WoW Insider - WoW News, Guides, and Analysis

Breakfast Topic: What are your Midsummer Fire Festival goals?

by Robin Torres on Jun 21st 2012 (9 minutes ago)

The Midsummer Fire Festival begins today. Pyromaniacs, activate! The Fire Festival is a full-featured holiday complete with dailies that mostly involve torches, achievements that mostly involve setting fire to things, and a title that has the word Flame.

Ahune The Frost Lord is the boss to kill for this holiday (since he's not so big on fire). You have to ice him if you want to get the meta for the Fire Festival, which is part of What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been.

What the Midsummer Fire Festival also involves: traveling, more traveling, world PvP, and traveling. I highly recommend celebrating the holiday with friends, though maybe not quite so many as that one time.

My goal is for my druid to finally complete it, to be one step closer to the Violet Proto-Drake. The It came from the Blog family of guilds will also be hosting a Fire Festival event, like we do every year. Stay tuned for an announcement soon™.

What are your goals for the Midsummer Fire Festival? Are you going to go for the meta? Is there a particular item you are trying to get? Or are you going to ignore it completely? (Bah, humbug!)

Filed under: Breakfast Topics

Mists of Pandaria Beta: Raid testing to begin Friday, June 22

by Fox Van Allen on Jun 20th 2012 (11 hours ago)

If you're itchin' to get your hands on some new beta raids -- and we're sure that applies to none of you, because everyone in the world is totally content just running Dragon Soul again -- there's good news: MoP raid testing begins this Friday, June 22. Testing begins with the 10-player normal version of ... aw heck, I'll just let Blizzard Game Designer Daelo tell you:

Raid Testing - Starting Soon

We plan to start Mists of Pandaria Beta raid testing this Friday, June 22. We'll begin testing with the 10 player Normal difficulty version of the Stone Guard in Mogu'shan Palace. Available testing times for testing will be posted soon. 25 player Normal difficulty testing should begin next week, with Raid Finder and Heroic difficulty testing to follow in the weeks ahead.

You must be level 90 to participate in the raid test, and level 90 character templates will not initially be available. We do have some new technology that automatically raises or lowers your items to the appropriate level for testing. So as long as you have a Mists of Pandaria quest or dungeon item in every slot, you'll be fine.

Note that player interface add-ons are disabled on the beta at this time while we work through some technical issues. They'll be available once again at some point in the future.

As always with raid testing on beta or public test realms, the schedule is subject to change or cancellation with very little warning. Server issues, build issues, newly discovered encounter, combat, or class bugs, and many other reasons could prevent testing. While I will endeavor to provide warning about future tests, this will also not always be possible. Whatever I do know, I'll post here in the Beta Dungeons forum as soon as possible.

source

Well, you heard the blue! If you want to get in on the action, you'd better start grinding out that MoP gear now. And if you're looking for raid partners, there are guilds actively recruiting for raiding on the beta -- just keep your eyes on trade chat for details.

It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

Filed under: Raiding, Mists of Pandaria

Blog Azeroth Shared Topic: You always want what you can't have

by Robin Torres on Jun 20th 2012 (12 hours ago)

Each week, Blog Azeroth hosts a Shared Topic for bloggers to answer on their blogs and then link to in the forum. This week, dragonray from Azerothian Life asks:

What is in game that you want, but you can't have? Is there an animal you want to tame, a critter you want to collect, a tabard that has the perfect design for a transmog set etc etc.

What is it you want, but know you can't get your hands on and have to stare at longingly whenever you log in?

I wish I had the original World of Warcraft Collector's Edition companion pets: Mini Diablo, the Zergling, and the Panda Cub. I don't have to stare at them longingly whenever I log in, because people rarely have them out. But I do have to look at the Collector's Edition box on a daily basis.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion

World of Warcraft Monopoly now available at the Blizzard Store

by Robin Torres on Jun 20th 2012 (13 hours ago)

The World of Warcraft Monopoly Collector's Edition is now available at the Blizzard Store for $39.95. This Monopoly set comes with tokens chosen by fans, bills featuring your favorite World of Warcraft heroes, and Azerothian real estate. For example, in the places of Boardwalk and Park Place are Orgrimmar and Stormwind, respectively.

The official World of Warcraft blog goes into more detail. If you'd like to see the full contents of the board game before you make your purchase, check out Joystiq's unboxing image gallery.

While WoW Monopoly is a new addition to the Blizzard store, it has been available at retailers since May 18, 2012. Note that your Battle.net Balance (where Diablo III Real-Money Auction House proceeds go) cannot be used to purchase anything at the Blizzard Store at this time. But if you've been waiting to buy the World of Warcraft Monopoly Collector's Edition direct from Blizzard, now is your chance.

Filed under: News items

WoW Moviewatch: The Quiet Hope

by Michael Gray on Jun 20th 2012 (14 hours ago)

The Quiet Hope is an older machinima, though it is not one we've featured before. It's an interesting piece, especially since it's one of Malamenz's first forays into machinima.

I think the strength of the video is the poetry. I felt like I recognized the piece but opted not to Google it; the poem works so well inside the framework of The Quiet Hope that I didn't want to blow up the mystique.

While The Quiet Hope isn't going to change the face of machinima, it's not a bad video. Take the time to check it out.

Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.

Filed under: WoW Moviewatch

More WoW Maps using the Google Maps API

by Daniel Whitcomb on Jun 20th 2012 (15 hours ago)

After posting the World of Mapcraft site the other day, I got quite a few comments and tweets about not only World of Mapcraft itself but other, similar projects that map the World of Warcraft. Here's a rundown of some of the links I've received.

Cal Henderson, the creator of World of Mapcraft, actually wrote a post about the project on his personal blog in which he explains where he got the idea, how he extracted the data, and how he integrated it into the Google API.
Mapwow.com is considered by many to be the granddaddy of WoW Google maps, and it inspired Cal to create his version. But far from covering just the base maps, it has a lot of useful menu bar features that show every thing from flight path connections to resource node locations. Unfortunately, everything on it is woefully out of date, and it doesn't even have the updated Cataclysm maps. That does, however, mean that it's perfect browsing for nostalgia purposes. Want to take one last long look at the unruined version of Southshore? You can at least get a bird's-eye view.
Wyrimaps appears to be the most developed up-to-date version of WoW Google maps I've seen yet. It includes both Cataclysm- and Wrath-era maps and has a widget for resource nodes. It also appears to have the best ability to zoom, with more zoom levels on the way.
Marlamin.com also has its own version of the project, which includes some preliminary Pandaria maps. Probably the most intriguing addition this version offers is the possibility of adding screenshot markers. It looks that whole WoW street view feature I wished for might be a possibility after all.

As someone who's loved MMO fan cartography since the early days of EverQuest, when you had to use third-party programs and sites like EQAtlas to map zones because Sony didn't actually provide in-game maps, it's pretty exciting to see where it's going in WoW with modern technology. Thanks to everyone who commented or tweeted links.

Filed under: News items

Blizzard soliciting Pandaria class balance feedback

by Daniel Whitcomb on Jun 20th 2012 (16 hours ago)

Community Manager Zarhym has posted a thread over on the official forums soliciting player class balance feedback based on their experiences and number crunching in the beta.

Mind you, this is not meant to be a simple thread for pleading for buffs to your favorite ability. Blizzard's looking for serious theorycrafters slinging serious math to justify their positions. In addition, while this thread does mean the dev team feels numbers are in a solid place right now, it does not mean beta class balance is done or that further issues won't be addressed. Right now, the devs want to give player beta testers a chance to run wild, crunch numbers, and reconcile their data with Blizzard's data.

Read on after the break for the full text of Zarhym's post, and if you have some serious analysis to share, go post in that thread.

Filed under: Blizzard, News items

Does tanking exist in PvP?

by Olivia Grace on Jun 20th 2012 (17 hours ago)

I was inspired by a recent discussion thread on the Battle.net forums to talk about PvP tanking.

Earlier in Cataclysm, the changes to the tanking mechanic, Vengeance, led to tanking specs suddenly becoming viable damage dealers in PvP. This was removed in 4.3, apparently because it was felt that tanks were too powerful, given their survivability in PvP. Fast forward a few months, and we find some vestiges of PvP in tank specs remain. In mid-level Arena, blood DKs continue to crop up every now and then on survival-centric teams; however, they are not really the most formidable opponent. Their damage output is not so high, and if kited, they can be fairly easily (if slowly) taken down.

Many a feral cat druid will shift into bear form to use Frenzied Regeneration and increase their survival, and bear damage is fairly high (for a tank class, at least). However, bears lack the high self-healing of a blood DK, since Vengeance's removal.

Should Vengeance be returned to PvP? Frankly, I don't think so. Does tanking have a place in PvP? Should anyone PvP as a tank? Does tanking even exist in PvP?

Well, let's have a think about that. What is tanking? Tanking, in a PvE sense, is the act of ensuring the enemy is attacking you and not your weaker allies. If a PvE enemy is attacking a healer, the tank is doing something wrong.

Filed under: PvP, Blood Sport (Arena PvP)

3 things I'm going to miss about retribution in Mists

by Dan Desmond on Jun 20th 2012 (18 hours ago)

Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Seasoned ret paladin Dan Desmond is here to answer your questions and provide you with your biweekly dose of retribution medicine. Contact him at dand@wowinsider.com with any questions, concerns, or suggestions!

It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of the beta and what's coming our way in Mists of Pandaria -- so easy, in fact, that we lose sight of what we stand to lose in this transition. Retribution isn't undergoing as extensive of an overhaul as warlocks are, but amid the improvements and buffs are abilities, talents, and mechanics that are going by the wayside. Unfortunately for many of you, Inquisition isn't one of those mechanics, but below are a few things that I will look back on and yearn for in the coming expansion.

Holy Wrath and Consecration The loss of these two abilities isn't so much about how our AoE toolbox is going to suffer in their absence. No, Hammer of the Righteous and Divine Storm should more than make up for these relatively weak filler abilities, and I'm sure our mana pools won't miss Consecration in the slightest. When I first started playing the spec, I had visions of my character being not only a powerful warrior but also an adept wielder of the Light. There's just something about a paladin using generous amounts of holy magic to battle demons and the undead that just seems so right and makes the departure of these abilities hurt the overall feel of the spec. Yes, we still have Exorcism, Judgment, and Hammer of Wrath, but aside from Exo, these spells just seem like they have holy damage added on to them after the fact.

Filed under: Paladin, (Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It, Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria

Know Your Lore: Why World of Warcraft needs evil

by Matthew Rossi on Jun 20th 2012 (19 hours ago)

The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

One of the real problems with the New Horde is fairly simple. A lot of the people attracted to playing it were not players of Warcraft or WCII. They discovered the game with or after WCIII -- and in Warcraft III, the Horde isn't portrayed as the group that came marching through the Dark Portal anymore. Trying to put the war back in Warcraft is hard for players who see the Horde as the group Thrall led, who first discovered the Horde in Warcraft III or in one of World of Warcraft's expansions.

The Horde we have today, even after Garrosh Hellscream took over the reins, simply can't sustain the narrative weight of the Horde as the existed for two Warcraft games. The Horde that burned Stormwind, led by Gul'dan's puppet Blackhand and usurped by Orgrim Doomhammer, is not the Horde that Thrall led across the sea. It's a Horde composed primarily or exclusively of orcs with a few allies, a Horde that burns and rampages and murdered without remorse. It was to the Warcraft setting what the Empire was to Star Wars, a force of pure malevolence. The biggest difficulty reconciling that Horde with the current one is the idea of honor, which the Horde of WC and WCII could not have cared less about if they had tried. They were thieves and monsters, and their goal was to murder and steal.

They were the villains.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Lore, Know your Lore, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm

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Midsummer Fire Festival	6/21 - 7/4
Call to Arms: Isle of Conquest	6/22 - 6/25
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