wow Warcraft Recap: WoD Alpha Patch Notes Update, Bloody Coin Hotfix + More!

[miyari 39]

WoD Alpha Patch Notes updated and Bloody Coin changes!

This week in Warcraft brings new changes to the Warlords of Draenor Alpha Patch Notes, including a new wave of ability pruning and the addition of new secondary stat attunements. Blizzard also decided that nine months of faction in-fighting on the Timeless Isle was enough, changing the transformation items and implementing a new system where Bloody Coins can be earned in battlegrounds. Blizzard hopes this change will make the Timeless Isle a more happy place for alts but will still allow players interested in rewards like the Reins of the Ashhide Mushan Beast a fair chance at earning enough Bloody Coins! If the grind is too much and you're still looking for an awesome new ride, a new mount hit the Battle.net Shop -- the Warforged Nightmare, a fiery clockwork warhorse (!) that comes with an additional item, a hitching post that lets your friends ride one, too! Check out all of the new Alpha changes and more in this week's recap!

---

Major Update to Warlords of Draenor Alpha Patch Notes

It's been a while since the last update to the Warlords of Draenor patch notes! Blizzard has just released a major update to the notes, which includes quite a few class changes from a second round of ability pruning. Blizzard developer Celestalon has noted that changes for Warrior, Warlock and Monk classses are still to come. Noteable changes in this update include:

• New section: Secondary Stat Attunements. Every specialization will now earn a passive bonus to a particular secondary stat, such as "Haste Attunement" or "Multistrike Attunement."
• New section: Self-Sustainability. This section details each class' self-healing mechanics in WoD.
• Removed section: Active Mana Regeneration. This entire section has been removed, presumably as Blizzard is still working on balancing mana regeneration for WoD.
• Updated section: Ability Pruning. Blizzard has performed a second run of ability pruning and have removed/changed even more class abilities. Changes for Warrior, Warlock and Monk have not yet been completed.
• Updated section: Buffs and Debuffs. This section now includes new details of buffs which provide Versatility or Multistrike.

Our friends at MMO-Champion have posted a patch notes excerpt which includes only the changed/updated notes, while the full updated patch notes are available on the World of Warcraft website.

• Check out the changed and updated notes on MMO-Champion
• Check out the full Alpha patch notes on the Warcraft blog

---

Major Changes to Bloody Coin Earning PVP

In a surprising hotfix released yesterday, Blizzard has changed the process of earning [bloody Coins from PVP kills on the Timeless Isle.Timeless Isle was released with patch 5.4 (Siege of Orgrimmar) back in August of 2013, and the "general atmosphere" of the Isle has changed dramatically in the nine months past. Blizzard no longer believes that the current Bloody Coin system is suitable for the current state of the zone and has made some major changes to the mechanic as well as the corresponding items.

These changes will be much-welcomed by players visiting the Isle to gear up alts or who are hoping to complete achievements or farm rare pets. However, Blizzard wants to make sure that players interested in farming the rewards are still satisfied! As this change has just recently gone into effect, Blizzard will certainly be monitoring all feedback received and make any changes they see fit in order to ensure that Bloody Coins can still be earned in a practical manner. The changes made are detailed below, with exerpts from the latest hotfixes along with a corresponding post from Blizzard CM Lore.

• Censer of Eternal Agony now has a cooldown of 1 hour when used (up from 10 minutes).
• Fire-Watcher's Oath now has a cooldown of 10 minutes (down from 1 hour) and costs 100 Timeless Coins to purchase (costs 50 Bloody Coins previously). The Ordon Fire-Watcher transformation now allows mount usage and Druid shapeshifting and significantly reduced the internal cooldown on earning Bloody Coins.

Recent Bloody Coin Hotfixes

When we were developing the Timeless Isle, we wanted to add some incentive for players to engage in world PvP independently of faction balance. To that end, we created the Censer of Eternal Agony and Bloody Coin mechanic. This created a "third faction" of sorts on the Isle, and brought an extra element of danger to players adventuring there.

We’re happy with how that worked out when Patch 5.4 released, but as time has passed, the general atmosphere of the Timeless Isle has changed. The majority of players who venture there today are either gearing up alts, or chasing after rare drops. As a result, we feel that it’s time to let the sun set on the Censer of Eternal Agony, and have increased its cooldown to 1 hour. Players who want to use it for its original purpose still can, but it will be a much larger setback when they’re defeated in battle.

That said, we still want players to be able to collect Bloody Coins (and the rewards that come with them), so we’re making some adjustments to the Fire-Watcher’s Oath item, which can now be purchased from Speaker Gulan for 100 Timeless Coins. The Fire-Watcher’s Oath allows the collection of Bloody Coins from PvP kills, doesn’t change your faction, and it can be used anywhere – including Battlegrounds. We’ve reduced its cooldown to 10 minutes (which matches its duration), removed the mounting restrictions, and have dramatically increased the ability to earn coins from PvP kills while it’s active. We want players interested in earning Bloody Coins to seek them out in a Battleground with use of the Fire-Watcher’s Oath.

Overall, we feel that these changes will not only make the Timeless Isle more attractive to players interested in its rewards, but will also give players collecting Bloody Coins a better way to earn them. We’re monitoring your feedback, and will continue to make adjustments as necessary.

---

Latest 5.4.8 Hotfixes - June 9 & 13

The latest batch of hotfixes includes the Bloody Coin changes detailed above, including a buff to the spawn rates of non-rares in the Timeless Isle. There's also a few earlier changes that corrected an issue with the Jade Forest quest Borrowed Brew.

5.4.8 Hotfixes - June 9 & 13

June 9 & 13

Timeless Isle

• Non-rare creatures and NPCs on lower areas of Timeless Isle should now respawn more frequently.

Quests

• Borrowed Brew: Resolved an issue that could cause players to be unable to see Lorewalker Cho after consuming Mouthwatering Brew.

Bug Fix

• Resolved an issue where the Heart of the Valorous buff was not correctly persisting through death.

Items

• Censer of Eternal Agony now has a cooldown of 1 hour when used (up from 10 minutes).
• Fire-Watcher's Oath now has a cooldown of 10 minutes (down from 1 hour) and costs 100 Timeless Coins to purchase (costs 50 Bloody Coins previously). The Ordon Fire-Watcher transformation now allows mount usage and Druid shapeshifting and significantly reduced the internal cooldown on earning Bloody Coins.
  • For more information on this change, please see the forum thread titled: Recent Bloody Coins Hotfixes.

---

Warforged Nightmare Mount Now Available

The Warforged Nightmare mount which was datamined at the end of last month has found its way into the Battle.net Shop, with a higher than usual price tag of USD 30.00 / EUR 25.00. This mount can be used as both a ground and flying mount. The purchase will get you the Warforged Nightmare mount for all of your in-game characters as well as a Nightmarish Hitching Post item. When the hitching post is used by party members, they will gain a buff which changes their existing mount into a Warforged Nightmare for 20 minutes (similar to the buff given by Preserved Holly). Blizzard has posted a trailer for the mount which shows off some of the animations, and some players have voiced dissatisfaction with the way the mount travels on land. No word yet on any release of the Grinning Reaver which was also found in the data files.