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Live
PTR
10.2.7
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10.2.6
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News
Live
5.2 PTR: Throne of Thunder Dungeon Journal, Loot Preview
The Dungeon Journal was updated in the latest PTR build to include details on more Tier 15 encounters, such as Jin'rokh the Breaker, Dark Animus, and Twin Consorts. Encounter testing is happening pretty frequently on the PTR, so hopefully this will be a handy reference during 5.2 raid testing! You can also check out the Effect section on each of the spell pages to see how hard everything hits for in LFR, normal, and heroic difficulty.
We also have a teaser of some normal (ilvl 522) and heroic (ilvl 541) loot.
This is very preliminary
as the names and models are clearly placeholders and there are some obvious itemization holes, as well as no mention of
Thunderforged
items. It's still neat to get a sense of what stat budgets are for Tier 15 though. (Again, I can't stress enough how preliminary the items are.)
If you're curious to learn more about weapon and armor models showing up in Throne of Thunder, check out our articles on
Tier 15 Itemsets
and [url=
http://www.wowhead.com/news=2
Live
Patch 5.1 Hotfixes, Ghostcrawler on Class Balance
Busy day for Blizzard--they posted some
incentives to keep 25-player raiding alive in 5.2
, launched a new
5.2 PTR build
with a new archaeology race, legendary metagems, and
Tier 15 Itemsets
, and now they've got some hotfixes and class balance posts this evening!
Players still struggling to complete the 5.0 part of the legendary questchain will be happy to know that
Sigil of Wisdom
will be easier to obtain.
Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
Sigil of Power
now only drop in
Mogu'shan Vaults
, and
Sigil of Wisdom
will only drop in
Heart of Fear
and
Terrace of Endless Spring
, with a very small chance to drop in LFR
Mogu'shan Vaults
. This should ensure that players who had access to
Mogu'shan Vaults
for a longer period of time are now seeing more
Sigil of Wisdom
.
Heart of Fear
Amber-Shaper Un'sok
Un’sok’s A
Live
New Patch 5.2 Raid Charm: Mogu Charm of Fate
There's a new currency in 5.2 that raiders will need to acquire for their bonus loot rolls--the
Mogu Charm of Fate
. More details to come, but Daxxarri went over the basics this evening.
Elder Charm of Good Fortune
will stick around, but only be used for bonus rolls on 5.0 content--having more of these charms available will help newer players gear up faster from older raids. This also goes hand in hand with Blizzard's decision to increase Tier 14 LFR loot droprates in 5.2. On the PTR, they're easier to acquire--they're
rewards from select quests
and WoW Insider discovered that they
now stack to 20
.
But for Tier 15 content, you'll be using a new type of coin,
Mogu Charms of Fate
, instead.
Just for clarity's sake, once patch 5.2 is live,
Elder Charm of Good Fortune
will only apply to
Mogu'shan Vaults
,
Heart of Fear
,
Terrace of Endless Spring
, the
Sha of Anger
, and Salyis' Warband (
Galleon
). There will also be a brand new
Elder Charm of Good Fortune
equivalent currently called the Mog
Live
Developer Watercooler: Encounter Tuning by Watcher
Lead Encounter Designer Watcher just posted a developer blog explaining how and why Blizzard changes encounters once they're live, as well as how that affects everyone from bleeding-edge heroic raiders to those enjoying LFR.
He specifically looks at
Gara'jal the Spiritbinder
,
Amber-Shaper Un'sok
, and
Will of the Emperor
--encounters which either suffered from players using unintended tactics or were simply tuned to be more difficult than thought after internal testing. If you're curious how Blizzard decides which part of encounters get hotfixed and how they come up with their specific solutions, this blog is for you.
Oh, and we also really like the eyeball hanging out with the Azerothian watercooler at the top of the blog.
Click the cut to read the latest developer watercooler!
Live
5.2 PTR: Raid Testing Schedule - January 11
Patch 5.2 PTR Raid testing for
Throne of Thunder
begins tomorrow with
Horridon
and
Council of Elders
. WoW Insider has a visual walkthrough of how to
find the hidden entrance
.
We'll be posting videos by Lore from
Tankspot
, and in the meantime, you can read up on the fights in our
5.2 Dungeon Journal Preview
.
On Friday, January 11, we will be testing our first two raid encounters of the 5.2 test cycle.<br /><br />Each encounter should be available at approximately the listed times below for all Public Test Realms.<br /><br />Horridon - 10 Player Normal<br />10:30 PDT (13:30 EDT, 19:30 CEST)<br /><br />Council of Elders - 10 Player Normal<br />16:00 PDT (19:00 EDT, 01:00 CEST)<br /><br />As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a beta environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session or cancel it entirely, due to bugs, builds, server hardware is
Live
5.2 PTR: Raid and Scenario Preview, No New Dungeons
Today's 5.2 feature covers information about upcoming encounters--raid bosses and scenarios! While some bosses have incomplete entries so far and the loot tables aren't known yet, you can still get a sense of what the encounters are like with the Dungeon Journal. We think it's pretty neat that the Dungeon Journal is deliberately vague about
Ra-den
, a heroic-only encounter, by saying he's instead "shrouded in mystery"--brings back a sense of player discovery.
And as there's no new 5-player dungeons planned for the rest of MoP, we've highlighted our 5.2 scenario summaries to give you a taste of upcoming small-group content.
No New Dungeons in 5.2
People who read the
5.2 PTR Patch Note Preview
may have noticed that there was no mention of new 5-player dungeons. Zarhym clarified that this was intentional, as it would disrupt the current progression model.
LFR has taken the place of dungeons for gearing-up mid-expansion. While players enjoyed
Magisters' Terrace
at the end of Burning Crusade, in the current raid context, it's strange for a dungeon's loot to be on par with raid gear. Players were unhappy with how 4.3 dungeon loot was compa
Live
News Round Up: Heroic Mode Boss Changes, Justice Points in 5.2
Today's news round up covers some heroic boss nerfs, as well a a few 5.2 teasers--pet battles will have a chance to give you
Lesser Charm of Good Fortune
, and if you're capped on Valor Points, doing additional content that usually rewards Valor Points will give you Justice Points. (Keep in mind nothing is set in stone at all, these 5.2 ideas may change.) In addition, a lot of Warriors weren't happy about the
nerf from last week, so Blizzard explained their reasoning in great detail.
Also be sure to check out our
Turtle Beach Holiday Giveaway
and our
Feast of Winter Veil Guide
!
Heroic Mode Boss Changes
Two Heroic mode encounters in the Heart of Fear and the Terrace of Endless Spring are changing with the Raid reset this week:
Grand Empress Shek'zeer
The damage dealt by
Corrupted Dissonance Field
,
Sonic Discharge
, and
Cry of Terror
has been reduced by approximately 10% in the Heroic mode version of this encounter.
Protectors of the Endless
The da
Live
Patch 5.1 Hotfixes - December 3rd - Valor Increase on Raid Bosses
Classes
Monk
Mistweaver
The absorption effect of
Life Cocoon
has been increased by 100%. We hope to have this change applied within the next 24 hours.
Brewmaster
The Power Guard effect now properly increases Guard’s absorption by 15%, up from 5%.
Paladin
Protection
Damage dealt by
now scales properly with Attack Power and Spell Power.
Warlock
Demonology
The damage and Demonic Fury cost of
have been reduced by 33%. The new values will not be reflected in the tooltip until a client patch.
Dungeons, Raids & Scenarios
General
Normal and Heroic raid encounters in
Mogu'shan Vaults
,
Heart of Fear
, and
Terrace of Endless Spring
now award 40
Valor Points
, up from 25. This will take effect after the weekly reset.
[
Live
Raid Preview: Heart of Fear
Heart of Fear
opens
October 30th
on US servers on Normal mode.
Terrace of Endless Spring
was planned to open on October 30th, but it was
changed on Friday
to open in two weeks, on
November 12th
. We've got the loot tables and dungeon journal below for each boss, as well as 3D models of all the weapons. Most notably, players can now loot 'Sha-Touched' weapons from
Heart of Fear
, special weapons that can be socketed with legendary gems. This instance also drops some
Tier 14 tokens
.
You can check out Method's livestreams of Heart of Fear
here
, and check out their
YouTube channel
where they'll be uploading all of their kill videos.
Heart of Fear
is located in central
Dread Wastes
, on the right side of the large sinister tree growing in the Sha-touched trench.
There are six bosses in
Heart of Fear
:
Imperial Vizier Zor'lok
Blade Lord Ta'yak
Garalon
Wind Lord Mel'jarak
Amber-Shaper Un'sok
[
Live
Mists of Pandaria: Tier 14 Preview
With
Heart of Fear
open soon, we wanted to do a preview of all the tier gear players can now acquire outside of
Sha of Anger
, including the LFR and Heroic versions.
LFR: ilvl 483
Normal: ilvl 496
Heroic: ilvl 509
Bosses in
Heart of Fear
drop the following tier tokens:
Wind Lord Mel'jarak
: Gloves
Amber-Shaper Un'sok
: Legs
Grand Empress Shek'zeer
: Chest
Click on the images to view them in our 3D Modelviewer!
Cloth Armor
LFR
Normal
Heroic
Mantle of the Burning Scroll
Robes of the Burning Scroll
Leggings of the Burning Scroll
Hood of the Burning Scroll
Gloves of the Burning Scroll
Live
10 and 25-man Lockouts No Longer Shared in 5.1 on KR Realms
So it's starting to look like 5.1 might have some surprises in store for raiders. The Korean World of Warcraft website
had this update today
stating that in 5.1, 10 and 25-man lockouts will no longer be shared for KR realms--a call back to the days of Wrath of the Lich King where the lockouts were separate and many considered 25-man raids to be vastly more beneficial than 10-man raids. Additionally, 10 and 25-man ilevels will be different giving raiders a further benefit for tackling 25-man raids.
Of course, it remains unseen if this will transition at any point to other realms. At this time, it doesn't appear to be the case.
However, if you look at World of Warcraft's recent PvE scene, it's been obvious that there's a decline in 25-mans that's both felt by the community and heard by the developers. There isn't really a reason to raid 25-mans over 10-mans, as far as time versus reward is concerned; it's hard to maintain a 25-man roster and remain competitive in today's Azeroth. Even world firsts are being tackled by 10-mans
Live
Method's World First 25s Heroic Will of the Emperor Kill Video
Our friends at
<Method>
just released their epic video of their World First (25 Heroic) Will of the Emperor kill! Huge congratulations to them again--and if you want to read more, check out their nerd scream kill video and newspost
here
.
Live
Method Achieves World First 25-man Heroic Mogu'Shan Vaults Clear
Our friends over at
<Method>
just had a really good day in World of Warcraft--they've done the unthinkable and been the first in the world to clear Mogu'Shan Vaults on heroic mode in 25-man!
Check out their post about the process
and
check out their YouTube channel
for other kill videos.
Be sure to congratulate them, this is by no means a small feat! We'll be posting their videos as they come in! For now we have their epic nerd screams as they get their world first below.
Live
Mogu'shan Vaults: Exclusive Method Videos, LFR Unlocks Today
Mogu'shan Vaults
on LFR difficulty unlocks today on US servers. It is split up into two sections, each consisting of three bosses. You will need an
460 ilvl
to queue up.
Normal mode was open last week, and if you cleared all the bosses on that difficulty level, you can begin heroics this week.
Heart of Fear
and
Terrace of Endless Spring
will not be available until October 30th on Normal Difficulty.
Check out our
Mogu'shan Vaults Raid Preview
for a look at the Dungeon Journal, loot lists, and armor models of all the encounters.
Our friends at
Noxxic
have also just released a cool tool that we wanted to share with you:
DPS Rankings
. This is a quick way for players to see what each spec is capable of doing in end-game raiding and how they rank up, including DW/2H comparisons for Frost Death Knights, Fury Warriors and Windwalker Monks. If you're not sure how to spec for your first raid, this tool may help you out!
Exclusive Method Videos
<Method> cleared
Mogu'shan Vaults
this past week: they were kind enough
Live
News Round Up: Mogu'shan Vaults Streaming, Reputation Changes
Following our recent announcement that we're partnering with
Method
, we're pleased to bring you more streams of them raiding
Mogu'shan Vaults
tonight--see what the fights are like before your guild starts raiding! You can check out more points of view on our updated
Streams page
.
Blizzard also announced some exciting reputation changes today
for a future patch
--it will be easier to acquire reputations on alts, plus the Revered to Exalted grind has been sped up.
Method: Mogu'shan Vaults
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Live
New Site Feature: Method Livestreams
We're proud to announce a partnership with
<Method>
, one of the oldest standing hardcore raiding WoW guilds in the world.
We've embedded
Method's streams here on Wowhead
so you can watch them run challenge modes, do their dailies, PvP, and even tackle the newest raids! Check out the livestreams of Method's raiders, including
Method's GM Sco
.
With
Mogu'shan Vaults open this week
, now is a great time to check out the fights if your guild is still gearing up to raid.
Check out our livestream page (under the "Even More" section of the "More" menu) at:
http://www.wowhead.com/streams
Live
Raid Preview: Mogu'shan Vaults
Mogu'shan Vaults
opened October 2nd on Normal difficulty, with LFR and Heroic difficulty unlocked next week. We've got the loot tables and dungeon journal below for each boss, as well as 3D models of all the armor and weapons.
Mogu'shan Vaults
is reached only by flying. It is located in northern
Kun-Lai Summit
, jutting out of a mountain overlooking Zouchin Village. It is marked on the map as "Mogu'shan Terrace"--not to be confused with
Mogu'shan Palace
in
Vale of Eternal Blossoms
.
There are six bosses in
Mogu'shan Vaults
:
The Stone Guard
Feng the Accursed
Gara'jal the Spiritbinder
The Spirit Kings
Elegon
Jan-xi
Gear from
Mogu'shan Vaults
is slightly lower than that of the other Tier 14 raids:
LFR
: 476
Normal
: 489
Heroic
: 502
In addition, Tier gear does not drop from
Mogu'shan Vaults
. The only way to obtain it this month is to kill the world bosses
Sha of Anger
and
Galleon
. Sha-Touched weapons for
legendaries
do not dr
Live
Mists of Pandaria: Starting Your Legendary
To view an updated version of this guide for Patch 5.1, please click
here.
There's a new legendary quest series in Mists of Pandaria and anyone that's 90 can begin working on it. Multiple people in your raid can work on it at the same time, and it can even be completed in LFR. We'll show you what you need to get started this week.
A few things set this apart from past legendaries:
All players in a raid can work on the legendary questline at the same time.
Legendaries are for everyone. Players complete quests for legendary gems, which are then socketed into Sha-Touched weapons from raids. There are nine weapons classified as Sha-Touched, covering all possible specs.
With this system, guild are only limited by the number of Sha-Touched weapons they see each week.
Legendary gems can be placed into weapons from LFR. Quest items can also be looted in LFR.
This legendary series will span the expansion, with more elaborate rewards each tier.
The reward for this first tier is an epic weapon with a legendary gem, not an actual legendary weapon.
Live
Interviews with Lead Quest Designer Dave Kosak, Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas
With Mists of Pandaria a week away, we're excited to bring you some interviews covering the expansion!
Wowhead interviewed Dave Kosak, Lead Quest Designer, this past week. Mists of Pandaria has a lot of exciting
lore developments
, not to mention quirky exploration details like
rare spawns dropping vanity loot
and treasure chests hidden around the world. Plus the new
legendary questline
is innovative--it will spawn several content patches and has rewards for
every
class. Read on to learn about how these features were developed!
Our friends at
TankSpot
also interviewed Ion Hazzikostas, Lead Encounter Designer. Lore spoke with Ion about Tier 14 raids, Blizzard's plans for Legendaries in future patches, Challenge Modes, Scenarios, Proving Grounds, and more!
Wowhead's Interview with Dave Kosak
What sorts of things inspired Pand
Live
Mists of Pandaria: Raid Weapon Models Preview
We're finishing up our Mists of Pandaria weapon previews with a look at 3D models from raids. In addition to the Sha-Touched weapons we previewed recently, all other weapons from LFR, Normal, and Heroic difficulty have unique colors and intricate models. There's also an unexpected bonus--we found that some Tier 9 raid models made their way to Pandaria, even some that are unobtainable since the removal of attempt-based Tribute Chests.
For past model previews, check out our weapons posts on
PvP
,
Questing and Dungeons
, and
Crafting
.
Tier 14 Raid Weapons
Raid Finder
Normal
Heroic
[model item=116927 slot=13 img=
http://wow.zamimg
.
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