WoW Articles - 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.

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!

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.

Arena Pass 2012: 3rd Giveaway contest

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:09:54 +0000

Contest Closed! Winners are going to be selected and contacted. Check your emails!

The time has come to start our third contest! It's a simple giveaway this time, and the good part is that the second contest is still open and it shares the deadline with this one...

Before we talk about the 3^st contest here is what you should know about Arena Pass competition:

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

1^st place: One Heart of the Aspects mount
2^nd place: One Pandaren Monk pet OR One Lil' Ragnaros pet (you get to pick one)
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. Very simple for you to enter this contest: Tell us what classes do you have in your 3v3 setup. Reply to this topic to to enter the giveaway.

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 2nd May 2012. The winners are going to be announced next week.
The winners are going to be selected by our staff. It all depends of your entry. Read the contest details carefully.
We reserve the right to disqualify any fraudulent entry.

Please remember

Check the official Arena Pass 2012 announcement for more details about the competition.
Sometime next week, after this contest is over we will start a new one. Stick around.
Do not forget about our twitter, facebook, google+ and youtube pages. We are pretty active in there too.

MoP Beta - Pet Battles are here!

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 22:42:52 +0000

The Pet Battles System are finally available. The new build brought us a lot of changes but this is the one that most of you expected the most... I guess.
The Pet Battle System is still not ready, but now a few more pets have usable abilities, the show info works and tells you where you can find that specific pet, and it also has a complete new User Interface.

From now on you can find your mounts and companion pets in your micro-menu. Check the screenshots below to see how it looks like at the moment.

Here is what we noticed with this pet battle system:

All the pets are now account-wide.
Seems like all your characters will use the same pets setup, but you can change it anytime between battles.
To be able to battle other pets or to track them, you must visit Pet Battle Trainers.
~~You can make teams of three pets and the experience you gain from battles is even shared between them.~~
Seems link only those pets that actually fight will get experience.
The fights are turn-based style.
The pet skills are available at level 0, 3 and 5.
A bunch of achievements were added for the Pet Battle System.

Check the following screenshots if you like to see how the new UI looks like:

If you like to see my very first pet battle (where I fight a might cockroach!) take a look at the following video:

If you have any questions I'm here to answer them. Also, let me know what do you think about this early preview of this new system.

MoP Beta - The New Druid Forms Preview

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:14:51 +0000

Right after I copy my Druid over to MoP Beta realms I noticed a few glyphs that are affecting the looks of my druid forms. I'm pretty sure that those forms are still a work in progress, especially the Astral Form.

These are the glyphs that I'm talking about here:

Glyph of the Chameleon - This is the only one you wont see in the video. I have tested out but I didn't see any notable visual changes of the forms. Basically this glyph should give you a random hair color when you shapeshift into a bear or cat.
Glyph of the Stag - If you want a new look for the travel form, then this is for you. Check the video below.
Glyph of the Orca - Your Aquatic Form now appears as an Orca now. It's a bit odd but it looks interesting.
Glyph of Stars - It will change the look of your moonkin form. If you watch the video below you'll notice that this form it doesn't really look too good. I think it will look entirely different when is ready. Maybe something near Algalon-look.

I'll try to keep an eye on these glyphs and let you know if anything changes.
What do you think about these forms from the cosmetic point of view?