Blizzard Official WoW Blog

In Patch 5.3: Escalation, players fight back against the aggressive reign of Garrosh Hellscream, once proud War Chief of the Horde. His crimes are many and his allies are dwindling, but he still holds the Horde capital city of Orgrimmar and retains full command of a vast army of loyal Kor’kron elite soldiers, fed by reinforced supply lines running throughout the Barrens. 

Toppling the tyrant will not be easy.

To prepare you for this monumental struggle, the Blizzard Insider discussed the content in Escalation with Game Director Tom Chilton.

Blizzard Insider: Before we dive into the details of Patch 5.3, can you tell us about how the previous patch, 5.2: Rise of the Thunder King, has gone?

Tom Chilton: Overall we’re very happy with how the Thunder King raid turned out. I think it ranks among our best ever as far as size, scope, and overall quality of raid mechanics goes. Lei Shen in particular stood out as a great final encounter for the raid, on par with Yogg-Saron or Ragnaros. One of the more experimental aspects of the Thunder King patch that we’re especially happy with is the Determination buff, which gives all Raid Finder group members a 5% boost whenever they wipe. Raid Finder groups tend to have players of all skill levels, so this change has really helped these groups hold together and learn the mechanics of more difficult encounters, which overall has made Raid Finder groups a more viable option for progression.

Blizzard Insider: How does Escalation fit into the larger story arc for Mists of Pandaria®?

Tom Chilton: Patch 5.3 tells the story of what’s been happening on the Kalimdor home front while the continent of Pandaria was being explored across the South Seas. As the name implies, the core conflict revolves around Garrosh Hellscream and his escalating war efforts. Of course, the Alliance opposes Garrosh—for obvious reasons—but now even large factions of the Horde have turned on Garrosh as well. They’ve grown tired of his constant warmongering, and so Vol’jin leads the Darkspear trolls in open rebellion against their former war chief. Garrosh seems to be universally despised, so now players on both sides of the Horde and Alliance will soon get a chance to take a swing at him.

Blizzard Insider: Can you talk about the new features being added with Escalation? What features are you most looking forward to seeing players dig into?

Tom Chilton:The new Scenarios constitute the backbone of the Escalation patch, and we think players are going to have a lot of fun with these. Another big change will be the new events in the Barrens. The main supply lines that feed Garrosh’s war machine in Orgrimmar run throughout the Barrens, so players must win victories there first before they’ll be able to take on Garrosh directly. From the design side, we want to use the Barrens events to experiment with end-game open world content in new ways and try to get away from some of the more repetitive aspects of daily questing. As a result, we shaped the events as a series of dynamic events, rather than a straightforward progression of daily quests. We hope this ends up feeling much more fluid and freeform than previous end-game quests, with players of both the Alliance and Horde rampaging around, raiding Garrosh’s supply lines and spoiling his war efforts. Plus, just having the Horde and Alliance together in the Barrens at the same time will open up a lot of opportunities for world PVP.

Blizzard Insider:Can you talk a little about the changes to PvP combat? In what ways do the mechanics of PvP evolve in Escalation?

Tom Chilton: One of the biggest evolutions in PvP stems from the changes to the Resilience system. Mechanically speaking, Resilience stays much the same as before, but most of it has been removed from gear, and instead players are getting a much higher innate level of Resilience. Gear still matters in PvP, and certain gems and enchants will retain bonuses to Resilience, but the overall survivability difference between players with different sets of gear is narrower after patch 5.3. This means player skill plays a larger role in determining the outcome of a PvP battle than before. Plus, the Resilience change has the secondary benefit of allowing PvE players to cross over more easily into PvP, since they won’t have to first collect a separate set of Resilience gear in order to survive.

Blizzard Insider: How about new PvP content?

Tom Chilton:On the PvP content side, we’re also adding a new Battleground and a new Arena with Patch 5.3. The Battleground is called Deepwind Gorge and it features a “gold grab” mechanic, where both factions race to collect a certain threshold of gold for their side. Players can get gold in two ways, either gradually over time by holding key strategic points around the mining operations, or they can steal a gold cart from the other team’s base and drag it back to their own base. So Deepwind Gorge essentially combines classic “king of the hill” with “capture the flag” PvP mechanics. The new Arena is called the Tigers’ Peak, and it experiments with the concept of “high ground” in an interesting new way.  The Arena geometry includes several raised pillars, the tops of which are ringed with fences. These fences do not block line of site or ranged attacks, but they will catch any player who gets knocked back into them, thus enabling ranged players to hold the high ground and snipe or land heals from on high a bit more easily than they could otherwise with normal un-railed pillars.

Blizzard Insider: Can you go into details on the new Scenarios in Patch 5.3? Has the design philosophy of Scenarios changed much since they were first introduced at the beginning of Mists of Pandaria?

Tom Chilton:One thing we thought that Scenarios lacked after the launch of Mists of Pandaria was a sense of possible failure. Don’t get me wrong, they were always meant to be quick, fun, bite-sized pieces of content, but I think we can offer more of a challenge to players who are ready for it. So we’re introducing Heroic versions of several existing Scenarios, plus all the new Scenarios coming with Patch 5.3. Unlike most normal Scenarios, the Heroic versions will only be available if you’re already in a premade group with two other players. Since the difficulty will be ramped up, we wanted to be able to tune the Heroic Scenarios around a group of players who know each other and are used to playing together. Plus, since it’s easier to build a group when you only need two other players, rather than the usual five, we figured Scenarios are a good place to experiment with requiring premade groups again.

Blizzard Insider: Let’s talk loot. What kinds of items can players expect to find?

Tom Chilton:Players can definitely expect the usual Item Level upgrades. In addition, we’re also tweaking the loot system so players have option to choose which spec they wish to receive gear for [bonus rolls, Raid Finder loot, Heroic Scenarios, and Mists of Pandaria quests]. This means, for example, you can collect gear for your tank spec while you’re DPS-ing, or vice versa, which makes it easier to collect different sets of gear for your off-spec. In addition, on the art side, we’re also reintroducing the old world Dungeon Tier 2 armor sets back into the game as rewards for the revamped Barrens content. This enables new players to collect some of the older gear sets for Transmogrification without having to go back and farm the old world dungeons

Blizzard Insider: Anything else you’d like to share before you go?

Tom Chilton: Yeah, one more thing—another cool feature we’re adding with 5.3 is the ability to see other players’ Pet Battles, so you can conduct Pet Battles with an audience now. Other than that, we just wanted to say thanks again to our all of our play testers who’ve played through the 5.3 content on the Public Test Realm—your time and contributions are always much appreciated.

(source)

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

Now that the patch is on the horizon, we’ve narrowed down some of the key things you might want to know before the big day. If you want to find out more about everything that’s coming, you can check out the latest Public Test Realm patch notes, or even download and play on the PTR itself.

Be Prepared

Hold on to some of those currencies you’ve been earning over the course of patch 5.2. The gear-upgrading Void Binders are returning in patch 5.3, but it will be cheaper to upgrade items using Valor and Justice Points. Upgradeable PvP items from Season 12 will be eligible for upgrade once again at their original costs. In addition, Heirloom items will be cheaper to upgrade, whether you’re using Justice Points, Honor Points, or Darkmoon Faire tickets. We’re also speeding up the leveling process from 85 to 90. Here are the details:

• The experience required to level from 85 to 90 will be reduced by 33%. Time to dust off those alts!
• The Void Binders are coming back!
  • Items upgraded with Valor will now cost 250 Valor Points to upgrade per 4 Item Levels, for a total of 500 Valor for 8 Item Levels per item. This applies retroactively to all items that can be upgraded using Valor.
  • Items upgraded with Justice will now cost 750 Justice Points to upgrade for 8 Item Levels. They can only be upgraded once, for a total of 750 Justice and 8 Item Levels per item. This applies retroactively to all items that can be upgraded using Justice.
  • Malevolent Gladiator’s Conquest (Season 12) items that have upgrades available will still be upgradable at their original Conquest Point costs (750 Conquest Points per 4 Item Levels, with two upgrades possible).
  • Dreadful Gladiator’s Honor (Season 12) items that have upgrades available will still be upgradable at their original costs (one upgrade at a cost of 750 Honor Points for 8 Item Levels).
  • No other PvP items will be able to be upgraded.
• The amount of Justice, Honor, and Darkmoon Faire tickets needed to upgrade Heirloom items will be reduced by 60%.

Item Level Requirements

Are you ready to face the Raid Finder, Heroic dungeons, and new Heroic Scenarios? Make sure that you’re geared up to dive right in:

• Heroic Scenarios require an average Item Level of 480; unlike normal Scenarios, you’ll need a pre-made party to enter.
• An average Item Level of 440 is required for Heroic dungeons.
• An average Item Level of 460 is required for the Raid Finder version of Mogu’shan Vaults.
• An average item level of 470 is required for Raid Finder versions of Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Spring.
• An average Item Level of 480 is required for the Raid Finder version of Throne of Thunder.

Lesser Charms of Good Fortune

We’re adding more ways to acquire Lesser Charms of Good Fortune in patch 5.3. In addition to the changes that took effect in patch 5.2, which reduced the number of Lesser Charms of Good Fortune required to purchase three Mogu Runes of Fate from 90 to 50 and allowed players to earn Lesser Charms from Pet Battles, these new sources of Lesser Charms will be available in patch 5.3:

• Outdoor world creatures level 90 and above now have a chance to drop Lesser Charms of Good Fortune.
• Rare spawns in Pandaria (except Zandalari Warscouts and Zandalari Warbringers) and bosses encountered as part of the Battlefield: Barrens quest event in Kalimdor will drop Lesser Charms of Good Fortune.

PvP Season Update

PvP Season 13 is still in full swing. We discussed many of the changes coming to PvP gear in our PvP Gear in 5.2 and Preparing for PvP in Patch 5.3 blogs, and the changes below are explained in greater detail there. As a reminder, the 7,250 Conquest Point requirement to purchase non-elite Conquest Point weapons is being removed with patch 5.3.

A number of significant changes are coming to PvP and PvP gear:

• All characters now have a base Resilience of 65%.
• Battle Fatigue now reduces the effectiveness of healing and absorb spells and abilities by 45% (was 30%).
• PvP Power bonus to healing is now based on class and specialization.
  • Healing specializations receive a 100% bonus to healing from PvP Power.
  • Damage specializations for Druids, Monks, Paladins, Priests, and Shaman receive a 70% bonus to healing from PvP Power.
  • All other specializations and classes (including tanking) receive a 40% bonus to healing from PvP Power.

Patching Smoothly

It’s easy to make sure that you’re ready to play when the realms become available on patch day. If you haven’t played in a while, one of the simplest things you can do is open the World of Warcraft launcher and allow the updater to download the latest available game files. If you use user interface add-ons, make sure you have the latest versions and that they’re updated and ready to go for the new patch. This is also a good time to update your video card’s drivers.

If you experience any patching issues, there’s a technical support forum thread all about patching that could help. You can also follow @BlizzardCS on Twitter for the latest support-related news.

Getting Additional Account Help

If you’re having an issue with your account, a number of resources are available to you. If other players are experiencing a similar issue, they may have already posted about it on the Customer Support forum located here, so that can sometimes be a good first stop. If you need more information or direct assistance, the Battle.net Support site will allow you to search through available solutions, submit a support ticket, or contact customer support directly.

A compilation of resources and information can also be found on the Customer Support forum, including information on in-game support, reporting bugs and cheats, submitting suggestions, reporting forum violations, and sharing forum feedback.

Good luck, and we’ll see you in Azeroth!

(source)

Blizzard published a short guide to help you prepare for Patch 5.3. Make sure to read it, if you have not been following up on recent PTR changes.

Icy Veins is teaming up with Open Raid to propose you monthly raid events where you will be able to play with our staff.

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

There's a ton of content worth experiencing in Mists of Pandaria—but if you’re leveling alts or just looking to get to the highest gear levels to see the newest content, the “best” route is not always clear. We get a lot of questions on what to focus on, so hopefully this article can provide some helpful guidance.

Back in the Day

In the initial months after Mists of Pandaria launched, the primary method to gear up a new level 90 was to run Scenarios and Heroic dungeons, and then do daily quests (beginning with Golden Lotus and Klaxxi, and then progressing to Shado-Pan and August Celestials) to earn reputation to unlock the vendors that sold higher-level epics. Along the way, players would qualify for the Raid Finder version of Mogu’shan Vaults, and then eventually the Raid Finder versions of Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Spring, supplementing the gear they unlocked and purchased with Valor Points.

While all of that content, along with the original reputation vendors and associated progression, remains in the game, patch 5.2 introduced several new, more efficient ways to get a fresh level 90 caught up and ready to jump right into the Throne of Thunder raid.

Get to ‘da Island!

The core of the current gearing system revolves around the new Isle of Thunder, and the vastly accelerated rate at which Elder Charms of Good Fortune can be obtained on the Isle. Elder Charms are used for bonus rolls when defeating raid bosses from the expansion’s first set of raids—Mogu’shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, Terrace of Endless Spring—as well as Mists of Pandaria’s original world bosses, Sha of Anger and Galleon. By obtaining Elder Charms, defeating bosses, and using bonus rolls, you’ll receive more chances to acquire upgrades, helping you gear up at a faster pace.

The Isle of Thunder also offers other ways to acquire Elder Charms. By defeating rare-spawn enemies on the Isle of Thunder, looting a Trove of the Thunder King, or defeating common enemies, players can receive a Key to the Palace of Lei Shen (one per week, with a small chance at extras from the coffers awarded at the conclusion of daily quest arcs). Players can take the key to Taoshi in the Shado-Pan encampment located in the swamp at the center of the Isle for a chance to do a Treasure Room run. In these runs, players have 5 minutes to open as many chests as possible and make it as far as they can through a dangerous, trap-laden vault. These runs are not only a ton of fun, but can be extremely lucrative in providing gold and Elder Charms. Foregoing a race to the finish line and instead systematically opening every chest you can get your hands on will likely yield a significant number of Elder Charms—it’s not uncommon to emerge from a single run with over a dozen. Additional Elder Charms can be obtained by using Incantations that also drop from creatures on the Isle and taking them to the graveyard in the mogu ruins on the west side of the Isle.

In 5.2, we significantly increased drop rates in the Raid Finder versions of Mogu’shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, and Terrace of Endless Spring, so it’s quite possible to walk into the Raid Finder and have enough Elder Charms to use a bonus roll on every boss you kill (with greatly increased drop chances) for a tremendous loot yield. You can also run Raid Finder more than once per week if you have more Elder Charms. You won’t receive normal drops from the boss, but your bonus rolls will have a chance of rewarding an item.

Misc. Stuff We Couldn’t Think of a Title For

If you’re into PvP, recent changes have made PvE gear pretty decent in PvP, and vice-versa. Outside of sockets and set bonuses, you can get a bunch of Honor (or Justice Points, and covert them to Honor at the Justice Trade Good vendors in Orgrimmar and Stormwind) and buy Item Level (ilvl) 476 PvP gear to help fill in any gaps and help you get into the higher rungs of PvE content.

Like Sha of Anger, the world boss Galleon now respawns much more frequently. The world boss Nalak is also now accessible on the Isle of Thunder, and the Shado-Pan Assault vendor is selling a neckpiece for Valor Points with no additional reputation requirements. In addition, the Isle of Thunder factions sell an ilvl 476 belt for gold at Honored reputation, which makes doing their dailies pretty enticing.

What the Future Holds

In Patch 5.3: Escalation, you’ll head to the Barrens and participate in an uprising that will lead to the ultimate challenges in 5.4, and a variety of patch 5.3 content will award ilvl 476 to ilvl 489 items for participating in and completing quests. It’s important to note that the 5.3 world event will only be available for a limited time, as the story continues in 5.4. In addition, the XP required to level from 85 to 90 is being reduced by 33% in patch 5.3. If you’re looking to level and gear up alts, patch 5.3 may be a good time to do so with these additional options.

Between all of these sources, an adventurous player should be should be able to walk right into the Raid Finder Throne of Thunder within a week or two of hitting level 90, even without touching any of the mainland reputations.

Content ilvl Requirements

• ilvl 440 required for Heroic dungeons
• ilvl 460 required for Mogu’shan Vaults
• ilvl 470 required for Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Spring
• ilvl 480 required for Throne of Thunder

Your characters average ilvl can be found in the Advanced section of your Character stats in-game, or by searching for your character on WorldofWarcraft.com.

Gearing for Throne of Thunder

XP required to level from 85-90 reduced by 33% in patch 5.3

ilvl 440 required for Heroic dungeons. Quest rewards from Townlong Steppes as well as Dread Wastes will bring you up to 440. It may be worthwhile to begin these zones earlier in the leveling process

At 90 head to the Isle of Thunder and progress through the quests each day and hunt for a Key to the Palace of Lei Shen each week. The portal to the Isle can be found at the Shado-Pan Garrison in western Townlong Steppes

The Arena of Annihilation scenario has a mini-quest inside that rewards an ilvl 450 weapon

Key to the Palace of Lei Shen looted once per week from rare spawns, Trove of Thunder King chests, or by defeating common enemies on the Isle of Thunder

There’s a small chance for Throne of Thunder LFR gear to come from the chests after you’ve completed your run

Loot run provides Elder Charms of Good Fortune

Elder Charms provide bonus rolls when defeating bosses in Mogu’shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, Terrace of Endless Spring, as well as the 5.0 world bosses Sha of Anger and Galleon

You can run LFR more than once per week if you have more Elder Charms. You won’t receive normal drops from the boss but your bonus rolls still do have a chance of rewarding an item

With Elder Charms of Good Fortune acquired, and an average ilvl of 460, head into Mogu’shan Vaults, you can queue using the Raid Finder (default shortcut key: i)

Crafted PvP items (ilvl 458) can help get you over the hump into Heroic dungeons

Crafted ilvl 476 items (Gloves/Chest/Weapons/etc.) can help jumpstart you into LFR

5.3 Battlefield Barrens quests will award ilvl 476 and 489 items

476 belt is purchasable from the Isle of Thunder Kirin Tor Offensive (A) or Sunreaver Onslaught (H) for gold

476 Epic boots available from a quest received by killing Sha of Anger (loot Claw of Anger)

476 PvP items purchased with Honor can help fill in any gaps and raise your average ilvl with little negative effect to your overall ability in raids

Shado-Pan Assault ilvl 522 neck available at Neutral for 1250 Valor Points

Lesser Charms of Good Fortune can be exchanged at your faction’s shrine in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms for Mogu Runes of Fate. Mogu Runes provide bonus rolls for 5.2 bosses including those in the Throne of Thunder, and world bosses Oondasta and Nalak

Did we miss something? Share your gearing tips in the comments below.

(source)

Blizzard wrote a detailed blog entry explaining the best ways to gear up new characters in Patch 5.3.

• Blood: Reniat, the author of the Blood Death Knight guides on the Official Forums and MMO-Champion.
  
• Frost and Unholy: Mendenbarr, a prominent theorycrafter who maintains Death Knight guides on Elitist Jerks.

• Balance: Imsupersdw, one of the best Balance Druids in the world, who raids in Method.
  
• Feral: Ravage, one of the best Feral Druids in the world, who raids in Apex.
  
• Guardian: Arielle, (@riftmaker), a prominent Guardian Druid theorycrafter and the main author of The Inconspicuous Bear (a very respected Guardian Druid resource).
  
• Restoration: Celece, one of the best Balance Druids in the world, who raids in Midwinter.

• Beast Mastery, Marksmanship, and Survival: Kennyloggins, a leading figure in the Hunter community, who raids in Blood Legion.

• Arcane, Fire, and Frost: Blatty, one of the best Mages in the world, who raids in Method.

• Brewmaster: Sunnier, who maintains the most respected Brewmaster Monk resource site: Sunnier's Art of War.
  
• Mistweaver: unpl, a Mistweaver Monk who raids in Paragon.
  
• Windwalker: Gondlem, one of the best Windwalker Monks in the world, who raids in Midwinter.

• Holy: In the process of being reviewed by Atismund, who raids in Envy (25-man), and by Smirk who raids in Paragon (10-man).
  
• Protection: Theck (@TheckPhD), the main author of Sacred Duty (a well respected, and arguably the most valuable Protection Paladin theorycrafting resource).
  
• Retribution: Anafielle (@Anafielle), a respected Retribution Paladin who contributes to Sacred Duty and Morgeine, one of the best Retribution Paladins in the world, who raids in Envy.

• Discipline and Holy: Jhazrun, one of the best Discipline Priests in the world, who raids in Paragon.
  
• Shadow: Artzie (@Artzieh), a Shadow Priest who raids in Method and Twintop, a Shadow Priest theorycrafter from How To Priest.

• Assassination, Combat, and Subtlety: Dryaan, one of the best Rogues in the world, who raids in Apex.

• Elemental: Leeds, one of the best Elemental Shamans in the world, who raids in Method.
  
• Enhancement: Purge, one of the best Enhancement Shamans in the world, who often contributes to the Enhancement Shaman section of Totem Spot.
  
• Restoration: Zetian, who raids in MCO, one of the most efficient 10-man guilds in the world, and Sonie, one of the best Restoration Shamans in the world, who raids in Method (25-man).

• Affliction, Demonology, and Destruction: Gahddo, one of the most prominent Warlock theorycrafters, who maintains the Warlock profiles and rotations in Simulation Craft.

• Arms: In the process of being reviewed by Gondlemstyle of Midwinter.
  
• Fury: Gondlemstyle, one of the best DPS Warriors in the world, who raids in Midwinter.
  
• Protection: Sco, Guild Master of Method, and one of the best Protection Warriors in the world.

For the past month we have worked very hard on our class guides and with the help of top raiders and known authorities, we now have the best offering you can find for World of Warcraft classes.

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 5.2. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below went live the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. We will continue to update this list in the days to come as additional hotfixes are applied.

Patch Information

• Patch Notes
• Known Issues
• Technical Support & Troubleshooting

Creatures

• Players coalesced from a different realm are now eligible to receive loot or use a bonus roll after defeating Oondasta or Nalak.

Quests

• Mogu Runes of Fate: Reduced the number of Lesser Charms of Good Fortune needed for the Mogu Runes of Fate weekly quest to 50, down from 90.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• Throne of Thunder
  • Twin Consorts
    • Cosmic Barrage now summons 4 Crashing Stars (down from 6) on 10-player Normal, Heroic, and Raid Finder difficulty. 8 Crashing Stars (down from 12) are summoned on 25-player Normal and Heroic difficulty.

Items

• Sinister Primal Diamond should now correctly have different activation rates depending on the class and specialization. In addition, activation rate for Fire Mages has been increased.

(source)

Message from Zarhym

Good people of Azeroth, lend me your eyes!

We’ll be hosting a live World of Warcraft developer Q&A open to the community on Thursday, April 25 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. PDT. Designers Dave Kosak, Ion Hazzikostas, Brian Holinka, Cory Stockton, and Greg Street will be available to field your questions about Mists of Pandaria gameplay and design, patch 5.2 and beyond. This will be a moderated chat on the Cover it Live platform hosted on the front page of our official site. Community managers Bashiok, Crithto, Daxxarri, Rygarius, and I will be there to filter your submissions for the developers.

We receive thousands of questions each time we host these events, so please be patient with us and bear in mind that we won’t get to every question. You can help by keeping your inquiries concise and focused on one topic per entry. Submissions that are well over 200 characters, or contain multiple questions on an array of topics, are much less likely to receive responses. We want to cover as much ground as possible and appreciate your assistance in helping us to achieve that.

We look forward to chatting with you on Thursday!

About the Panelists

• Dave Kosak, Lead Quest Designer: As Blizzard Entertainment's lead quest designer for World of Warcraft, Dave Kosak oversees the development of all quest content for the game and its expansions, as well as contributing to the overall fiction of the game world.
  • Prior to joining Blizzard Entertainment, Kosak was a co-founder and original creative director of GameSpy.
• Ion Hazzikostas, Lead Encounter Designer: As lead encounter designer on the World of Warcraft® team, Ion Hazzikostas’s primary responsibility is overseeing the creation of the game’s dungeon and raid content. Hazzikostas joined Blizzard Entertainment in the summer of 2008 as a game designer, and his responsibilities have included raid boss design and implementation, class design and balancing, and maintaining the World of Warcraft achievement system.
  • Prior to arriving at Blizzard, he worked as an attorney at a law firm in Washington, DC.
  • In his spare time, Hazzikostas enjoys exploring Southern California in search of craft beer. Having grown up in New York City, he is a lifelong Yankees fan.
• Brian Holinka, Senior PvP Game Designer: As a senior game designer on Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft® team, Brian Holinka focuses exclusively on continuing to make the World of Warcraft PvP experience enjoyable for all of its players. Holinka works with the systems and content teams to create a balanced competitive environment with exciting rewards and diverse content.
  • Prior to joining Blizzard Entertainment in 2012, Holinka worked on the multiplayer components of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, Homefront, and Frontlines: Fuel of War. Holinka got his start in the game industry moonlighting on the “Desert Combat” mod for Battlefield 1942 while serving as a Captain in the United States Air Force.
• Cory Stockton, Lead Content Designer: As Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.'s lead content designer for World of Warcraft®, Cory Stockton is responsible for overseeing the design and implementation of all exterior zones, dungeons, Battlegrounds, Arenas, and cities. He is also involved with many other aspects of the game, such as dungeon scripting and the Pet Battle System.
  • Stockton started at Blizzard Entertainment in June 2005 as lead dungeon designer before transitioning to his current role. Prior to his arrival, he was a lead designer on the Ratchet & Clank series and also contributed extensively to the Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver series.
  • In his spare time, Stockton plays games extensively, and enjoys collecting classic consoles and games. He holds an associate's degree in computer animation from the Art Institute of Phoenix.
• Greg Street, Lead Systems Designer: As the lead systems designer for World of Warcraft®, Greg Street is one of the two lead designers on the team that reports to the Game Director. He leads a team that is in charge of World of Warcraft class, item and tradeskill design. He and his team also design the user interface for the game and handle all of the various combat calculations and number tuning.

/cast Hearthstone

End of message.

Blizzard will be hosting a live World of Warcraft developer Q&A open to the community on Thursday, April 25 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. PDT. Designers Dave Kosak, Ion Hazzikostas, Brian Holinka, Cory Stockton, and Greg Street will be available to field your questions about Mists of Pandaria gameplay and design, patch 5.2 and beyond.

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

One of the core values we live by here at Blizzard is “Embrace Your Inner Geek.” We play countless games, we collect comics and card games, we love cutting-edge technology and computer hardware, we’re fascinated by science and discovery, and many of us are movie buffs. Movies represent the combined imaginations of talented writers and visionaries, artists and operators, editors and producers, that can culminate in an awesome cinematic experience.

It’s with this motivation that we express our respect for JJ Abrams' Bad Robot Productions.

Coming in a future patch, characters with the Engineering profession will be able to produce this mechanical homage to the company that brought us award-winning television shows like Lost and Fringe, and are continuing the epic Star Trek and forthcoming Star Wars film sagas. Everyone has a chance to get their hands on this pet, allowing them to show off their mutual appreciation for Bad Robot, and the stories they’ve brought to our TVs and movie screens.

(source)

To express their respect for JJ Abrams' production company, Blizzard will be adding a new mechanical pet into the game, in a future patch. This pet will be created by Engineers.

]]> Sat, 20 Apr 2013 07:56:07 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1916-blizzard-3s-bad-robot/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1908-patch-52-hotfixes-april-18/

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 5.2. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below went live the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. We will continue to update this list in the days to come as additional hotfixes are applied.

Patch Information

• Patch Notes
• Known Issues
• Technical Support & Troubleshooting

Classes

• Warlock
  • Destruction
    • Fixed an issue where targets of Havoc were receiving more damage than intended from Immolate.

Quests

• Eyes of the Thunder King: Engaging Unblinking Eyes and Focused Eyes will now place all members of the raid in combat, preventing players from releasing when they die.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• Throne of Thunder
  • Ra-den
    • Fixed an issue where it was possible to have 2 instances of Unstable Vita active during the Ra-den encounter.
  • Twin Consorts
    • Crane Rush now deals 5 million damage, down from 30 million damage in Raid Finder difficulty.

Items

• Brutal Talisman of the Shado-Pan Assault now grants a reduced bonus of 4400 to Strength, down from 8800 Strength, and the effect duration now lasts 30 seconds, up from 15 seconds when the effect is activated in PvP combat.
• Tyrannical Primal Diamond when socketed to a bind-on-equip helmet now causes the helmet to become soulbound.
• Vicious Talisman of the Shado-Pan Assault now grants a reduced bonus of 4400 to Agility, down from 8800 Agility, and the effect duration now lasts 40 seconds, up from 20 seconds when the effect is activated in PvP combat.

Bug Fixes

• Resolved an issue where Capacitive Primal Diamond's effect was not activating properly.

(source)

]]> Fri, 19 Apr 2013 06:43:12 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1908-patch-52-hotfixes-april-18/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1902-patch-52-hotfixes-april-16/

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 5.2. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below went live the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. We will continue to update this list in the days to come as additional hotfixes are applied.

Patch Information

• Patch Notes
• Known Issues
• Technical Support & Troubleshooting

Classes

• Druids
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Regrowth should now properly remove the periodic component of Regrowth while active.

Quests

• Secrets of the First Empire: Fixed an issue where an excessive amount of Trillium Bars could be removed while completing the quest.
• Securing A Future: Lady Jaina Proudmoore should reappear properly if the player logs out while completing the quest.

Creatures

• Maturing Raptor should spawn more frequently now.
• Trained Compy should spawn more frequently now.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• Throne of Thunder
  • Durumu the Forgotten
    • Durumu will now have a longer delay before resuming his attacks while the maze of Eye Sores despawn.
  • Iron Qon
    • During the final phase of the encounter, Iron Qon's Quilen champions should no longer try to reposition themselves in 10-player and 25-player Heroic difficulty.
    • Reduced the health of Ice Tomb.
  • Ji-Kun
    • Fixed an issue where players with Daedalian Wings may incorrectly receive the Lesson of Icarus debuff while flying between some of the upper nests.
  • Primordius
    • Fixed an issue that could cause Fully Mutated players to deal excessive damage to Living Fluids or Viscous Horrors that are under the effects of a Warlock's Immolate.
    • Reduced the health of Primordius by 11% in 10-player and 25-player Heroic difficulty.
    • Reduced the health of Viscous Horrors by 15% in 10-player and 25-player Heroic difficulty.
  • Tortos
    • Fixed an issue where certain situations could cause Whirl Turtles to travel more slowly than intended when kicked.
  • Twin Consorts
    • Reduced the health of Lu'lin and Suen by 10% in Raid Finder difficulty.

Items

• Socketing a legendary Meta Gem (Capacitive Primal Diamond, Courageous Primal Diamond, Indomitable Primal Diamond, and Sinister Primal Diamond) to a bind-on-equip helmet now causes the helmet to become soulbound.
• Courageous Primal Diamond should no longer have its Clearcasting effect get overwritten incorrectly, and the Clearcasting effect should no longer activate if the character is not in combat.
• Indomitable Primal Diamond should now properly have a chance to activate the Fortitude effect received from all damage sources, not just from auto-attacks.
• Rune of Re-Origination should now activate its effect more frequently for Hunters.

(source)

]]> Thu, 18 Apr 2013 07:36:32 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1902-patch-52-hotfixes-april-16/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1874-patch-53-brawlers-guild-updates/ In Patch 5.3, there will be two new tiers of Brawler's Guild fight. You can count on us to cover them, as well as to complete our offering of guides for rank 8 fights.

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

As more and more Blood-Soaked Invitations have been procured through the Black Market Auction House or distributed by ranking Brawler’s Guild members, the dark recesses of Stormwind and Orgrimmar echo with the sounds of epic battles. In Patch 5.3, Brawler’s Guild will be receiving some exciting changes which will offer members new challenges, unique rewards, and the ability to relive some of your favorite encounters. If you think you’ve mastered the arena, wait until you see what’s in store!

To start, two new tiers will offer Brawler’s Guild members the opportunity to reach rank 10, and will introduce eight new bosses. We don’t want to ruin the surprise and explain each fight, though, so it’ll be up to you to discover who these mighty foes are, and what they can do. Trust us, you’ll need plenty of Healing Potions.

Also new to the system are Challenge Cards. Whether out in the world fishing, doing some Archeology, or just sightseeing and finding a musically-talented grummle to /dance with, these new cards can be used to open up a quest and gain access to twelve new exclusive bosses! Keep a close lookout for the words, “RETURN TO BRAWLER'S GUILD.”

Now, it goes without saying that certain Brawler’s Guild boss encounters have been memorable for those who were able to survive. In Patch 5.3, we’re adding the ability to revisit past fights! Once you’ve defeated a tier or Challenge Card boss, you can then visit an NPC who sells Challenge Cards for each fight, allowing you the opportunity to repeat the encounter. For those of you who’d love another shot at taking down Epicus Maximus, this will be your chance.

So, you’ve had a busy day avoiding laser beams and gnashing teeth, and now you just want to relax. Why not visit the VIP lounge? Keep in mind that you’ll need to reach a certain rank to join the upper echelon of Brawler society, but obstacles like that never got in your way, right? For the Alliance, you’re already familiar with the roped-off doorway that leads to the mysterious area overlooking Bizmo’s Brawlpub. Spill blood, earn recognition, and you will be able to head on up! For the Horde, Garrosh begrudgingly loaned out a zeppelin to Brawl’gar Arena, where you can find refreshment and a scenic view!

From new, visually stimulating fights, to boss duos that will haunt you in your sleep, be prepared to laugh and cry, often at the same time! Oh, and if anyone asks, we’ve never spoken to each other. . . .

(source)

In Patch 5.3, the Brawler's Guild will have two new ranks, meaning that you will get to fight 8 more bosses and you will be able to unlock new rewards.

]]> Fri, 12 Apr 2013 18:58:33 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1874-patch-53-brawlers-guild-updates/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1870-patch-52-hotfixes-april-10/

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 5.2. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below went live the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. We will continue to update this list in the days to come as additional hotfixes are applied.

Below is a listing of 5.2 Hotfixes by date. A compilation of 5.2 Hotfixes is also available.

Patch Information

• Patch Notes
• Known Issues
• Technical Support & Troubleshooting

Classes

• Paladin
  • Item Sets
    • Tier-15 Retribution Paladin 2-piece set bonus will no longer interrupt the Paladin's weapon swing timer when Exorcism is cast.

Quests

• Charged Moganite: Players under the effects of Charged Moganite will now deal a flat amount of nature damage against a target, subject to the effects of Resilience and other effects that reduce spell damage.
• The Darkness Within: Captain Doren should no longer get stuck in evade if a player dies while he is casting Rejection.

Creatures

• Loa-Infused Bladetalon now deals less damage when using the Pounce ability.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• Throne of Thunder
  • Elemental and Restoration Shamans are now eligible for caster staves that give a bonus to Spirit (Giorgio's Caduceus of Pure Moods, and Suen-Wo, Spire of the Falling Sun) in Raid Finder difficulty and via bonus rolls.
  • Elemental Shamans are now eligible for caster staves that give a bonus to Hit (Dinomancer's Spiritbinding Spire) in Raid Finder difficulty and via bonus rolls.
  • Council of Elders
    • Decreased the power gain rate of possessed council members in 10-player Normal difficulty.
    • Frost King Malakk now deals less damage with each stack of Frostbite in 10-player Normal difficulty.
    • Sul the Sandcrawler now deals less damage with Sandbolt in 10-player Normal difficulty.
  • Durumu the Forgotten
    • Disintegration Beam now dissipates sooner before reaching the end of the maze.
    • We've created a forum thread discussing additional details behind recent adjustments for the Durumu encounter.
  • Horridon
    • Reduced the health of Farraki Wastewalkers, Gurubashi Venom priests, Drakkari Frozen Warlords, and Amani Warbears in the Horridon encounter by 15% in 10-player Normal difficulty.
    • Drakkari Frozen Warlord now deals less damage with Mortal Strike in 10-player Normal difficulty.
    • Risen Drakkari Champions and Warriors now deals less damage with Deadly Plague in 10-player Normal difficulty.
  • Primordius
    • Reduced the health of Primordius slightly in 10-player and 25-player Heroic difficulty.
  • Tortos
    • Whirl Turtles now have a reduced base movement speed in 10-player Normal difficulty.
    • Vampiric Cave Bats now deal less damage in 10-player Normal difficulty.
• Heart of Fear
  • Garalon
    • Garalon's enrage timer has been increased to 12 minutes, up from 7 minutes in 10-player and 25-player Normal difficulty.

Items

• Brutal Talisman of the Shadow-Pan Assault now grants a reduced bonus of 6908 to Strength when the effect is activated in PvP combat, down from 8800. The bonus remains unchanged when the effect is activated in PvE combat.
• Vicious Talisman of the Shadow-Pan Assault now grants a reduced bonus of 6908 to Agility when the effect is activated in PvP combat, down from 8800. The bonus remains unchanged when the effect is activated in PvE combat.  

(source)

]]> Fri, 12 Apr 2013 09:35:32 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1870-patch-52-hotfixes-april-10/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1857-patch-52-hotfixes-april-9/

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 5.2. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below went live the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. We will continue to update this list in the days to come as additional hotfixes are applied.

Below is a listing of 5.2 Hotfixes by date. A compilation of 5.2 Hotfixes is also available.

Patch Information

• Patch Notes
• Known Issues
• Technical Support & Troubleshooting

Classes

• Hunter
  • Talents
    • Powershot now has a 25% decrease to damage, cast time, cooldown, and focus cost.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• Throne of Thunder
  • Durumu the Forgotten
    • Safe spots in the maze of Eye Sores now appear earlier, before the Disintegration Beam starts moving.
    • Adjustments were made to visual effects for Eye Sores to make it easier to see the maze.
  • Primordius
    • Mutated Abomination effect once again reduces his damage taken from non-Fully Mutated players by 75% on 10-player and 25-player Heroic difficulty only. 

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a crash that occured when Gnomes or Taurens log into the game while riding a mount over water.

(source)

]]> Wed, 10 Apr 2013 08:17:50 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1857-patch-52-hotfixes-april-9/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1854-patch-52-hotfixes-april-2-april-4-april-8/

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 5.2. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below went live the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. We will continue to update this list in the days to come as additional hotfixes are applied.

Below is a listing of 5.2 Hotfixes by date. A compilation of 5.2 Hotfixes is also available.

Patch Information

• Patch Notes
• Known Issues
• Technical Support & Troubleshooting

General

• Brightly Colored Eggs now spawn more frequently.

Creatures

• Zandalari Beast Handler is now properly seated in a saddle while riding a Direhorrn.

Quests

• Extended Shore Leave: This quest has been temporarily removed from quest rotation to address an issue with the Zandalari Warship.
• To the Skies!: Fixed an issue where players would remain on Thunderwing and be unable to progress to Stage 3.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• Fixed an issue where Warlocks remained in the wrong phase at The Black Temple after completing the quest Seek the Signal.
• Assassination Rogues should no longer be receiving non-dagger agility weapons from bonus rolls and Raid Finder.
• Vampiric Cave Bat now deals less damage in Raid Finder difficulty.
• Throne of Thunder
  • Giorgio's Caduceus of Pure Moods is no longer being awarded to Elemental and Restoration Shamans on Raid Finder difficulty or via bonus rolls.
  • Primordius
    • During the Primordius encounter, spells which dispel a single harmful effect (Sear Magic, Single Magic, or Mass Dispel) will no longer work if any of the positive effects are active on the target (Improved Synapses, Keen Eyesight, Thick Bones, Clear Mind, or Fully Mutated).
  • Durumu the Forgotten
    • During the Light Spectrum phase, Yellow Eye's cone now moves more quickly on Raid Finder difficulty.
    • Eye Sore and Mind Daggers now deal less damage on Raid Finder difficulty.
    • Amber Fog, Azure Fog, and Crimson Fog now remain visible after being revealed on Raid Finder difficulty.
  • Ra-den
    • Fixed an issue that could prevent Ra-den from absorbing Essences of Anima/Vita as intended.
    • Engaging Ra-den now resets the cooldown on Reincarnation for Shamans.

Items

• Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon now has a reduced chance to activate its effect for characters that are level 61-69 and its effect no longer activates for characters above level 69.
• Inscribed Bag of Hydra-Spawn now has an increased chance to activate its shielding effect.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where some situations could cause players to not receive credit towards Pay to Slay or It Was Worth Every Ritual Stone achievement after defeating Incomplete Drakkari Colossus.

(source)

]]> Tue, 09 Apr 2013 08:33:30 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1854-patch-52-hotfixes-april-2-april-4-april-8/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1831-blizzcon-2013-tickets-on-sale-april-24-and-27/

Blizzcon Website

Mark your calendars—a Blizzard is coming to Southern California! Tickets for BlizzCon^® 2013 will go on sale in two batches on Wednesday, April 24 at 7 p.m. PDT and Saturday, April 27 at 10 a.m. PDT through the official BlizzCon website. In addition, a limited number of tickets to an exclusive pre-BlizzCon Benefit Dinner will go on sale Wednesday, May 1 at 7 p.m. PDT.

BlizzCon 2013 takes place November 8 and 9 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA, and tickets to the two-day show will be available at $175 USD each. Tickets to the Benefit Dinner (which includes admission to BlizzCon) will be priced at $500 USD each, with proceeds benefitting Children’s Hospital of Orange County. Tickets to previous BlizzCon events have sold out within minutes, so be sure to synchronize your hourglasses.

Paladins, demon hunters, and Ghosts who can’t make it to the show in person will once again have the option to enjoy BlizzCon from home by ordering a BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, offering comprehensive live coverage of the event via a multi-channel Internet stream. Further details on the Virtual Ticket, including pricing, availability, and programming information, will be announced at a later date.

See the full press release or check out the BlizzCon Ticket page for more information, and be sure visit the official BlizzCon website at the dates and times above for a chance to purchase a ticket to the show. We hope to see you in Anaheim!

(source)

Blizzcon 2013 will take place November 8 and 9 at the Anaheim Convention Center. Tickets to the event will go on sale in two batches on Wednesday, April 24 and Saturday, April 27.

]]> Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:20:27 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1831-blizzcon-2013-tickets-on-sale-april-24-and-27/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1819-patch-52-hotfixes-march-29/

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 5.2. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below went live the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. We will continue to update this list in the days to come as additional hotfixes are applied.

Patch Information

• Patch Notes
• Known Issues
• Technical Support & Troubleshooting  

Classes

• Mage
  • Tier-15 Fire/Frost 4-piece set bonus should now properly increase Frostbolt's chance to activate Fingers of Frost effect.
• Priest
  • Tier-15 Discipline/Holy 4-piece set bonus should summon a Golden Apparition that now heals for the correct amount and can activate Divine Aegis.
• Rogue
  • Combat
    • Blade Flurry now has a range of 8 yards, up from 5 yards, and will only hit targets that are within the Rogue's line-of-sight.  

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• Ji-Kun's Feed Young ability should now be slightly easier to intercept.
• To the Skies!: Fixed an issue where the Hail of Arrows debuff not being removed after defeating Beastmaster Horaki.  

Items

• Enchant Weapon - Glorious Tyranny can no longer be used on other player's weapons and will cause bind-on-equipped items to become soulbound.
• Lightning-Imbued Chalice now has a greatly increased chance to generate Infinite Power.  

(source)

]]> Tue, 02 Apr 2013 05:35:14 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1819-patch-52-hotfixes-march-29/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1787-patch-52-hotfixes-march-27/

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 5.2. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below went live the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. We will continue to update this list in the days to come as additional hotfixes are applied.

Patch Information

• Patch Notes
• Known Issues
• Technical Support & Troubleshooting

Classes

• Druid
  • Tier-15 Feral Druid 2-piece set bonus should now work correctly with Savage Roar while Glyph of Savagery is active.
• Monk
  • Tier-15 Brewmaster Monk 2-piece set bonus should now correctly increase Stagger by 12%.
  • Fixed a situation where Tier-15 Mistweaver Monk 2-piece set bonus could cause Renewing Mist to heal more than intended.
  • Charges of Mana Tea, Tigereye Brew, and Elusive Brew will now be removed after the Preparation buff wears off in Battlegrounds.
• Paladin
  • Fixed an issue where Word of Glory or Eternal Flame did not work when both Divine Purpose and Tier-15 Protection Paladin 2-piece set bonus was present.
• Priest
  • For Discipline Priests with Divine Aegis, Prayer of Healing criticals should now heal for the correct amount.
  • Power Word: Solace should now correctly have a chance to activate item and enchantment effects.
• Shaman
  • Chain Heal now heals for 20% more.
  • Healing Rain now heals for 20% more.
  • Restoration
    • Earthliving Weapon now heals for 20% more.

Creatures

• Itoka's Strange Metal Ingot can now be looted by multiple players.
• Oondasta's health had been reduced by 50%.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• Throne of Thunder
  • Fixed an issue where bracers with a random secondary stat may be awarded to the wrong role through Raid Finder or bonus roll.
  • Fixed an issue where zone drops were incorrectly disenchanting into Haunting Spirit.

Items

• Big Bag of Zandalari Supplies is now soulbound.
• Dragonmaw, Reborn now has a bonus to spellpower.
• The Drakefist Hammer, Reborn now has a bonus to spellpower.

Bug Fixes

• Tyrannical Conquest achievement should now be correctly tracking a character's Conquest gains.

(source)

]]> Fri, 29 Mar 2013 09:15:55 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1787-patch-52-hotfixes-march-27/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1786-transmogrification-guides-updated-for-52/
For our Patch 5.4 update, we will work on getting our model screenshots from the WoW Model Viewer, so that we can give you the option to display the models the way they look for female characters as well as for characters of all possible races. We may even be able to show items the way they will look in Shadowform.

So, stay tuned ]]> Fri, 29 Mar 2013 08:54:19 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1786-transmogrification-guides-updated-for-52/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1749-53-ptr-patch-notes-now-available/

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

Patch 5.3 will soon be available for testing on the Public Test Realms ! By participating, you can help us test new content before it's available. This patch includes a brand new Battleground, a new arena, new scenarios, assorted bug fixes, and more.

Please keep in mind that the below notes are not final, and a great deal could change before the final patch 5.3 release.

General

• Please note: During the 5.3 PTR, not all the content listed may not be available for testing or may only be available during a limited testing window. Keep an eye on our PTR Discussion forum for details.
• New Battleground: Deepwind Gorge
  • In the new Battleground situated in the Valley of the Four Winds, the Alliance and Horde continue their war for Pandaria’s precious resources. While the two factions battle for control over mines, they must also protect their own resources from being stolen and turned against them!
• New Arena: Shado-Pan
  • Gladiator hopefuls have a new location to test their mettle amidst the Kun-Lai mountain tops, in the training grounds of the powerful Shado-Pan. Players must make use of the looming tiger statues and fenced platforms to gain an advantage that will bring victory and glory!
• New Scenario: Battle on the High Seas
  • Help your faction fend off enemy forces in the midst of a battle for naval supremacy on the High Seas.
• New Scenario: Blood in the Snow
  • An agent of Zandalar has infiltrated Dun Morogh and rallied the Frostmane trolls. At Varian’s request, Moira will lead her personal guard against them once the king’s champions have stopped the magical storm protecting Shimmer Ridge.
• New Scenario: Dark Heart of Pandaria
  • Goblin engineers have been excavating in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms to find a mysterious artifact, but all they've found is trouble; you have been personally called upon by the Warchief to aid them in their hour of need.
• New Scenario: The Secrets of Emberdeep
  • Infiltrate the Emberdeep Caverns and assist the Gob Squad in investigating a recent disappearance in Durotar.
• Heroic Scenarios
  • A heroic difficulty for Scenarios have been added and are designed to provide challenging content for small groups of well-seasoned adventurers. Completing a Heroic Scenario awards Valor points, and a chance to obtain Raid Finder quality items.
     

Classes

• Death Knights
  • More information coming soon.  
• Druid
  • Mark of the Wild had its mana cost reduced to 5%, down from 10%.
  • Symbiosis: Intimidating Roar had its cooldown increased to 90 seconds, up from 60 seconds.  
• Hunter
  • More information coming soon.  
• Mage
  • Arcane Brilliance had its mana cost reduced to 1%, down from 4%.
  • Dalaran Brilliance had its mana cost reduced to 1%, down from 4%.  
• Monk
  • Spear Hand Strike now locks a spell school out for 4 seconds, down from 5 seconds.
  • Windwalker
    • Legacy of the Emperor had its energy cost reduced to 1%, down from 6%.
    • Legacy of the White Tiger had its energy cost reduced to 1%, down from 6%.  
• Paladin
  • Blessing of Kings had its mana cost reduced to 5%, down from 22.3%.
  • Blessing of Might had its mana cost reduced to 5%, down from 22.3%.  
• Priest
  • Power Word: Fortitude had its mana cost reduced to 1%, down from 4.4%.  
• Rogue
  • More information coming soon.  
• Shaman
  • More information coming soon.  
• Warlock
  • Dark Intent had its mana cost reduced to 1%, down from 4%.  
• Warrior
  • Vigilance now resets the cooldown on Taunt in addition to its current effects.  

Quests

• More information coming soon.  

Creatures

• Oondasta
  • Shiny Pile of Refuse now has a chance to contain a Primal Egg, and a number of Dinosaur Bones.
  • Spitfire Beam no longer increases in damage with each jump, deals a flat 200,000 damage(up from 150,000 damage), and jumps to 99 targets (up from 20 targets).  

Pet Battles

• Dueling for Pet Battles are now available in all dungeons and raids. Enjoy!  

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• Loot Specialization
  • Players can now choose to receive loot for a specialization that's different from their current class role. This feature could be accessed by right-clicking on the character portrait and selecting the option from the drop-down list. Loot specialization is available for bonus rolls, Raid Finder, and Pandarian quest rewards.
• Raids
  • Bonus Roll
    • Protection for bad luck streaks have been added to bonus rolls. Each bonus roll that does not provide loot has a progressively better chance to award loot to the player.
  • Serpentshrine Cavern
    • For the Fathom-Lord Karathress encounter, Cataclysmic Bolt now deals 10% of the target's maximum health plus 500 damage, down from 50% of target's maximum health, the stun effect is now a Stun mechanic, and can target any player instead of only characters with mana.
    • Lady Vashj
      • Coilfang Strider's Panic ability now activates every 4 seconds, up from every 2 seconds.
      • Shock Blast's stun effect is now a  Stun mechanic.
      • Tainted Elementals now despawn after 20 seconds, up from 15 seconds.
  • Tempest Keep
    • For the High Astromancer Solarian encounter, Nether Scryer's Domination spell now has a 2 second cast time, up from instant cast, and can be silenced.
    • For the Void Reaver encounter, the radius for Arcane Orb has been reduced to 15 yards, down from 20 yards.
  • Throne of Thunder
    • Amani’shi Beast Shaman no longer casts Chain Lightning while mounted on Amani Warbears.  

PvP

• Additional information and explanation for the reasoning behind PvP changes will be available very soon.
• All characters now have a base Resilience of 65%.
• Resilience has been removed from most PvP gear.
• Season 13 Tyrannical gear had their item levels increased to ilevel 496, up from ilevel 493.
• Season 13 Tyrannical Elite gear had their item levels decreased to ilevel 496, down from ilevel 512.
• Battlegrounds, Rated Battlegrounds, and Arenas now have an ilevel cap. All gear will be scaled down to ilevel 496.  

Battlegrounds

• More information coming soon.  

Professions

• Herbalists of low skill can now pick herbs in Pandaria for a small amount of usable material. The yield an herbalist will be able to harvest from each node is determined by skill level.
• Miners of low skill can now mine mineral deposits in Pandaria for a small amount of usable material. The yield a miner will be able to harvest from each node is determined by skill level.  

Items

• The Voidbinders are back in capital cities and shrines.
  • PvE Item Upgrades
    • Items upgradable by Valor now require 250 Valor to upgrade per 4 item levels, for a total of 500 Valor for 8 item levels per item. This is retroactive to all items that use Valor.
    • Items upgradable by Justice now require 750 Justice to upgrade per 8 item levels, for a total of 750 Justice for 8 item levels per item. This is retroactive to all items that use Justice.
  • PvP Item Upgrades
    • Malevolent Gladiator’s Conquest (Season 12) items that have upgrades available are still upgradable at their original costs.
    • Dreadful Gladiator’s Honor (Season 12) items that have upgrades available are still upgradable at their original costs.
    • No other PvP items are upgradable.
• Unclaimed Black Market Containers are now available on the Black Market Auction House. What's inside? It's a mystery! When opened, the container has a chance to contain any item that can be available on the BMAH.
• Courageous Primal Diamond had its clearcasting effect renamed to “Lucidity” to differentiate it from other spells with that name.  

UI

• More information coming soon.  

Bug Fixes

• More information coming soon.  

(source)

Patch 5.3 Notes are now available and PTR is up.

]]> Sat, 23 Mar 2013 09:26:56 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1749-53-ptr-patch-notes-now-available/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1744-item-upgrades-in-53/

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

As you’re probably aware we introduced a new system in 5.1 which allowed you to upgrade some gear a few items levels at a time by paying with the PvE (Valor/Justice) and PvP (Conquest/Honor) currencies. In 5.2 the Voidbinders (NPCs who perform item upgrades) took a break to let people focus on just acquiring new items with their points. It also gave us time to evaluate the system, and decide how we want to continue supporting it.

PvE Item Upgrades in 5.3:

• Voidbinders will return to their places in capital cities and shrines.
• Items upgradable by Valor now require 250 Valor to upgrade per 4 item levels, for a total of 500 Valor for 8 item levels per item.
  • This is retroactive to all items that use Valor.
• 5.2 Justice items now require 750 Justice to upgrade per 8 item levels, for a total of 750 Justice for 8 item levels per item.
  • This is retroactive to all items that use Justice.
  • This is higher than Valor to account for the increased acquisition rate of Justice since patch 5.2.

We still like the upgrade system for PvE as a way to make steady progression against bosses you can’t quite kill yet. You very predictably earn Valor every day, and use that Valor toward increasing your character’s power and overcoming an obstacle. It’s also good that Valor always has a use; it’s a currency we always want to be valuable regardless of where you are in progression.

The thing we didn’t like about item upgrades previously was that it created these rather brutal decisions where you were essentially betting against yourself, or having to offload large sums of Valor to keep from capping. If you just got a belt, but next week you’re going up against a Heroic boss that drops a best-in-slot belt for you, you might bet that you’ll get that belt and so you’d wait to upgrade it. But that’s complicated by the issue of being Valor capped and needing to spend some. So you dump Valor on upgrading a different slot and just hope you don’t replace that one instead.

In 5.3 the costs are dramatically cut to the point that these decisions are far less brutal, and you can pretty easily upgrade every slot instead of hedging bets against specific slots being replaced or not. In the example above you could go ahead and fully upgrade that new belt for only 500 Valor, as opposed to the 1500 it would have cost you before.

PvP Item Upgrades in 5.3:

• Malevolent Gladiator’s Conquest (Season 12) items that have upgrades available are still upgradable at their original costs.
• Dreadful Gladiator’s Honor (Season 12) items that have upgrades available are still upgradable at their original costs.
• No other PvP items are upgradable, and no new PvP items for the foreseeable future will use the upgrade system.

It shouldn’t be too surprising, given that we’ve already come out and said it some weeks ago, that item upgrades are essentially not coming back for PvP. It’s something a lot of PvPers asked that we remove, it’s something we didn’t feel worked out too well, and so unsurprisingly the result is that it isn’t coming back. We’re still probably going to allow the Season 12 items that had previous upgradability to remain upgradable, as noted in the bullets above, but it’s not something we’re absolutely certain about at this moment. We’ll let you know if that changes.

Because gearing in PvP is based almost entirely on currency purchases, Conquest and Honor already always have a use, and we ask players to amass a lot of them to continue gearing. Honestly it was fairly unanimous that balancing the means of gear acquisition against upgrades just didn’t make good sense, at least with the current systems.

(source)

Item upgrades will be back in Patch 5.3, but there have been a few adjustments since Patch 5.1, when they were first introduced.

]]> Fri, 22 Mar 2013 18:38:44 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1744-item-upgrades-in-53/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1743-hearthstone-heroes-of-warcraft-revealed-at-pax-east/

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

We’re excited to announce Blizzard’s newest game today: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft! It’s a free-to-play strategy card game that’s deceptively simple and insanely fun, coming to Windows, Mac, and the iPad!

Join us over at the new Hearthstone website at PlayHearthstone.com, and follow the game on Twitter @PlayHearthstone , at YouTube.com/Hearthstone , and Facebook.com/PlayHearthstone , where we’ll be sharing news, artwork, videos, and announcements, live from PAX East and beyond!

(source)

Hearthstone is a Trading Card Game that will be playable on PC and MAC (and later on, on the iPad). It is planned to be released at the end of the year.

]]> Fri, 22 Mar 2013 17:24:46 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1743-hearthstone-heroes-of-warcraft-revealed-at-pax-east/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1740-patch-52-hotfixes-march-21/

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 5.2. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below went live the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. We will continue to update this list in the days to come as additional hotfixes are applied.

Patch Information

• Patch Notes
• Known Issues
• Technical Support & Troubleshooting

Classes

• Warlock
  • Demonic Gateway should no longer despawn when the casting Warlock moves far away.

Quests

• Crumbled Chamberlain: Statue pieces now do not despawn when looted, allowing other players to loot the statue piece as well.
• Stone Cold: Fixed an issue where players were unable to interact with Grave Guardian statues.

Creatures

• Oondastas for everyone! Oondasta now respawns much more frequently.
• Exchange Guards have resumed their stance of not interfering with players engaged in Horde/Alliance hostilities(PvP combat).

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• Throne of Thunder
  • Gastropod should now favor attackers that are at range.
  • Reduced the amount of creatures in the area leading up to Ji-Kun in Raid Finder.
  • Fixed an issue where players winning a bonus roll after defeating Iron Qon on Heroic mode could receive a non-heroic version of the tier token.
  • Fixed an issue where damage from Lei Shen's Crashing Thunder, Lightning Whip, Overcharge and Discharged Energy was not being reduced by Feint.
  • Twin Consorts
    • Reduced the health of Suen and Lu'lin in 25-player Heroic mode.
• Icecrown Citadel
  • Fixed an issue where Master Looters were unable to assign Shadowfrost Shards to another player.
• Temple of Ahn'Qiraj
  • The Prophet Skeram has loot again and no longer creates illusions for now. He'll be back to normal in a future patch.

Items

• Increased the cast time to perform the ritual for summonable bosses using Shan'ze Ritual Stones on the Isle of Thunder from 2 seconds to 5 seconds.
• All uncommon(green) item drops from the Isle of Thunder should now be disenchantable.
• Darkmoon Whistle should no longer cause other players to drop out of stealth.
• Essence of the Breeze should now only usable while on the continent of Pandaria.

(source)

]]> Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:12:06 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1740-patch-52-hotfixes-march-21/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1733-two-years-of-icy-veins/

Two years ago on this day, Vlad and I launched Icy Veins. You can go to http://old.icy-veins.com to see the site exactly how it was on the day of the launch. At the time, we had only 1 raid encounter guide (Chimaeron) and 3 class guides (Fire Mage, Frost Mage, and Holy Paladin). It probably doesn't seem much to those who recently started coming to our website, but back then, putting these guides together felt like a lot of work. Anyway, we kept working and over a year later, we had a complete offering of class and encounter guides (plus a few other goodies, like transmog and event guides). Then Mists of Pandaria hit the shelves, and our 5.0.4 class guides got heavily linked on MMO-Champion, which is when most our of current visitors discovered us.

Thanks to this exposure, our traffic increased enough that we now both make a modest living off the website. This is great news for us because our efforts have finally paid off. We've been working full time on the website since day 1, so we took a huge gamble, as we could have both probably had successful careers in our respective fields. It's been difficult financially for the both of us, but those days now seem to be behind us. This is also great news for you, our readers, because it means that we will be able to keep working on the website for the foreseeable future, and we have many plans to make Icy Veins an even better resource.

This 2-year journey hasn't always been a pleasure cruise and there have been a few hard moments, like when our Dragon Soul encounter guides were not as successful (traffic-wise) as we had anticipated them to be, or when Diablo 3 was released and our traffic was divided by 2 over night. Fortunately, our work has always been very positively received, and whenever we were going through a bit of a crisis, there would always be a message in our mailbox to praise our work, and it would make us confident again, ready to get back to work.

So, many thanks to everyone who has supported us over the past 2 years, your kind words never went unnoticed (be sure of that). There are people that we would like to thank especially, because they really helped us a lot:

• our respective wives for putting up with our hobby-turned-main-occupation;
• Michael Oglesby, for helping us (originally in his spare time) with design work and usability issues;
• Zagam, our Warlock moderator, who is doing a terrific job with his Warlock section;
• Boubouille and Chaud from MMO-Champion for pushing our website into a different category when MoP was released and for the continued support since then;
• the Ask Mr. Robot team, and Vee in particular, for the all interesting discussions on stat weights/priorities and for the advice regarding advertising solutions for our website;
• all the community team at Blizzard, especially Zahrym and Nethaera, for noticing our work and often promoting it, and for sending us those awesome prizes for our Christmas contest;
• the development team of Simulation Craft for making such a wonderful and useful tool.

]]> Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:48:19 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1733-two-years-of-icy-veins/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1729-patch-52-hotfixes-march-19/

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 5.2. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below went live the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. We will continue to update this list in the days to come as additional hotfixes are applied.

Patch Information

• Patch Notes
• Known Issues
• Technical Support & Troubleshooting

Classes

• Monk
  • Tier-15 Mistweaver 2-piece set bonus should now increase the healing of Renewing Mist by the correct amount.
• Paladin
  • Hand of Purity no longer reduces the damage dealt by effects that ignore immunities.

Quests

• Captive Audience: Fixed an issue with Rune Prisons that prevented new captives from spawning.

Creatures

• Summonable bosses on the Isle of Thunder now leash back instead of despawning when pulled too far from their spawn point.
• Zandalari Warbringers are now immune to crowd control and interrupt effects.
• Fixed an issue where some players may not receive loot after defeating Nalak.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• Mogu'shan Vaults
  • Increased the time before the gate to closes while engaging Feng the Accursed to 8 seconds, up from 3 seconds.
• Throne of Thunder
  • Council of Elders
    • Reduced the penalty to damage taken from the Shadowed Soul debuff from 5% to 3% per stack on 10-player Heroic mode.
  • Dark Animus
    • Dark Animus will now use its abilities at more consistent intervals.
    • Interrupting Jolt now deals less damage on 10/25-player Heroic mode.
    • Explosive Slam now deals significantly less damage on 10-player Heroic mode.
    • Fixed an issue where Matter Swap could sometimes teleport players beneath the world.
  • Ji-Kun
    • Fixed an issue where Bore Worms would remain submerged.
    • Fixed an issue where Bow Fly Swarms would enter combat while remaining out of melee range.
  • Lei Shen
    • Fixed an issue where players defeating Lei Shen did not receive credit towards the Pinnacle of Storms achievement.
  • Megaera
    • Reduced the damage dealt by Megaera’s breaths and Ignite Flesh on 10-player Normal mode.
    • Reduced the damage dealt by Rampage on 10-player Normal mode.

PvP

• Season 13 Tyrannical weapons had their item levels increased to ilevel 498, up from ilevel 493, to match Season 12 Elite weapons.
• Season 13 Malevolent Honor gear now gives more Stamina, making them comparable to Season 12 counterparts.

Battlegrounds

• Eye of the Storm: Horde teams are now being awarded the proper amount of victory points when holding 3 towers.

Items

• Ra'sha's Sacrificial Dagger now has an increased cooldown for its special ability.

UI

• There should no longer be a delay in displaying Isle of Thunder stage progression status on the World Map.

(source)

]]> Thu, 21 Mar 2013 07:59:34 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1729-patch-52-hotfixes-march-19/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1723-lei-shen-written-guide-and-heroic-jinrokh/ Lei Shen. Moreover, we have updated our Jin'rokh the Breaker guide for Heroic mode.

You can expect us to focus extensively on finishing our video guide coverage for the Throne of Thunder bosses in the week to come.

Thank you for all your support and feedback.]]> Tue, 19 Mar 2013 21:23:40 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1723-lei-shen-written-guide-and-heroic-jinrokh/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1715-patch-52-hotfixes-march-15/

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 5.2. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below went live the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. We will continue to update this list in the days to come as additional hotfixes are applied.

Patch Information

• Patch Notes
• Known Issues
• Technical Support & Troubleshooting

Classes

• Death Knight
  • Fixed an issue where Chilblains may fail to apply its snare effect.
• Druid
  • Symbiosis will now cancel properly if the Druid and the target remains separated for a period of time.
• Hunter
  • Dire Beast summons should now have the Avoidance aura.
• Mage
  • General
    • Incanter's Ward is no longer transferred to a Mage who Spellsteals it, but is dispelled from the target.
  • Talents
    • Living Bomb now deals 70% of its damage when used against other players, down from 100%.
    • Nether Tempest now deals 70% of its damage when used against other players, down from 100%.
• Paladin
  • Divine Purpose should no longer activate from unsuccessful attempts to cast Inquisition.
• Warrior
  • Glyph of Die by the Sword should now only apply its effect for Warriors that have that it set as an active glyph.

Quests

• Be Raptor: Fixed an issue where the final cutscene may not display correctly. Players should now be able to obtain completion credit and turn the quest in.
• Liquid Gold: Players should now be able to loot supply crates and complete the quest.
• Lunk's Adventure: Rendan's Weakness: Iron Summit Guards should now join the conga line, allowing players to complete the quest.

Creatures

• Arcanital Mara'kah's barrier spell now lasts 30 seconds, up from 20 seconds.
• Players of both factions are now eligible to receive loot from Nalak when at least one of the factions has fully unlocked the Isle of Thunder.

Pet Battles

• Resilient should now properly prevent Critter pets from being stunned by Rupture.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• Throne of Thunder
  • Council of Elders
    • Fixed an issue where the Council of Elders did not always drop 2 items on 10-player normal mode.
  • Durumu the Forgotten
    • Azure Fogs are now no longer able to be damaged by area-of-effect spells when they are not revealed.
  • Twin Consorts
    • Suen's Fan of Flames now has a 50-yard range.
       

PvP

• Tyrannical Conquest achievement for both factions now requires a character to obtain 25,000 Conquest points in Season 13, down from 27,000 Conquest. The tooltip and progress indicator will still display that the character needs 27,000 Conquest. This will be fixed in a future patch.

Items

• Reduced the higher than intended drop rates for Shado-Pan Assault Insignia from Sunreaver Bounty.

UI

• Fixed an issue where stage progression on the world map for Isle of Thunder was not displaying correctly for players outside the isle.
• Reduced the amount of spam on Local Defense - Isle of Thunder channel while engaging Kirin Tor or Sunreaver NPCs.

Bug Fixes

• Using a potion while under Stealth/Invisibility no longer causes the potion to go on permanent cooldown.

(source)

]]> Sun, 17 Mar 2013 20:45:56 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1715-patch-52-hotfixes-march-15/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1705-patch-52-hotfixes-march-14/

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 5.2. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below went live the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. We will continue to update this list in the days to come as additional hotfixes are applied.

Patch Information

• Patch Notes
• Known Issues
• Technical Support & Troubleshooting

Classes

• Monk
  • Chi Wave should now correctly bounce between targets that are in range.

Creatures

• Oondasta should no longer drop Terrorful Weave for Discipline and Holy Priests, and Girdle of Dimorphodontics should no longer drop for Mages and Warlocks.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• The time for players to decide if they want to use a bonus roll has been increased to 3 minutes.

PvP

• Conquest quartermasters should now be properly stocked with PvP rings, amulets, and trinkets.

Professions

• Thunderforges on the Isle of Thunder can now also function as a normal anvil and forge.
• Archeology
  • Mantid archeology items should now correctly award a Mantid Amber Sliver when turned in.

(source)

]]> Fri, 15 Mar 2013 20:45:26 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1705-patch-52-hotfixes-march-14/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1683-patch-52-hotfixes-march-12/

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 5.2. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below went live the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. We will continue to update this list in the days to come as additional hotfixes are applied.

Patch Information

• Patch Notes
• Known Issues
• Technical Support & Troubleshooting

Classes

• Our lead systems designer share the reasoning behind some recent class changes.
• Death Knight
  • Blood
    • Rune Strike now deals 25% more damage.
  • Frost
    • Howling Blast had its area-of-effect splash damage equal to 50% of the damage taken by the primary target (down from 65%).
  • Unholy
    • Unholy Frenzy damage will no longer break crowd-control effects that break on damage.
• Mage
  • Talents
    • Frost Bomb now deals 40% more damage. Frost Bomb now deals 60% of its damage when used against other players, down from 80%.
    • Living Bomb now deals 40% more damage.
    • Nether Tempest now deals 40% more damage.
• Monk
  • Windwalker
    • Spirits summoned by Storm, Earth, and Fire should now deal the correct amount of damage with Rushing Jade Wind.
• Priest
  • Shadow Word: Pain now deals 25% less damage.
• Warlock
  • General
    • Corruption now deals 25% less damage.
  • Talents
    • Blood Horror now checks that the Warlock has at least 5% health before casting.
  • Demonology
    • Doom now deals 25% less damage.
• Warrior
  • Protection
    • Deep Wounds now deals 50% more damage for Protection Warriors.
    • Shield Slam now deals 25% more damage.

Quests

• Flight in the Firelands: Fixed an issue where players were unable to complete the quest.
• Pterrible Ptorment: Spawn rate of Tormented Skyscreamer has been increased and fixed an issue where players in certain situations were unable to complete the quest.

Pet Battles

• Gusting Grimoire is now a Rare quality companion pet.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• Our lead encounter designer offers their thoughts on feedback regarding raid boss hotfixes.
• Throne of Thunder
  • Horridon
    • Reduced the health of adds in the Horridon encounter by 15% for 10-player normal mode and 10% for 25-player normal mode.
  • Lei Shen
    • Fixed an issue where images of Past Self created by Alter Time could be killed during the encounter.
  • Megaera
    • Reduced the health of Megaera's heads in 10-player normal and heroic modes.
  • Zandalari Council
    • Kazra'jin's Reckless Charge should no longer hit players twice at the point of impact.
• Scholomance
  • Fixed an issue in Challenge Mode where players may not receive credit for killing Lilian Voss.

PvP

• Malevolent Gladiator's Endgame now matches Malevolent Gladiator's Reprieve in PvP Power and PvP Resilience. The additional 274 PvP Power has been replaced with 274 PvP Resilience.

Battlegrounds

• Secondary stats on heirloom items should now scale correctly while inside a Battleground.

Items

• Protections for unlucky streaks have been added for trinkets that use the RPPM (real procs per minute) system.
  • Activation chance for trinket effects on a pull has been increased.
  • Every time the trinket fails to activate, there's an increasing chance that it will activate.
  • Increased the activation chance for agility and strength trinkets from Throne of Thunder by 10%.
  • Increased the activation chance for intellect and spirit trinkets from Throne of Thunder by 5%.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where players may be unable to obtain Isle of Thunder daily quests for Stage 2.
• Fixed an issue where some players may be unable to loot Isle of Thunder rare spawns.
• Players will no longer get dismounted when flying over the Shrine of Goldrinn.

(source)

]]> Wed, 13 Mar 2013 07:38:10 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1683-patch-52-hotfixes-march-12/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1670-patch-52-hotfixes-march-11/

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 5.2. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below went live the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. We will continue to update this list in the days to come as additional hotfixes are applied.

Patch Information

• Patch Notes
• Known Issues
• Technical Support & Troubleshooting

Classes

• Rogue
  • Blind should now break on damage from Frozen Orb.

Quests

• Beast of Fable: Players should now be able to obtain credit for defeating Greyhoof.
• More Giant Dinosaur Bones and Many More Giant Dinosaur Bones can now only be completed once per day.

Creatures

• Players visiting a different realm are no longer eligible to receive loot from Oondasta or Nalak, The Storm Lord. A forum thread discussing the reasoning for this change have been created.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Oondasta to not award loot to some players.
• Fetid Meat Pile now properly lets players that are sufficiently far away to drop out of combat.
• Zandalari Dinomancers now have a much lower chance to drop the Zandalari Anklerender, Footslasher, Kneebiter, and Toenibbler.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• All raid bosses now drop the appropriate number of tier tokens for Raid Finder, 10/25-player normal and heroic modes.
• Fixed an issue where Luck of the Draw would sometimes be incorrectly applied to Challenge Mode groups.
• Throne of Thunder
  • Combustion now deals 100% of the player’s damage to Primordius while the player is under the effects of Fully Mutated.
  • Reduced the health of The Council of Elders for 10-player normal and heroic mode.
  • Fixed an issue with Durumu the Forgotten where Life Drain's stun was not transferring correctly.
  • Reduced the health of the Gurubashi, Amani, Drakkari, and Farraki adds on the Horridon encounter.
  • Iron Qon for 25-player normal and heroic modes had the following change: The amount of damage dealt by Unleashed Flame and number of people needed to trigger Unleashed Flame had been reduced.
  • Iron Qon for 10/25-player normal modes had the following changes: Shatter damage have been reduced by 20%, damage from Arching Lightning have been reduced by 10%, and Rising Anger stacks more slowly.
• Scholomance
  • Fixed an issue where Lilian Voss' Dark Blaze was invisible.
• Temple of Ahn’Qiraj
  • The Prophet Skeram and any illusions created during the encounter no longer drop loot or provide reputation when killed. This is a temporary change to address an issue with the encounter.

Battlegrounds

• Fixed an issue with latency near the beginning of a Battleground.

Professions

• Blacksmithing
  • Creation of Lightning Steel Ingots now requires at least one of the factions to have unlocked the Thunder Forge.

Items

• Saurok Ritualist's Sacrificial Dagger is no longer bind-on-equip (BoE).

Bug Fixes

• The Skin of the Saurok disguise in Ihgaluk Crag will no longer cancel Druid Moonkin and Tree of Life forms.
• Fixed an issue where Worgen were unable to use Two Forms after crossing into a coalesced zone while in combat.

(source)

]]> Tue, 12 Mar 2013 08:19:09 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1670-patch-52-hotfixes-march-11/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1666-jinrokh-video-guide-and-class-guides-updated-for-52/

Naturally, any feedback will be greatly appreciated!

Also, all our class guides have been updated for Patch 5.2. There may still be a few stat priorities to tweak, but we will be working on them in the next few days. Our BiS listings are not updated yet, but that will come soon.]]> Mon, 11 Mar 2013 21:59:24 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1666-jinrokh-video-guide-and-class-guides-updated-for-52/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1657-patch-52-hotfixes-march-7/

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 5.2. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below went live the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. We will continue to update this list in the days to come as additional hotfixes are applied.

Patch Information

• Patch Notes
• Known Issues
• Technical Support & Troubleshooting

Classes

• Hunter
  • Marksmanship
    • Glyph of Chimera Shot will now properly increase the healing from Chimera Shot from 5% to 7%.
• Monk
  • Chi Spheres are no longer consumed by the Monk when they are at full Chi.
  • Spear Hand Strike now properly causes the target to be locked out of the school of the interrupted spell.
• Priest
  • Holy/Discipline PvP 4-piece set bonus will no longer reduce the cooldown of Silence incorrectly.

Quests

• Cleaning House: Players should now be able to obtain credit for defeating Fizzy Yellow Alemental and complete the quest.
• Giant Dinosaur Bone: This quest is now a proper daily quest and can only completed once each day.
• Plunder the Black Temple: Door to the Den of Mortal Delights should now open properly when the player reaches the appropriate step in the quest.
• The Warren-Mother: Players should now be able to obtain credit for defeating Chaufa and complete the quest.
• Where are My Reinforcements?: Players should now be able to receive completion credit after speaking with Ban Bearheart.

Creatures

• Ra'sha now scales their health based on the number of players they're engaged in combat with.
• Zandalari Prospect now properly drop loot. 

Pet Battles

• Experience gains from winning a Pet Battle have been reduced.
• Heirlooms and experience buffs will now correctly increase the amount of experience gained from winning a Pet Battle.
• A brief explanation and list of exact changes to Pet Battle experience could be found here.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• Ghost Iron Lockbox and Elementium Lockbox are no longer eligible for need rolls.
• The appropriate number of tier tokens should now drop for 25-player normal and heroic difficulties.
• Mogu'shan Vaults
  • Patroller's Girdle of Endless Spring should no longer appear in Cache of Mogu Riches for Druids.
  • Nullification Barrier once again negates the shield thrown by Feng the Accursed.
• Heart of Fear
  • Blade Lord Ta'yak and Wind Lord Mel'jarak as well as their minions are now affected by the Klaxxi Resonance debuff.
• Throne of Thunder
  • The Mistweaver ability Revival will no longer dispel players who have any of the following effects:
    • Primordius: Clear Mind, Fully Mutated, Improved Synapses, and Thick Bones
    • Durumu: Dark Parasite
    • Jin'rokh the Breaker: Ionization
  • Crazed Storm-Caller should now be able to use the spell Storm Energy.
  • Roaming Fog should no longer cause Druids to drop out of shapeshift form.
  • Spirit Flayers now despawn when Stormbringer Draz'kil is defeated.
  • Spiritfire Beam will now only jump to targets less than 3 yards away.
  • Torment now has a duration of 10 seconds.

PvP

• Season 13 one-handed weapons, excluding the Spellblade and Gavel had their cost reduced from 2250 to 1750 Honor or Conquest points respectively.
• Players taking periodic damage while in PvP should no longer stand up while eating or drinking.
• Big Zokk Torquewrench is going on a short leave of absence to take care of unfinished business.

Professions

• Jewelcrafting
  • Primal Diamond no longer requires an anvil to craft.
  • Serpent's Heart no longer requires an anvil to craft.

Items

• Mistlurker Helm, Mistborne Hood, Mountainscaler Hide Helm, and Mountainscaler Satin Hood should display the item information correctly and appear when worn.
• Overgrown Lillypad now works when on the Isle of Thunder.
• Thunder Caressed Waistguard now gives a bonus to Expertise instead of Parry. 

Sunsong Ranch

• The way to obtain Work Order quests on the Sunsong Ranch farm has changed. The quests will be given while harvesting crops, or by interacting with the drop-off crate.
• Fixed an issue where players could be placed into the incorrect phase after abandoning the quest, "Inherit the Earth".
• Fixed an issue where Occupied Soil would sometimes not update correctly or become non-interactive after clearing the associated Squatting Virmen.

(source)

]]> Sun, 10 Mar 2013 00:47:04 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1657-patch-52-hotfixes-march-7/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1638-patch-52-hotfixes-march-5/

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 5.2. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below went live the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. We will continue to update this list in the days to come as additional hotfixes are applied.

Patch Information

• Patch Notes
• Known Issues
• Technical Support & Troubleshooting
   

Classes

• Death Knight
  • Frost
    • Icy Talons now increases attack speed by 30% (was 25%).
    • Might of the Frozen Wastes now increases melee attack damage by 20% (was 15%).
    • Threat of Thassarian now increases the damage of Frost Strike by 50% (was 40%).
• Monk
  • General
    • Stance of the Fierce Tiger now increases the damage done by 10% (was 20%).
  • Mistweaver
    • Mistweaver Monks no longer favor non-caster weapons with higher DPS on damage calculations for abilities that are based on weapon damage.
    • Muscle Memory is now automatically learned at level 20 (was level 65).
• Paladin
  • Retribution
    • Templar's Verdict should now work properly with Seal of Justice.
  • Holy PvP 4-piece set bonus no longer causes Eternal Flame to generate a charge of Holy Power.
• Priest
  • General
    • Shadow Word: Pain now deals 25% more damage.
  • Discipline
    • Atonement healing granted from critical strikes now heal for the correct amount.
  • Shadow
    • Shadowy Apparitions will no longer pursue targets that are actively stealthed.
• Rogues
  • Assassination
    • Assassin's Resolve now increases the Rogue's damage by 25% (was 20%).
• Warlock
  • Destruction
    • Fire and Brimstone version of Incinerate now deals the correct amount of damage.
    • Shadowburn now properly generates 2 Burning Embers after killing a target that yields experience or honor.

Quests

• Fixed an issue where quest items could drop less frequently than intended.
• Players should now be able to speak with Waterspeaker Goria to complete the quest, "The Ritual".

Creatures

• Shapeshifted players should now be able to use Lightning Rods when fighting Electromancer Ju'le.
• Risen Ancestors spawn rate has been increased.

Pet Battles

• Sleep effects should now break properly when a pet is attacked.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• Living Sand now has 15% less health.

Items

• Sunreaver Beacon and Kirin Tor Beacon no longer share the same cooldown.

Sunsong Ranch

• Work orders to plant a crop no longer award gold.

UI

• Players should no longer see or hear chat from other player's NPCs during the introduction to the Isle of Thunder

(source)

]]> Thu, 07 Mar 2013 20:13:23 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1638-patch-52-hotfixes-march-5/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1626-52-the-thunder-king-patch-notes/

Blizzard Official WoW Blog

Patch 5.2: The Thunder King is now live! Lei Shen has consolidated his power on the Isle of Thunder, and if he’s not dislodged, his reborn army will threaten all of Pandaria. But the return of the Thunder King is good news for you, because it means that new challenges and triumphs await in our latest major content update. A massive new zone, a new raid, server-wide events surrounding the siege on the Isle of Thunder, new factions, world bosses . . . and more. Brace yourself for the storm.

The Thunder King

It has been written that when the great Lei Shen first looked upon the lands of the mantid, he did not feel fear, but inspiration.

As he began to unify his people under a single banner and subjugate the other races of Pandaria, he knew that the mantid would never succumb to his authority. They spoke his language, the language of strength. He commanded his slaves to construct the Serpent's Spine, a magnificent wall that spanned the length of the empire.

It would take many generations to build. But Lei Shen knew how to motivate his subjects. Fear. Fear of the mantid moved mountains, raised armies, secured his empire, and built his wall.

Patch 5.2 The Thunder King Round-Up, a collection of blogs to get you up to speed can be found here.

Patch 5.2 known issues and support information can be found here.

Notes for all World of Warcraft patches can be found here.

Updated March 5, 01:00am PST

General

• New Daily Quest Hub: Isle of Thunder.
  • Here players can join the assault to conquer the Thunder King's island stronghold, unlock new questlines and daily quest hubs, participate in special events, earn the right to visit the fabled Treasure Room, lay claim to an arsenal of powerful Mogu artifacts for their faction, and more.
  • Each faction's finest are spearheading the assault: the Kirin-Tor Offensive led by Jaina Proudmoore and the Sunreaver Onslaught led by Lor'themar Theron. Earning reputation with these new factions offers heroes the opportunity to receive new quests and reputation rewards, including powerful items and an intimidating new mount.
  • After both the Alliance and the Horde have eked out a foothold on the isle, players can choose to perform quests that are PvE or PvP focused. PvP quests will direct players against opposing faction NPCs, but slaying opposing players will grant credit as well.
  • As the heroes conquer the Isle, they will unlock the powerful Thunder Forge, which will allow Blacksmiths to forge mighty raid-worthy items, as well as classic weapons from the past.
  • Heroes can join the war effort and find transportation to Isle of Thunder by visiting the Shado-Pan Garrison in Townlong Steppes on the western shores of Pandaria. The Isle of Thunder will be unlocked progressively based on each based on each realms' participation in the war effort; initially only some of the Isle’s features will be unlocked. Future unlocked content will include the Stormsea Landing and the outdoor raid boss, Nalak, the Storm Lord.
  • Heroes fortunate enough to acquire a “Key to the Palace of Lei Shen” can bring it to the Shado-Pan on the Isle of Thunder and use it to infiltrate the fabled treasure vaults of the first emperor. Heroes are tasked with grabbing as much loot as they can within five minutes. Larger chests will have the most loot, including special keys that can be used at the end of the run for a chance at epic gear and other major rewards. Keys are awarded from rare bosses, hidden chests around the island, and from award satchels obtained by completing daily quests.
• New Raid: Throne of Thunder
  • Lei Shen, the Thunder King, has returned to wreak his vengeance on Pandaria. It falls to the heroes of the Alliance and the Horde to stop the newly resurrected tyrant and his Zandalari allies in the massive new raid: Throne of Thunder.
  • Throne of Thunder is a sprawling citadel housing 12 new raid encounters, and players that defeat Lei Shen in Heroic mode can earn the opportunity to face an additional 13th foe.
  • The Raid Finder version of the Throne of Thunder is divided into 4 different sections, Last Stand of the Zandalari, Forgotten Depths, Halls of Flesh-Shaping, and Pinnacle of Storms.
  • Join the Shado-Pan Assault in their singular drive to see Lei Shen defeated once and for all, and gain access to impressive Valor reward items. Reputation with this faction can be earned only within the Throne of Thunder raid dungeon.
  • Ao Pye at Niuzao Temple in Towlong Steppes is offering to sell Shado-Pan Assault faction gear to adventurers for Valor points. Another NPC will also be selling those items in or near the entrance to the Throne of Thunder on Isle of Thunder.
• The Legendary Quest Continues:
  • Wrathion is determined to know the origin and source of Mogu power, and Azeroth's mightiest heroes will aid the Black Prince in finding out what it is. The search for information will take players into the depths of the Thunder King's Palace, and pit them against trials of perseverance and skill. Along the way, they'll unlock the secrets to a new legendary metagem, the Crown of the Heavens.
  • Players seeking to re-acquire previous Legendary quest rewards (such as gems for Sha-touched weapons) can now speak with the Blacktalon Quartermaster, the surly-looking Pandaren standing in the first floor of the Tavern in the Mists.
• New World Bosses: Nalak, the Storm Lord and Oondasta
  • Nalak, the Storm Lord
    • After the Isle of Thunder has been conquered, the gate guardian of the Thunder King's citadel will appear: Nalak, the Storm Lord. Players will frequently have the opportunity to test their mettle against him.
  • Oondasta
    • Found in a place that has been lost in time, the great devilsaur lord Oondasta has been outfitted for battle with weaponry and armor by the Zandalari, and awaits players brave enough (or foolhardy enough) to seek him out on the mysterious Isle of Giants found in the seas north of Kun-Lai Summit.
• Taking Over The Farm
  • Players that have grown attached to working the land at Sunsong Ranch can now acquire the farm from Farmer Yoon via a quest. The farmhouse becomes a rest point like an Inn, where the player can bind and instantly log out. Work orders will pour into the farm from factions across Pandaria, and completing a work order will earn a reputation boost with the issuing faction.
  • The option to take over the farm is available to characters that are exalted with the Tillers and have unlocked all 16 farm plots.
• New World Boss System
  • All world bosses (Sha of Anger, Galleon, Nalak the Storm Lord, and Oondasta) are now Tap to Faction. This new system offers every eligible player of the same faction that engages a boss the chance to earn loot. Under the new system, players will only be able to earn loot from each world boss once per week.
     

Classes

• General
  • Area Damage Cap: The area damage cap is now 20 targets (was 10). This means area of effect damage spells now reach their maximum damage when striking 20 targets. If more than 20 targets are struck, then the total damage done is spread evenly over the actual number of targets present.
• Death Knight
  • Death Siphon now heals for 150% of the damage dealt (was 100%).
  • Conversion now costs 5 Runic Power plus 5 per second thereafter, down from 10 Runic Power plus 10 per second.
  • Death Knights now maintain the same health percentage when switching into and out of Blood Presence.
  • Blood Plague now deals 15% more damage.
  • Frost Fever now deals 15% more damage.
  • Strangulate's cooldown has been reduced to 60 seconds (was 2 minutes).
  • Asphyxiate's cooldown has been reduced to 30 seconds (was 1 minute).
  • Blood Parasite now summons Bloodworms with 15% of the Death Knight's health (was 6%) and Blood Burst now heals for 25% per stack of Blood Gorged (was 10% per stack).
  • Frost
    • Howling Blast now deals 8% more damage to the primary target. Damage to other enemies in the area-of-effect remains unchanged.
    • Icy Talons now increases attack speed by 25% (was 20%).
    • Might of the Frozen Wastes now increases melee damage by 15% (was 10%).
  • Unholy
    • Reaping now also applies to Icy Touch.
    • Summon Gargoyle no longer costs Runic Power.
    • Gargoyle Strike now also deals Shadow damage, in addition to Nature damage.
    • Ebon Plaguebringer now causes Plague Strike to inflict Frost Fever, in addition to its other effects.
    • Scourge Strike now deals 3.8% more damage.
  • Frost and Unholy Tier-14 2-piece set bonus has been reduced to 4% (was 10%) increased damage on Frost Strike, Obliterate, and Scourge Strike.
• Druid
  • Cyclone now has a 20-second cooldown for Feral Druids.
  • Symbiosis
    • Dispersion now has a 3-minute cooldown for Druids (was 2 minutes).
    • Shattering Blow now has a 1.5-second cast time to align correctly with the Warrior version of this ability.
  • Displacer Beast has been redesigned. It now triggers Cat Form and grants 50% increased movement speed for 4 seconds after teleporting, and no longer activates Prowl.
  • The healing granted by Cenarion Ward when a target takes damage has been increased by 100%.
  • Frenzied Regeneration now scales 10% more efficiently with attack power.
  • Maim had its damage increased by 100%.
  • Tooth and Claw now scales 10% more efficiently.
  • Mastery: Nature's Guardian now provides 20% more armor per Mastery rating.
  • Rejuvenation now costs approximately 9% less mana.
  • Revive and Mark of the Wild now cost 55% less mana.
  • Faerie Swarm can now snare more than one target at a time.
  • Mass Entanglement now has a 30-second cooldown (was 2 minutes).
  • Typhoon now has a 30-second cooldown (was 20 seconds).
  • The Treants summoned by Force of Nature now deal more damage and healing, and the Force of Nature tooltip will report the capabilities of these summoned pets.
  • Soul of the Forest
    • Balance: Now generates 40 Lunar or Solar energy upon leaving Eclipse.
    • Feral: Unchanged.
    • Guardian: Generates 3 additional Rage per Mangle.
    • Restoration: Now grants 75% Haste on the next spell cast after the Druid casts Swiftmend.
  • Nature's Vigil now has a 90-second cooldown (was 3 minutes), and now increases damage and healing done by 10% (was 20%).
  • Glyph of Cyclone now increases the range of Cyclone by 5 yards (was 4 yards).
  • Wrath damage has been increased by 9%.
  • Balance
    • Starfire damage has been increased by 9%.
    • Starsurge damage has been increased by 9%.
    • Starfall will no longer strike targets that are affected by crowd control effects.
  • Guardian
    • Thick Hide now reduces critical strike chance from all types of attacks made against the Guardian Druid, instead of just melee.
  • Restoration
    • Naturalist: This new passive learned at level 10 by Restoration Druids increases all healing done by the Druid by 10%.
    • Wild Mushrooms will now each gain 25% of the overhealing performed by the Druid’s Rejuvenation effects, up to a maximum of 33% of the Druid’s health in bonus healing, and growing larger as they do so. When Wild Mushroom: Bloom is cast, this bonus healing will be divided evenly amongst targets in the area-of-effect.
  • Feral Druid PvP Gloves now also increases the duration of Bear Hug by 1 second.
  • Feral Druid PvP 2-piece increase to movement speed by 15% while outdoors for Druids in Bear Form, Cat Form, or Travel Form no longer stacks with the Druid talent Feline Swiftness.
  • Feral Druid PvP 4-piece bonus also causes successful interrupts with Skull Bash to reset the cooldown of Enrage.
• Hunter
  • Targeting for Glaive Toss and Powershot has been improved. These abilities will now always hit the primary target and are much more responsive about which secondary targets they hit.
  • Bestial Wrath may now be activated when there is no line of sight to the Hunter's pet.
  • Dismiss pet now has a cast time of 3 seconds (was 2 seconds).
  • Powershot now cancels Camouflage when the cast begins.
  • Silencing Shot now has a 24-second cooldown (was 20 seconds).
  • Stampede now has a range of 40 yards (was 30 yards).
  • Steady Shot now deals 20% more damage.
  • Binding Shot no longer has a Focus cost.
  • Wyvern Sting no longer has a Focus cost, and its cooldown is now 45 seconds (was 60 seconds).
  • Glyph of Marked for Death has been removed and its effects are now baseline.
  • The Fetch ability from Glyph of Fetch no longer requires a target. When activated, the pet will automatically choose a nearby corpse to loot.
  • New Glyph: Glyph of Liberation. This glyph now causes Disengage to heal the Hunter for 5% of maximum health when used.
  • Beast Mastery
    • Beast Cleave now causes the pet to strike all other nearby targets for 50% damage (was 30%).
  • Marksmanship
    • Aimed Shot now deals 10% more damage and cast time has been reduced to 2.5 seconds (was 2.9 seconds).
    • Chimera Shot now deals 25% more damage and heals the Hunter for 5% (was 3%) of their total health.
  • Survival
    • Black Arrow now deals 10% more damage.
    • Explosive Shot now deals 10% more damage.
• Mage
  • Invocation now removes Evocation's cooldown, and reduces its channeling time and duration by 50%. A completed Evocation now grants 15% increased damage for 1 minute after an Evocation is completed, instead of 25% increased damage for 40 seconds. Passive mana regeneration is reduced by 50% only while Invoker's Energy is active.
  • Glyph of Evocation now causes the Invocation talent to restore 10% (was 20%) health after completing an Evocation.
  • Greater invisibility now has a 90-second cooldown (was 2.5 minutes).
  • Frostbolt cast by Mirror Images now deals 50% more damage.
  • Glyph of Fire Blast has been replaced with Glyph of Inferno Blast. Glyph of Inferno Blast causes damage-over-time effects spread by Inferno Blast to spread to 1 additional target.
  • Blazing Speed is now a level-15 talent, replacing Scorch.
  • Flameglow, a new talent is available at level 30 and replaces Blazing Speed. The passive ability encases the Mage in fiery energy, absorbing damage from each attack made against the Mage equal to 20% of their spellpower, up to a maximum of 30% of the attack.
  • Ice Floes now has a 45-second cooldown (was 1 minute) and its duration has been increased to 15 seconds (was 10 seconds).
  • Incanter's Ward can now be removed by magic dispels.
  • Ring of Frost cast instantly through Presence of Mind now has a 2-second arming period before the Freeze effect is activated against targets in the area of effect. The 2-second arming period can be reduced by Haste.
  • Temporal Ripples from Temporal Shield can no longer be dispelled.
  • Deep Freeze now stuns the target for 5 seconds (was 4 seconds).
  • Rune of Power increases the Mage's mana regeneration by 75% (was 100%) while standing inside the rune.
  • Glyph of Deep Freeze now removes it from global cooldown but also reduces its duration by 1 second.
  • Mage PvP 2-piece bonus now requires Counterspell to successfully interrupt a spell before applying the 4 second cooldown reduction to Counterspell.
  • Arcane
    • For Arcane Mages, Evocation now restores 40% (was 60%) of total mana over 6 seconds, and consumes all Arcane Charges. For each Arcane Charge consumed, the total amount of mana regenerated is increased by 10%, up to a maximum of 80% over 6 seconds. Evocation remains the same for Fire and Frost.
    • Arcane Blast's damage has been reduced by 22.9% and mana cost has been increased to 1.66667% of base mana (was 1.5%).
    • Arcane Missile's damage has been reduced by 22.1%.
    • Arcane Barrage's damage has been reduced by 16.1%.
    • Arcane Charges now stacks up to 4 times (was 6), increases damage by 50% (was 25%), and increases mana cost by 150% (was 75%).
  • Fire
    • Pyroblast has its direct damage reduced by 10%.
    • Scorch is no longer a talent and is now available to all Fire Mages.
  • Frost
    • Fingers of Frost now has a 15% (was 12%) chance to activate from Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt and Frozen Orb, and a 5% (was 4%) chance to activate from Blizzard.
    • Glyph of Ice Lance now causes Ice Lance to deal 50% damage to 1 additional target, up from 40%.
    • Frostbolt now deals 32% more damage.
    • Water Elemental
      • Freeze no longer does damage and only provides Fingers of Frost on a successful freeze.
• Monk
  • New Level-60 Talent: Ring of Peace
    • Ring of Peace forms an 8 yard sanctuary around a friendly target for 8 seconds, disabling enemy player auto-attacks in PvP, and causing all enemies (both players and NPCs) in the area of effect to be disarmed for the duration. In addition, enemies that cast a damaging spell while within the area of effect will be silenced for 3 seconds. The ability has a 45-second cooldown.
  • New Windwalker and Brewmaster ability added at level 30: Nimble Brew
    • Nimble Brew removes all stun, fear, and root effects, and reduces the duration of those effects if they are reapplied by 60% for 6 seconds. It has a 2-minute cooldown.
  • Chi Wave now does 100% more damage and 14% less healing, and no longer costs Chi, and has a 15-second cooldown.
  • Zen Sphere now has a limit of 2 (was 1), detonates when either the recipient reaches 35% health or the Zen Sphere is dispelled, no longer costs Chi, and has a 10-second cooldown. Its periodic damage has been increased by 22%, periodic healing has been reduced by 61%, and its detonation healing has been reduced by 62%.
  • Chi Burst now does 380% more damage, 69% more healing, no longer costs Chi, and has a 30-second cooldown.
  • Deadly Reach has been removed.
  • Path of Blossoms has been removed.
  • Glyph of Path of Blossoms is now Glyph of Paralysis. This glyph causes the Monk's Paralysis ability to remove all damage-over-time effects on the target.
  • Paralysis is now a physical, non-magical effect, can no longer be dispelled, grounded or reflected, and its base range has been increased to 20 yards. The paralysis effect lasts 40 seconds (was 30 seconds) for non-player targets, 4 seconds when used against other players, and lasts 50% (was 200%) longer when used from behind a target.
  • Spear Hand Strike, used on a target that's facing the Monk silences them for 2 seconds (was 4 seconds).
  • Tiger's Lust and Touch of Karma no longer have a Chi cost.
  • Tiger's Lust can no longer be used on targets that have other temporary speed increases active.
  • Charging Ox Wave now has a 30-second cooldown (was 60 seconds).
  • Dampen Harm can now be used while stunned, and its cooldown will now begin when used, not when the effect ends.
  • Healing Elixirs now heals the Monk for 15% of maximum health (was 10%).
  • Chi Torpedo now deals 15% more damage.
  • Healing Spheres now have a duration of 1 minute. Healing Spheres generated by Mastery: Gift of the Serpent have a duration of 30 seconds.
  • Xuen will now fixate on the Monk’s original target for Brewmasters.
  • Mistweaver
    • Jab now costs 8% (was 4%) of base mana to use.
    • The Glyphed version of Uplift now costs 16% of base mana (was 6.6%) to cast.
    • Life Cocoon can no longer be dispelled.
    • Zen Focus, the 4-piece Mistweaver set bonus, is now more responsive.
    • It is no longer possible to use Thunder Focus Tea while silenced.
    • Renewing Mist had its mana cost reduced by 10%.
    • Soothing Mists now generates chi more consistently and average generation rate is slightly higher.
    • Summon Jade Serpent Statue no longer costs mana.
    • Healing Spheres will now heal for 50% of their original value if they expire without being picked up. This healing will factor in relevant Mastery.
    • Eminence now heals for 25% of the damage done (was 50%).
    • Serpent's Zeal no longer stacks and heals for 25% of the damage that had been dealt.
    • Teachings of the Monastery now provides additional benefits.
      • Tiger Palm damage increased by 100%.
      • Crackling Jade Lightning damage increased by 100%.
      • Blackout Kick now hits 4 additional nearby targets for 50% damage.
    • Muscle Memory is a new passive ability for Mistweaver Monks. Successful Jabs and Spinning Crane Kicks which damages at least 3 enemies cause Muscle Memory. Muscle Memory causes the Monk's next Tiger Palm or Blackout Kick to deal 150% more damage and restore 4% mana.
  • Windwalker
    • New Level-75 Ability: Storm, Earth and Fire
      • The Windwalker can summon up to 2 elemental duplicates that mirror damaging abilities that the Monk uses while they are active. For each spirit summoned, the Monk's damage is reduced: 1 spirit causes the Monk and the spirit to deal 60% of the Monk's normal damage, while 2 spirits will cause the Monk and both active spirits to deal 45% of the Monk's normal damage. Each spirit lasts until the ability is canceled, that spirit's target dies or otherwise becomes unavailable, or they're killed (they can be targeted and have 10% of the Monk's health).
        • When using Fist of Fury, the stun effect will only apply from the Monk (not the spirits).
    • Spinning Fire Blossoms’ damage has been adjusted to scale from weapon damage rather than attack power.
    • Combo Breaker is now a passive ability granted at level 15 that grants a 12% chance to make the Monk's next Blackout Kick or Tiger Palm cost no Chi.
    • New Mastery: Bottled Fury
      • Bottled Fury increases the damage bonus provided by Tigereye Brew by .2% per Mastery per stack.
    • Brewing: Tigereye Brew now gains 1 charge after spending 3 Chi (was 4 Chi), increases damage by 1% per stack (was 2%), can stack to 20 but only 10 charges can be consumed per activation, and a user interface alert displays upon reaching 10 charges. Stacks of Tigereye Brew are cleared at the start of a raid encounter. This ability is improved by Bottled Fury.
    • Rising Sun Kick now causes the Monk's abilities to inflict an additional 10% damage (was 15%) on the target.
  • Brewmaster
    • Black Ox Statue
      • The damage requirement to activate Sanctuary of the Ox has been increased by 100%.  The spell tooltip has been updated to reflect the change.
    • Elusive Brew now has a 6-second cooldown (was 9 seconds).
    • Mastery: Elusive Brawler now provides 25% more Stagger per Mastery rating.
  • Windwalker Monk PvP 2-piece bonus now also increases the range of Keg Smash.
• Paladin
  • Avenging Wrath now has a cooldown of 2 minutes for Retribution Paladins (was 3 minutes). The cooldown remains unchanged for Holy and Protection Paladins.
  • Light's Hammer now also applies a 50% snare for 2 seconds to targets that take damage from the area of effect.
  • Hand of Purity now reduces all incoming damage by 10% in addition to its other effects.
  • Eternal Flame's periodic heal now provides 100% more healing when self-cast.
  • Judgment now costs 5% of base mana.
  • Repentance now has a cast time of 1.7 seconds (was 1.5 seconds).
  • Sacred Shield’s periodic effect can no longer be dispelled. Each individual absorb effect can be dispelled instead.
  • Seal of Righteousness now causes melee attacks to deal 9% damage (was 6%) to targets in the area-of-effect.
  • Selfless Healer now boosts Flash of Light by 20/40/60% (was 33/66/100%).
  • Glyph of Blessed Life no longer requires Seal of Insight to be active.
  • Glyph of Templar's Verdict can also activate from Exorcism.
  • Holy
    • Blinding Light now has a 1.8-second cast time for Holy Paladins. It remains instant cast for Retribution and Protection.
    • Holy 4-piece PvP set bonus now grants Holy Power when casting Flash of Light, instead of Word of Glory.
  • Protection
    • The base damage of Consecration has been increased by 789%, and it now scales less efficiently with attack power by approximately 11%.
    • Grand Crusader now has a chance to activate when the Paladin doges or parries a melee attack in addition to having a 12% chance (was 20%) to activate from Crusader Strike or Hammer of the Righteous.
  • Retribution
    • Seal of Justice now causes melee attacks to deal an additional 20% (was 16%) as Holy damage.
    • Sword of Light now increases Flash of Light by 100% (was 30%) and increases the Paladin's damage with two-handed melee weapons by 15% (was 10%).
    • Absolve is a new passive ability for Retribution Paladins. Absolve removes all harmful magic effects when Hard of Sacrifice is cast on a party member.
    • Retribution 2-piece PvP set bonus now grants 1000 PvP power (was 800).
    • Tier-14 Retribution 4-piece set bonus has been changed to increase damage on all Seals and Judgment by 10%.
• Priest
  • The amount of healing done by Flash Heal, Binding Heal, Renew, and Prayer of Mending have been reduced by 20%.
  • Spiritual Healing is a new passive ability obtained by Discipline and Holy Priests at level 10. This ability increases the amount of healing done by Flash Heal, Binding Heal, Renew, and Prayer of Mending by 25%. For Holy and Discipline Priests, there is no decrease to the amount of healing done by those four spells.
  • Evangelism's stacking effect now also increases the healing of Penance.
  • Halo will no longer hit enemies that are in stealth.
  • Angelic Bulwark can no longer be dispelled.
  • Dominate Mind now has a 1.8-second cast time (was 2.5 seconds).
  • Angelic Feather now has a 6 second duration (was 4 seconds).
  • Focused Will is now a passive for Holy Priests, as well as Discipline Priests.
  • Power Word: Solace has been replaced with a new talent: Solace & Insanity
    • For Holy and Discipline, Power Word: Solace replaces Holy Fire. It deals the same damage, and interacts with other spells and abilities in the same manner but does not trigger Atonement, is instant, costs no mana, and restores 1% of maximum mana on each cast. Damage dealt by Power Word: Solace will heal a nearby friendly player within 40 yards of the target for 100% of the damage dealt (50% when healing the Priest).
    • For Shadow, this ability causes Mind Flay to gain the Insanity effect on a target affected by Devouring Plague. Insanity increases the damage of Mind Flay by 33% per Shadow Orb consumed.
  • Glyph of Mind Spike only works from Mind Spikes that aren't instant casts from Surge of Darkness.
  • Glyph of Desperation has been replaced with Glyph of Binding Heal. Pain Suppression and Guardian Spirit can now always be cast while stunned.
  • New Glyph: Glyph of Binding Heal applies Binding Heal a third nearby friendly target, but costs 35% more mana.
  • Glyph of Inner Focus has been replaced with Glyph of Weakened Soul. Casting Inner Focus now always grants 5 seconds of immunity to silences, interrupts, and dispels.
  • New Glyph: Glyph of Weakened Soul reduces the duration of Weakened Soul by 2 seconds.
  • Holy Fire is now an instant cast ability.
  • Glyph of Holy Fire has been redesigned. It now increases the range of Holy Fire, Smite, and Power Word: Solace by 10 yards.
  • Power Infusion now increases the Priest's damage by 5% in addition to current effects.
  • Phantasm no longer makes the Priest untargetable by ranged attacks, and the movement impairing immunity effect is now 5 seconds (was 3 seconds).
  • Psyfiend belonging to an individual Priest will no longer cast Psychic Horror on the same target twice.
  • Discipline
    • Mastery: Shield Discipline now also increases all healing done by a lesser amount, but the bonus provided by Mastery has been reduced by 36%.
    • Penance damage and healing has been increased by 20%, now a cooldown of 9 seconds (was 10 seconds), and has a range of 40 yards for both friendly and hostile targets (was 40 yards for friendly and 30 yards for hostile targets).
    • Focused Will now reduce damage taken by 15% per stack, with a limit of 2 stacks.
    • Spirit Shell can no longer be dispelled and now provides an absorb shield equal to the average healing and absorb of the triggering spell, including criticals and Divine Aegis.
    • Rapture now reduces the cost of Power Word: Shield by 25% and provides mana equal to 150% (was 200%) of the Priest's Spirit, but no longer benefits from Spirit provided by short-duration bonuses.
    • Divine Aegis now causes critical heals to apply an absorb shield on the target for 100% of the amount healed instead of healing for twice as much. In addition, it grants Power Word: Shield a chance equal to the Priest's critical chance for the shield to absorb twice as much damage.
  • Shadow
    • Dispersion now belongs to the Shadow spell school.
    • Shadowform now increases the Priest's Shadow damage by 25% (was 20%).
  • The 2-piece Holy/Discipline PvP set bonus has been replaced by the now the previous 4-piece set bonus.
  • The 4-piece Holy/Discipline PvP set bonus has been redesigned. It now reduces the cooldown of Chakra by 25 seconds. When Spirit Shell is active, the mana cost of Flash Heal is reduced by 50%.
  • Tier-14 Holy/Discipline 4-piece set bonus now reduces the cooldown of Penance by 3 seconds (was 4 seconds).
• Rogue
  • Preparation is now a baseline ability learned at level 68 and no longer resets the cooldown on Cloak of Shadows.
  • Versatility has been removed.
  • New Level 90 Talent: Marked for Death
    • Marks a target and instantly generates 5 combo points. When that target dies, Marked for Death's cooldown is reset. This talent has a 1-minute cooldown.
  • New Level 60 Talent: Cloak and Dagger
    • Ambush, Garrote, and Cheap Shot now have a 30-yard range, and will cause the Rogue to teleport behind the target.
  • Burst of Speed now costs 30 Energy (was 50 Energy), can be used in Stealth, and always grants increased movement speed in addition to breaking snare effects, but no longer breaks root effects.
  • Shuriken Toss now causes the Rogue to throw ranged shurikens coated in Lethal Poison and auto-attack at 75% damage (was 80%) for up to 10 seconds if the enemy is farther than 10 yards away.
  • Deadly Throw can now interrupt spellcasting when used at 3, 4 and 5 combo points, and upon interrupt prevents any spell in that school from being cast for 4, 5 and 6 seconds respectively, instead of 5 combo points and 6 seconds.
  • Blind now has a cooldown of 2 minutes (was 1.5 minutes).
  • Cloak of Shadows now has a cooldown of 1 minute (was 2 minutes).
  • Smoke Bomb now reduces damage taken by allies in the area of effect by 20%, in addition to current effects.
  • Nerve Strike now reduces the effectiveness of healing provided by the target by 10% in addition to existing effects.
  • Shadow Focus now reduces ability energy costs by 75% while stealthed (was 100%).
  • PvP set bonuses have been changed:
    • Vigor is now the 4-piece set bonus and increases maximum energy by 30 (was 10).
    • Deadly Brew is now the 2-piece set bonus and its effects remain unchanged.
  • Assassination
    • Dispatch now deals 15% more damage.
    • Envenom now deals 20% more damage.
  • Combat
    • Vitality now increases attack power by 30% (was 25%).
    • Blade Flurry has been changed. It now strikes up to 4 additional nearby targets for 40% of normal damage.
  • Subtlety
    • Sanguinary Vein now increases the damage the target takes by 20% (was 16%).
• Shaman
  • Chain Lightning will now deal the same damage to subsequent targets as it does to the first.
  • Lava Beam's damage now increases with jumps. Each jump increases the damage by 10%.
  • Elemental Mastery now has a 90-second cooldown (was 2 minutes).
  • Shamanistic Rage is now available to Elemental Shaman as well as Enhancement Shaman.
  • Conductivity no longer requires that the target be within the area of effect of Healing Rain.
  • Healing Rain had its mana cost reduced by 15%.
  • Ancestral Swiftness now increases spell haste by 5% and melee haste by 10%, instead of 5% each.
  • Glyph of Purge now adds a 6-second cooldown to Purge.
  • Stone Bulwark Totem now absorbs 25% more damage.
  • Primal Earth Elemental and Primal Fire Elemental now deal 20% more damage.
  • Elemental Blast now has a chance to increase the caster's Agility for Enhancement Shaman.
  • Glyph of Flame has been redesigned. This glyph now causes the Shaman to heal for 30% of the damage dealt by Flame Shock.
  • Unleashed Fury Flametongue now increases Lightning Bolt damage by 20% (was 30%), and Lava Burst damage by 10%.
  • Flame Shock's duration has been increased by 25%.
  • Lava Burst base damage has been reduced by 33% but now always deals a critical strike. When cast on targets affected by Flame Shock, it now deals 50% more damage.
  • Totemic Restoration no longer allows the Shaman to instantly destroy a totem to obtain a full 50% refund on cooldown. Any totems that have been destroyed or replaced behave as if the totem had been active for at least 1 second.
  • When summoned, the Stone Bulwark Totem has health equal to 10% of the casting Shaman's health.
  • The talent Nature's Guardian now preserves the player's health percentage when its maximum health boosting effect expires.
  • Ancestral Guidance now copies 60% (was 40%) of the amount healed.
  • Conductivity now shares 30% (was 20%) of the healing received from Healing Wave, Greater Healing Wave, or Healing Surge.
  • Elemental
    • Elemental Focus now increases the Shaman's spell damage by 15% (was 10%).
    • Shamanism now increases the damage of Lightning Bolt by 70% (was 50%).
  • Enhancement
    • Mental Quickness now lowers the cost of shocks by 90% (still lowers the cost of other "beneficial, instant, damaging and totem spells” by 75%).
    • Spirit walk now has a 1-minute cooldown (was 2 minutes).
• Warlock
  • Fel Armor now reduces damage taken by 10%, instead of increasing the Warlock’s armor.
  • Blood Fear has been replaced by Blood Horror. Blood Horror costs 5% health, has 1 charge, and lasts 60 seconds with a 30-second cooldown. While Blood Horror is active, melee attacks that strike the Warlock will cause the attacker to be horrified for 4 seconds.
  • Burning Rush now also prevents movement-impairing effects from reducing the Warlock’s movement speed below 100% of normal, in addition to its other effects.
  • The Imp ability Blood Pact has been removed.
  • Dark Intent now increases Stamina in addition to Spell Power.
  • Immolate now deals 15% more damage.
  • Shadow Bolt now deals 15% more damage.
  • Soul Leech now provides an absorption shield instead of healing.
  • Sacrificial Pact now requires the pet to sacrifice 25% of its health to activate (was 50%).
  • Kil'jaeden's Cunning is now a passive talent, and its activated ability has been removed.
  • The passive damage from Archimonde's Vengeance no longer has a visual effect.
  • Grimoire of Sacrifice now increases the damage of abilities by 15% (was 25%) for Destruction Warlocks and 25% (was 50%) for Affliction Warlocks. In addition, it now provides the spell Whiplash instead of Seduction when a Succubus is sacrificed.
  • Glyph of Burning Embers has been removed and its effects are now baseline for Destruction Warlocks.
  • Glyph of Soul Shards has been removed and its effects are now baseline for Affliction Warlocks.
  • New Glyph: Glyph of Ember Tap. This glyph increases the healing gained from Ember Tap by 33%, but the health is restored over 10 seconds.
  • New Glyph: Glyph of Drain Life. This glyph increases the healing gained from Drain Life by 30%.
  • Glyph of Unstable Affliction has been redesigned. This glyph now reduces the cast time of Unstable Affliction by 25%.
  • Affliction
    • Haunt now causes the target to receive an additional 30% damage (was 25%) from Warlock's spells.
    • Unstable Affliction’s backlash effect is now always a critical hit and deals approximately 15% more damage.
  • Demonology
    • Chaos Wave now has a new visual.
    • Hand of Gul'dan now deals 15% more damage.
    • Shadowflame now deals 15% more damage.
    • Soul Fire now deals 22% more damage.
    • Touch of Chaos now deals 15% more damage.
    • Wild Imp's Firebolt now deals 15% more damage.
  • Destruction
    • Conflagrate now deals 15% more damage.
    • Fire and Brimstone now has a radius of 10 yards (was 15 yards).
    • Incinerate now deals 10% more damage.
• Warrior
  • The benefit of Haste from items and consumables has been increased by 50% for all Warriors.
  • Bladestorm now provides immunity to disarm while active.
  • Defensive Stance now reduces damage by 15% (was 25%).
  • Execute now deals 15% less damage.
  • Shockwave now has a 40-second cooldown (was 20 seconds), and striking 3 or more targets will reduce its cooldown by 20 seconds.
  • Second Wind now generates 15 rage (was 20 rage) over 10 seconds.
  • Warbringer now reduces the target's movement by 50% for 15 seconds (8 seconds in PvP), in addition to its other effects. The 3-second stun/knockdown is now in the diminishing returns category for stuns (same as Shockwave and Storm Bolt), and not the proc stun diminishing returns category.
  • Shield Barrier now scales approximately 10% less efficiently with attack power.
  • Storm Bolt now deals 125% weapon damage (was 100%).
  • Enraged Regeneration now costs 30 Rage (was 60 Rage).
  • Deadly Calm has been removed from the game.
  • Glyph of Incite no longer activates from Deadly Calm, and now activates from Demoralizing Shout instead.
  • Glyph of Overpower is now Glyph of Die by the Sword. It increases the duration of Die by the Sword whenever Overpower or Wild Strike are used.
  • Glyph of Death from Above no longer increases the damage dealt by Heroic Leap.
  • Impending Victory will now heal the Warrior for 15% of maximum health when they have not slain an enemy (was 10%).
  • Arms
    • Taste for Blood has been redesigned. It now causes the Warrior to gain 2 stacks of Overpower (maximum of 5 stacks) when Mortal Strike deals damage, 1 stack when the target dodges, and no longer interacts with Heroic Strike. It now requires level 20 (used to require level 50).
    • Slam now deals 220% weapon damage (was 190%) and now costs 20 rage (was 30 rage).
    • Deep Wounds damage has been increased by 100% for Arms Warriors.
    • Whirlwind now costs 20 rage (was 30) for Arms Warriors. The cost is unchanged for Fury Warriors.
    • Overpower now costs 10 rage and reduces Mortal Strike's remaining cooldown by 0.5 seconds.
    • Sudden Death now has a 10% (was 20%) chance to activate from auto attacks or Opportunity Strike. In addition, using Execute makes Overpower free for 10 seconds.
  • Fury
    • Bloodsurge now reduces the Rage cost of Wild Strike by 30 (was 20), and its duration has been increased to 15 seconds (was 10 seconds).
  • Protection
    • The base damage of Shield Slam and Revenge has been increased by 150%, but these abilities now scale approximately 10% less efficiently with attack power.
    • Unwavering Sentinel now improves the damage reduction of Defensive Stance by 10% for Protection Warriors.
       

Quests

• Warlocks can now undertake a solo adventure that culminates with the ability to change the color of their Fire spells to appear Fel green. The quest begins for those Warlocks determined or fortunate enough to have laid their hands on the fabled Codex of Xerrath.
• Upon reaching level 20 and level 60, characters will automatically receive a new quest directing them to visit the racial riding trainer and mount vendors.
   

Creatures

• Zandalari forces have begun scouting the shores of Pandaria, searching for the perfect invasion point.  The Zandalari can be found in Krasarang Wilds, Dread Wastes, Townlong Steppes, Jade Forest, and Kun-Lai Summit.  Zandalari Scouts can be handled by 1 or 2 players, while elite Zandalari Warbringers will likely require a full party of 5 heroes. Defeat Warbringers to gain special drops, including crafting materials, reputation gains, an achievement, and even the chance to get one of three new rare mounts!
• Galleon now respawns much more frequently, but players can only receive loot from him once per week.
• Fite spectral porcupine fite! Three new spectral porcupine spirit beasts have appeared across Pandaria as tamable beasts, though taming them may provide quite a challenge.
• Direhorns have been added as a tamable species for Hunters that have learned the required skill. Aspiring Direhorn owners should seek out clues regarding these auspicious beasts.
   

Pet Battles

• Many new Battle Pets and Battle Pet abilities have been added.
• Players may now participate in pet battle duels while in the Throne of Thunder instance.
• Master Trainers in Northrend, Cataclysm, and Courageous Yon will no longer field pets with higher than intended stats.
• Brilliant Kaliri, Jade Tentacle, Tirisfal Batling, Firefly, Jade Crane Chick, Gilnean Raven, and Shore Crawler are no longer available in multiple breeds.
• Reflection has been replaced with Deflection, an ability that always attempts to go first and causes the pet to avoid all attacks for that round.
• Anubisath Idol: Sandstorm and Deflection have swapped ability positions.
• Thunderbolt has been redesigned. It is now a powerful team-damage spell.
• Mr. Bigglesworth's Prowl has been replaced with a new ability, Ice Barrier, which blocks two attacks.
• Fluxfire Feline's Wind-Up has been replaced with a new ability, Flux, which deals damage to the enemy team.
• The Tuskarr Kite has a new set of abilities that's more appropriate for a Tuskarr Kite.
• Pets that had been affected by a crowd-control ability will now be granted Resilience, making them immune to crowd control for a short while.
• Volcano's damage has been reduced by 15%.
• Ice Tomb, Elementium Bolt, and Stun Seed's damage has been reduced by 25%.
• Geyser's damage has been reduced by 12.5%.
• Conflagrate's base damage has been increased by 20% and its bonus damage has been reduced by 60%.
• Siphon Life now heals for a flat amount instead of a percentage of the damage that had been dealt.
• Arcane Explosion’s damage to back-line pets has been increased by 20%.
• Supercharge now provides a 125% damage bonus, down from 150%, and lasts for 1 round.
• Frost Shock now properly chills targets for 2 rounds (was 4 rounds).
• Deep Freeze now has a cooldown of 4 rounds (was 3 rounds).
• Ghostly Bite's damage has been reduced by 20%.
• Ghostly Skull: Ghostly Bite and Siphon Life have swapped ability positions.
• Call Darkness now lasts for 5 rounds (was 9 rounds).
• Blocking abilities that last for 2 turns like Decoy, now have a cooldown of 8 rounds.
• Feign Death now has a cooldown of 8 rounds (was 5 rounds).
• Prowl now lasts for 2 rounds (was 1 round).
• Crystal Overload now lasts for 2 rounds (was 1 round).
• Focus Chi now lasts for 1 round.
• Sprite Darter Hatchling and Nether Faerie Dragon: Evanescence and Arcane Blast have swapped ability positions.
• Nether Roach is now a real roach and can now survive the apocalypse.
• Battle Pet Bandages now stack to 25 and are Bind to Account.
• Battle-Stones now have a chance to be awarded from PvP Pet Battles.
• Pets whose color schemes change each time they are summoned have returned. Older pets with this behavior now have it back, as well as some newcomers.
• Level capped players will now have a chance to earn Lesser Charms of Good Fortune after winning a pet battle versus a pet within 5 levels of the highest level pet on their team. Higher-level pets will offer a better chance to earn a charm.
• Winning a pet battle versus a team within 5 levels of the player's highest-level pet will now award player experience.
• Fleeing a pet battle will no longer despawn the pet that was being battled, but doing so will now inflict some damage on the fleeing pet battle team.
• Disconnecting from a pet battle will once again respawn the pets you were fighting.
• Elite Battle Pets have been added to the game world. These rare pets will spawn alone against an entire team. The Beasts of Fable taming quest will now become available from Gentle San or Sara Finkleswitch once Aki the Chosen has been defeated.
   

Raids, Dungeons and Scenarios

• Throne of Thunder raid bosses in Normal and Heroic difficulties have a chance of dropping items with the Thunderforged designation. Thunderforged items are 6 item levels higher than their Normal or Heroic counterparts and will drop more frequently in 25-player raids. For a more in-depth look at this change, check out this discussion thread.
• To encourage Raid Finder groups to persevere, each time an Raid Finder group wipes on a boss fight all players in the group receives a stacking buff that increases health, damage dealt, and healing done by 5% (up to a maximum of 10 stacks). This buff is cleared once the boss has been killed.
• Satchels obtained via the Raid Finder now have a chance to contain additional rewards, including: consumables, Spirits of Harmony, rare pets or mounts, and Raid Finder versions of Normal and Heroic difficulty zone drops that were previously unavailable from Raid Finder encounters!
• You can now earn bonus reputation for your first dungeon and scenario of the day. You can select which reputation you choose to champion by selecting it from the reputation panel on the character screen. When you queue for a dungeon or scenario, the UI will remind you which reputation you are championing and allow you to change the reputation from there. (You cannot change that reputation once you are in the dungeon or scenario.)
• On Normal and Heroic mode, zone-wide auras have been activated in Mogu’shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, and Terrace of Endless Spring, reducing the health and damage of all enemies therein by 10%. A NPC near the entrance within each zone explains this, and offers to deactivate the buff for the benefit of brave/foolhardy adventurers.
• All players who have defeated Will of the Emperor, Grand Empress Shek’zeer, and/or Sha of Fear prior to the release of Patch 5.2 will receive a Feat of Strength, “Ahead of the Curve,” to mark their accomplishments.
• Elders Lin and Liao in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms now offer Mogu Runes of Fate in exchange for Lesser Charms of Good Fortune. Mogu Runes of Fate allow for a bonus loot roll for Throne of Thunder raid bosses, Nalak the Storm Lord, and Oondasta.
• The maximum number of Elder Charms of Good Fortune a character can hold has been increased to 20 (was 10).
• The chance of getting personal loot in Raid Finder and the chance of a successful bonus roll in Raid Finder have been greatly increased for the following raids, Mogu'shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, and Terrace of Endless Spring.
• Lorewalker Cho has two new tales to tell: Dagger in the Dark and A Little Patience. Though his mystical story-weaving magic (and well, the Dungeon Finder), both Alliance and Horde characters are now able run these previously faction-specific Scenarios.
• Level 90 players that use Dungeon Finder to look for a random Dungeon or Scenario will receive additional bonus Valor Points upon completing specific Dungeons or Scenarios.
  • Dungeons
    • Siege of Niuzao Temple: 5 bonus Valor Points
    • Scholomance: 10 bonus Valor Points
    • Shadow-Pan Monastery: 15 bonus Valor Points
  • Scenarios
    • Brewmoon Festival, Greenstone Village, A Little Patience, and Theramore’s Fall: 5 bonus Valor Points.
• Heroic Pandaria dungeons now award 100 Justice Points per boss. Gold drops for those bosses have also been changed from a static 50 gold to a 40-60 gold range. Less gold will drop in groups consisting of fewer than 5 players.
• Scenarios now award 50 Justice Points (was 25).
• Sunwell Plateau
  • The Kalecgos encounter in The Sunwell can now be completed by a single player.
     

PvP

• Season 13 has begun! With the start of the new season, Tyrannical and Tyrannical Elite gear are now available for purchase.
• Tyrannical Primal Diamond is now available for purchase with Conquest Points. This new PvP-oriented metagem offers PvP Power and Resilience.
• Characters who have earned over 27,000 Conquest points during Season 13 will gain access to new vendors that sell Conquest PvP gear for Honor. These vendors can be found near existing Pandaria PvP vendors.
• Mists of Pandaria Season 12 Malevolent Gladiator’s PvP gear can now be purchased with Honor Points instead of Conquest Points, including weapons.
• All newly purchased Season 12 Malevolent Gladiator’s armor, off-hands and shields will have an item level of 476 (was 483). Existing Malevolent items are unaffected.
• Balance, Feral, Windwalker, Retribution, Shadow, Enhancement and Elemental now gain 25% of the bonus healing provided by PvP Power (was 0). Dedicated healers will continue to gain 50% of the bonus healing, and no bonus damage, from PvP Power.
• PvP trinkets that clear loss-of-control effects will now also clear these effects from the player's pet as well.
• For casters and healers, PvP Power is now split evenly between main-hand and off-hand in a manner similar to a dual-wield melee class. This change is retroactive, affecting Season 12 Malevolent and Malevolent Elite items. There should be no net change for any character already using a main-hand/off-hand combination.
• Season 13 caster weapons now cost 2250 Conquest Points (was 2500 in Season 12) and shields/off-hands cost 1250 (was 1000), to reflect the increased value of the off-hand slot for classes that use it in this manner. This change is not retroactive and applies only to Season 13 items.
• Characters that have attained requisite title levels (Centurion, Knight-Captain, Grand Marshal, High Warlord, etc.) through the Rated Battleground system will be able to purchase old PvP items requiring those titles.
   

Battlegrounds

• Players in low-level Battlegrounds will have their effective level raised to the maximum level allowed in that Battleground bracket. Players' base stats and spells are scaled accordingly, and are treated as the same level when determining hits, misses, and critical effect chance.
• Rated Battlegrounds now award Conquest to the losing team based on their final score. The losing team can earn up to 200 Conquest Points from a very close match.
• Players can obtain a new title "Khan", by completing the following Battleground achievements: Master of the Battle for Gilneas, Master of Twin Peaks, Master of Temple of Kotmogu, Master of Isle of Conquest, and Master of Silvershard Mines.
   

Professions

• Archeology
  • Mantid Archaeology has been added. Players will be able to uncover common and rare Mantid artifacts.
  • Players can purchase a Mantid Artifact Sonic Locator to focus exclusively on Mantid digsites.
  • The Lorewalker’s Map now randomizes all digsites in Pandaria, rather than just 1.
  • Updates have been made to the “museum” at the Seat of Knowledge.
• Blacksmithing
  • New raid and PvP blacksmithing plans have been added, and can be acquired through daily research of Lightning Steel Ingots.
  • Seasoned Blacksmiths will be able to find a way to create Lightning Steel Ingots once their realm has unlocked the Thunderforges on the Isle of Thunder. These ingots will allow blacksmiths to recreate powerful weapons from the past, updated for Mists of Pandaria.  These power weapons will be bind-on-equip and making them will take a significant amount of dedication.
  • For blacksmiths who have lapsed in their trade (i.e., haven’t practiced blacksmithing since the Burning Crusade), there is a (not necessarily cost efficient) way to catch-up. Blacksmiths at your faction’s shrines in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms will be able to teach you training plans for crafting common household items using Ghost Iron.
• Fishing
  • The chance to fish up Flying Tiger Gourami, Spinefish Alpha and Mimic Octopus has been increased.
  • Reputation gains from bringing rare Pandarian fish for Nat Pagle to examine has been increased.
  • Players with a high fishing skill have a chance to fish up new pets. The Pet Journal has clues on where these elusive pets could be found.
  • Fish of the Day: On any given day, there is a location in Pandaria teeming with a type of Pandaren fishing pool.
  • Ben of the Booming Voice, located near the Halfhill Market area will inform players what the “Fish of the Day” is and mark the location on their map.
• Jewelcrafting
  • Jewelcrafters may find the designs for Serpent’s Heart and uncut Primal Diamonds during the course of their adventures (world drops).
  • Serpent’s Heart is a daily cooldown that consumes several Serpent’s Eyes to create a random rare quality Pandaren gem.  In addition, there is a small chance that a player will discover the design for the Sapphire Cub or Jade Owl.
  • The design for uncut Primal Diamonds requires Spirits of Harmony and large quantities of uncommon gems.
• Leatherworking
  • New raid and PvP patterns have been added. Leatherworkers can acquire these new patterns via the daily Magnificence of Leather or Magnificence of Scales cooldown.
  • Patterns for Magnificence of Leather and Magnificence of Scales could be found via world drops. These patterns allow the leatherworker to create Magnificent Hides more economically and share a daily cooldown.
  • A new 36 slot leather bag (Magnificent Hide Pack) can now be created through Leatherworking.
• Tailoring
  • New raid and PvP patterns have been added, and tailors can acquire these new patterns via the daily Imperial Silk cooldown.
     

Items

• General
  • Transmogrification rules have been broadened for several weapon types.
    • Two-handed axes, maces, and swords can be Transmogrified to each other.
    • One-handed axes, maces, and swords can be Transmogrified to each other.
    • Staves and polearms can be transmogrified to each other.
  • The ethereals that offered to upgrade items using Valor or Justice Points have departed Azeroth for the moment. They may yet return in a future patch.
  • The cost of Valor Point gear introduced in patch 5.0 has been reduced by 50%.
  • The cost of Valor Point gear introduced in patch 5.1 has been reduced by 25%.
  • Skyshards are now Bind on Account.
  • Adventurers can now upgrade old heirlooms by turning in the item and paying Justice Points or Darkmoon Prize Tickets, converting them into versions that provide benefits up to level 85. Note, the upgrade process will remove all enhancements on the heirloom.
• Item Enhancements
  • Dancing Steel now has a 15% increased chance to activate.
     

Sunsong Ranch

• Seed bags have been added that allow planting of crops 4 plots at a time.
• Yoon's Mailbox has been renamed to Sunsong Ranch Mailbox.
• The yield from special crops has been improved to make farming them competitive with gathering these items out in the world.
• Running the Master Plow across underground Virmen will cause them to pop out of the ground at 30% health and stunned.
• Wild Crops will now occur less often.
   

UI

• The Reputation panel on the character screen will now let players know which reputations they have purchased and used Grand Commendations for.
• There is now an option to show absorb effects (such as Power Word: Shield) on player, target, party and raid frames. This feature is currently enabled if you turn on the predictive healing option. Unlike predictive healing, absorb effects will display for enemy targets.
   

Bug Fixes

• Classes
  • Druid
    • It is no longer possible for a weaker application of Living Seed to overwrite a stronger one.
  • Paladin
    • It is no longer possible to refresh Inquisition to a lower duration.
  • Mage
    • The cooldown of Cauterize will now properly reset upon entering an Arena.
  • Warlock
    • Grimoire of Service now describes its special abilities on the tooltip.
    • Demonic Circle: Teleport now correctly shares the same cooldown when in Metamorphosis.
• Pet Battles
  • Taming the World now lists its reward correctly in the Achievements pane.
• Items
  • Teebu’s Blazing Longsword once again appropriately illuminates its surroundings.
  • Effects for the following trinkets should no longer activate while outside of combat: Spirits of the Sun, Qin-xi's Polarizing Seal, and Relic of Chi-Ji.
• Mac
  • Fixed an issue that would cause command-left-click to occur as right-click while using trackpad functionality.
  • The Logitech LCD applet for G19/G15 keyboards will now launch with the 64-bit client.

(source)

]]> Tue, 05 Mar 2013 21:56:40 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1626-52-the-thunder-king-patch-notes/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1597-council-of-elders-guide-released/ Council of Elders, the third boss encounter of the Throne of Thunder.

Also, Priest and Warrior guides have been updated for Patch 5.2 (with the exception of the gear pages, which will be updated later on).]]> Mon, 04 Mar 2013 22:11:08 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1597-council-of-elders-guide-released/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1588-isle-of-thunder-and-horridon-guides-released/ Isle of Thunder and Horridon.

The Isle of Thunder is a new area introduced with Patch 5.2. The guide we wrote for it is the most comprehensive and longest article we have ever published. That should say something about how much there is to do there.

Horridon is the second boss of the Throne of Thunder. We should have released it much earlier, but we had a few schedule issues that prevented us from properly working on it until today.]]> Sun, 03 Mar 2013 21:23:16 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1588-isle-of-thunder-and-horridon-guides-released/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1580-twin-consorts-guide-released/ the fight against the Twin Consorts has just been released.

Next, we will release a guide for the Isle of the Thunder King event, and then guides for Horridon and the Council of Elders.]]> Sat, 02 Mar 2013 19:55:55 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1580-twin-consorts-guide-released/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1566-primordius-and-iron-qon-raid-guides-released/

• Primordius
  
• Iron Qon

We will be releasing the remaining raid guides in the days before the patch, and we will, as always, spend a lot of time polishing and updating all of these guides after the release of the patch. Thank you!]]> Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:05:28 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1566-primordius-and-iron-qon-raid-guides-released/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1555-official-patch-52-trailer/

Note that “Legendary” on Gamebreaker will be doing a special episode today where they’ll be chatting with World of Warcraft lead quest designer Dave Kosak specifically about the trailer. He wrote the poem you’ll hear spoken by Lorewalker Cho in the video and plays a key role in Mists of Pandaria story development. Expect that interview to be released by the Gamebreaker crew sometime in the early afternoon!

Below, you will find a transcript of the poem:

Pandaria, her hills of gold
In dark and mournful times of old
Did once a hopeless horror hold

When from her sacred veil did spring
With storm and flash, a monstrous thing
His name Lei-Shen, the Thunder King

His thunder boomed across the land
And none who dared and fought could stand
Against the iron tyrant’s hand

A palace grand, a walled domain
Such mighty works born of his reign
Built by slaves, their hearts in chains

But seasons change and tyrants die
His fury spent in times gone by
The thunder slept beneath Kun Lai

By Zandalari hands he has been taken
By Zandalari voice he has awakened

Gather heroes, sound the drums
The Thunder King comes
The Thunder King comes

]]> Wed, 27 Feb 2013 17:12:33 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1555-official-patch-52-trailer/ http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1553-durumu-oondasta-and-nalak-raid-guides-released/

• Durumu the Forgotten, the 7th boss in the Throne of Thunder raid;
  
• Oondasta, a new world boss coming in Patch 5.2;
  
• Nalak, the Storm Lord, another world boss coming in Patch 5.2.

]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 23:13:48 +0000 http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/1553-durumu-oondasta-and-nalak-raid-guides-released/