wow WoW Recap: Beta Patch Notes, Gaze of the Black Prince, NA Arena Tournaments, Weak Auras

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As Warlords of Draenor appoaches, Blizzard releases more and more information about the expansion and the changes to come. While waiting for the Iron Horde, Blizzard has announced their next big PvP tournament, as well as new ways to speed up the legendary cloak quest chain!
 
Lastly, for those add-on junkies out there, head to the end of this column for a helpful rundown of one of the quintessential World of Warcraft accessories.

 

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August 27th Patch notes

 
On August 27th, Blizzard posted updates to their Warlords of Draenor Beta patch notes. As always, be aware that these changes are not final and may change significantly before the release of the expansion. Some notable changes include:

• Pandaren racial is staying at 100%.
• Multiple small Crowd Control changes.
• Death Knights: Raid buff changes and small blood changes.
• Druid: Barkskin is now a base 30 second cooldown for all specs.
• Hunter: Rotation and Talent explanation and Survival changes.
• Priest: New passive for Holy - Multistirke buff.
• Warlock: Healthstone changes.

These aren't all the changes in this latest patch, so be sure to check out MMO-Champion for an excerpt of the patch notes that include the changed/updates by themselves. As always, the full updated patch notes are available on the World of Warcraft website.

• MMO Champion updates on patch notes
• Full Beta patch notes on Blizzard Website.

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Gaze of the Black Prince

 
The Gaze of the Black Prince buff has returned for a final time before the release of Warlords of Draenor.  It is active until Tuesday, September 16th at 9:00 a.m. PDT. For a few months now, Blizzard has given us this buff alongside a boost to Valor to help players along with their legendary cloaks either for their main, alts, or both.
 
Gaze of the Black Prince will increase all reputation gained with the Black Prince by 100%. This buff also increases the chance of obtaining items that are part of the Legendary Cloak quest chain. These items include: Sigils of Wisdom and Power, Secrets of the Empire, and Titan Runestone. 
 
The breakdown of bosses that drop each type of item are as follows:

• Sigils: All bosses in Mogu'shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, Terrace of the Endless Spring, Throne of Thunder and the first 8 bosses of Siege of Orgrimmar.
• Secrets of the Empire: All bosses in Throne of Thunder and the first 8 bosses of Siege of Orgrimmar.
• Titan Runestone: The last 6 bosses of Throne of Thunder and the first 8 bosses of Siege of Orgrimmar.

Remember, you can only receive items towards your legendary on your first boss kills of the week. This applies to any difficulty!
 

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2014 World of Warcraft North American Tournament

 
The 2014 World of Warcraft North American Arena Tournament sign ups are now open. This tournament pits the best 3v3 arena teams in the world against each other, all to determine each region's qualifiers for the Blizzcon World Championships! Sign-ups are only available to those that have a rating of 2500 or higher in the 3v3 ladder. Currently the Electronic Sports League (ESL) page built to handle the tournament is not quite complete. However, its initial construction is a sign Blizzard plans for the tournament to happen soon. If you are interested in signing up for this tournament, have you and your teammates register an account on the ESL site and and prepare a team for later use.
 
There are three regional tournaments that take place before the Global World Championship at Blizzcon, one in North America, Europe, and Asia.  Once you qualify and advance through the regional tournaments, you are invited to Blizzcon 2014 to compete in the Global Tournament with a cash pool of $250,000.
 

 
The bracket consists of eight teams who qualified through their regional tournaments.  Each game is a Best of 7 series where the first game is played in the Nagrand Arena. After that, the loser of each round picks the next map.  The entire event will be hosted live at Blizzcon 2014 where everyone can watch the outcome of the tournament. The team that claims the title of World Champion will receive a whopping $120,000 from the $250,000 prize pool, with 2nd place receiving $50,000, third and fourth place receiving $20,000, and lastly fifth through eighth place receiving $10,000 each.
 

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Add-on Spotlight: Weak Auras 2

 
Weak Auras is nothing new, this juggernaut has been around for a significant amount of time. Despite its age, there are still many players who do not know about Weak Auras or are too overwhelmed by the amount of customization it contains.
 
Weak Auras is a powerful add-on that allows you to display customized graphics on your screen to indicate buffs, debuffs, and many types of information.  Primarily, this add-on is used to alert the player of specific buffs or debuffs in a clearly defined and obvious way for the player to notice. This makes it easier for the player to react to the current event. Weak Auras is also powerful enough to allow players to code specific events using World of Warcraft's in-game LUA API.
 
 If you don't understand how to make auras, don't worry! There are plenty of tutorials available to get you started.

• Official Example Auras
• Weak Auras WowAce page
• Weak Auras YouTube Tutorials - Slightly outdated, but still useful.

You can also ask for help with Weak Auras here on Icy Veins, either in general or class specific forums, as there are always people willing to help out. It is important that you use and update "Weak Auras 2", since the old version will not be updated any more. Lastly, if you don't like Weak Auras, a similar alternative is TellMeWhen.
 
Let us know your thoughts in the comments. We are always happy to help.