Mount and Four Pets!
1 x 1^st place: One Heart of the Aspects mount
2 x 2^nd place: One Pandaren Monk pet OR One Lil' Ragnaros pet (you get to pick one)
2 x 3^rd place: One Pandaren Monk pet OR One Lil' Ragnaros pet (you'll get the remaining pet)

How to win

1. You'll have to visit the Arena Pass official announcement.
2. We need you to tell us or show us something funny related to arenas. A funny screenshot, a joke you heard, a hilarious movie. Anything that would make us and others laugh.

Rules and Qualifications

This contest is EU and RU only. We all want to have world wide contests, but we cant do anything about it this time.
One entry per user. Do not try to create multiple accounts.
If you win, we will contact you via Personal Messages here on the forums. Make sure you check Forum Messages and you email.
The deadline is at the end of 9th May 2012. The winners are going to be picked randomly.
We reserve the right to disqualify any fraudulent entry.

Please remember

Check the official Arena Pass 2012 announcement for more details about the competition.
Do not forget about our twitter, facebook, google+ and youtube pages. We are pretty active in there too.

MoP Beta - The Valley of the Four Winds preview

Wed, 02 May 2012 05:24:33 +0000

This is the second area that was available on Pandaria, with the level cap increased to level 87. Even though the area seems smaller than The Jade Forest, you'll have a lot of things to do here and a lot to learn.

There was no quest in The Jade Forest that leads you to the Valley of the Four Winds, at least I couldn't find any, but you'll find your first quest hub next to the Jade Forest border. The Valley of the Four Winds is filled with farms, crop fields and vast plains.

When you start questing you'll have to fight vermin (they are everywhere!), you'll have to recover stolen tools and gather some food. Basically you will be helping various Pandarens in most of the quests in this area.
Each farm has its own specific activities, and you'll have to either gather pigs and rescue sheep or gather beer ingredients or take care of silk and vegetable gardens.

Somewhere in the middle of the area you'll find an imposing building that is very special to the Pandaren: the Stormstout Brewery. In one of the quests, you'll "investigate" the Stormstout Brewery, and you'll soon find out that it was taken over by corrupted elementals (beer elementals, heh), drunk horzen and something tells me that there is more going on in there.

At the west border there is a huge wall, and recently the Mantids have breached it. You'll have to help evacuate the civilians there. After doing that, you'll be sent into a little forest in the north-west where you'll continue your martial arts training (see The Jade Forest preview). This time you'll have to learn to focus your mind and hand-break stone slabs.

In the south west you'll find an old friend: Hemet Nesingwary. He is there with his son and if you are familiar with their quests from Stranglethorn, Nagrand and Sholazar Basin, you'll know what they'll ask you to do for them. Slay a bunch of animals, slay their bossess and so on. This is going to be a Skinners paradise I guess.

The nice thing about this area is that after you complete a couple of quests a lot of hubs become available and the thus area does not feel linear at all. There are also a few quests that send you over to a neighbouring area, the Krasarang Wilds, but we will talk about that area later.

At level 87 there are no daily quests available, but by the looks of it we will have a bunch of them for each farm. Here is where you'll get your own farm, care of it and trade the goods you get from it.
When this is going to be available I'll explain how everything works.

While questing I took a few screenshots and I also wanted to make a fly-over video but the Beta client was really unstable. Hope this way you'll get a better picture on what this area looks like. Check them out below...

Let me know your thoughts on this area.