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Death Knight one-per-realm restriction lifted

Death Knight one per realm restriction lifted
WoW Insider received an email this morning about a small change that has us all a'fluster. Saruya sent us a notification that the restriction preventing players from having more than one death knight per realm has been lifted. We immediately logged into WoW to check this out, and as the eagle eyed among you will be able to see, this is definitely the case. I was able to make six death knights on Argent Dawn, with no issues whatsoever, and many more on other realms.

What's got us a little confused, though, is that we're not entirely sure when the restriction was lifted. Nethaera posted on the official US forums on April 14th, after the release of patch 5.2, that there was no update on when it would be lifted. This implies to us that it's a recent change, but it is conspicuously absent from the patch notes! Funny enough, when you assume there is not the possibility to create more than one DK per realm, you don't often try. So, we thought we'd post this here to clarify: you can now have all the DKs your cold, frostbitten heart desires.

Filed under: Death Knight

Patch 5.3: Hotfixes for May 22

Patch 53 Hotfixes for May 22
Another day, another set of hotfixes. Patch 5.3 has not been without its hiccups, with a reasonable list of known issues appearing from Blizzard earlier today. But the developers are fixing the issues as quickly as they appear, with changes already in place to work out the problems encountered in the seat of knowledge, where the lack of a graveyard meant that players were unable to retrieve their corpses. A hotfix has been made which allows players who have died in the Seat of Knowledge to fly back to their bodies with a Spectral Gryphon (Wisp for Night Elves) or a Spectral Wyvern.

Is this the first step towards Blizzard allowing corpse flying in Pandaria? Check out all the hotfixes after the break.

Read more →

Filed under: Hotfixes

Random Battleground healer balance system temporarily disabled

Battleground healer balance system temporarily disabled
Senior PvP Designer Brian Holinka tweeted just a short while ago about the temporary removal of one of patch 5.3's shiny new systems: the one that balances healer numbers in opposing random battleground teams.
Holinka later confirmed that this issue was the one that was causing some players to experience very long queue times for random battlegrounds, an issue that had cropped up in several places on the official forums. His tweet said that players, both healers and DPS, were becoming "stuck" in the queue.

As a result, the system has now been temporarily disabled. This means that teams with unequal healer numbers will reappear, so don't be surprised that the system is not working. Bugs do happen, and as I'm always going on about, PvP is a rare thing on the PTR. So it's no surprise that, when big new features like this go live, they might not withstand the strain. If you want to stop these problems, don't QQ, get on the next PTR and make with the stabby. You'll be doing yourself a favor! And while you're waiting, WoW Insider has a guide on helping the healers you do have in random battlegrounds.

Filed under: PvP

Patch 5.3: Known issues

Patch 53 Known issues
It's often the case that more patches means more problems, and while the majority of Patch 5.3: Escalation is running like clockwork, there are a few hiccups popping up along the way. WoW Insider reported on one late last night: the issues with the Tyrannical Conquest achievement. This achievement, awarded when a player has earned 25,000 conquest points in a season, also allows players to purchase conquest gear for honor. It was being awarded far too early, and allowing players who weren't entitled to do so to buy that Tyrannical gear for honor. A hotfix was swiftly implemented, blocking purchases from the vendor selling Tyrannical gear for honor, and a fix to the achievement is in the works.

The devs are also working hard on a fix that allows players to resurrect inside Lorewalker Cho's Seat of Knowledge room above Mogushan -- this contested territory is the base for the first run of new scenarios, so was seeing heavy traffic from both factions, and is out of reach from the normal resurrection run.

And what's more, Deepwind Gorge, the new battleground in patch 5.3, has been temporarily pulled from the rated battleground rotation, thanks to problems with base captures. Lastly, there are also reported problems with sound-generating addons such as Deadly Boss Mods, but WoW Insider has only been able to replicate this in certain situations. For the rest of the issues, hit the break!

Read more →

Filed under: Mists of Pandaria

Conquest Vendors temporarily disabled

Conquest Vendors Temporarily Disabled
Blizzard Community Manager Daxxarri has taken to the US and EU forums to explain a temporary issue that has led Blizzard to temporarily disable the Conquest quartermasters for both factions.
Daxxarri
The achievement, Tyrannical Conquest, is only intended to be awarded when players earn 25,000 Conquest Points. Due to an issue that was not detected during the PTR testing process, the achievement could be awarded much earlier than intended. We are currently in the process of working to resolve the issue.

In the meantime, we've applied a hotfix that temporarily prevents players from purchasing gear from Tyrannical PvP item vendors.

This achievement required a hotfix back in patch 5.2, too, as it was incorrectly calculating the points required. It seems that, with patch 5.3, things have gone from bad to worse. The reason this is an issue is that the achievement's completion, at 25,000 conquest, now allows players to purchase conquest gear with honor. Allowing players to purchase that gear with honor at a far lower points earned level than intended was clearly a bit of an issue! Hopefully the developers will be able to implement a fix very soon, so that PvPers can continue to purchase their gear.

Update: Senior PvP Designer Brian Holinka tweeted WoW Insider this morning to clarify that the only disabled vendor is the one selling Tyrannical gear for honor. The Tyrannical conquest vendor is, in fact, still available.

Filed under: PvP

Patch 5.3 to arrive on May 21st


The guessing games are over: Blizzard has just announced that Patch 5.3: Escalation will be released this coming week. That makes launch day Tuesday, May 21st for Australian and North American realms and Wednesday, May 22nd for European realms.

If you're not aware, patch 5.3 has a bundle of new content, including new story elements, PvP changes, a new battleground, new scenarios and heroic scenarios, and a lot more. Find the full patch notes after the break.

Read more →

Filed under: Blizzard, News items

Patch 5.3: Latest PTR build is a release candidate

Patch 51 Latest build is a release candidate
Yesterday, we asked you what your best guess was for the arrival date of patch 5.3, and at the time the article was written, the PTR build was still a test. Since then, it has been updated, as many commenters mentioned, and is now a release candidate.
Patch 53 Latest PTR build is a test candidate
What does this mean for a potential release date? Looking back at patch 5.1, WoW Insider reported that a release candidate was live on November 13th, and the patch released on November 27th, a fortnight after the first release candidate went up. Patch 5.2 went to a PTR release candidate on the PTR on February 26th, and the patch dropped on March 5th, just one week later. We can't really discuss earlier patches, thanks to Blizzard's new, improved patch cycle, but these two indicate that the patch may well drop within the next fortnight, so May 21st or 28th, perhaps the first week in June at the latest.

Of course, this is just estimation, we're doing research and gathering clues, but it's not a firm confirmation. While you're waiting, you can check out all our patch 5.3 coverage.

Filed under: Mists of Pandaria

Patch 5.3 PTR Patch Notes for May 14

Patch 53 PTR Patch Notes for May 14
The latest sets of PTR patch notes materialized a few hours ago, mostly featuring a multitude of class changes.
  • Some reasonable nerfs to hunter pet CC, several abilities have had their cooldowns doubled.
  • Some changes to the interaction of Tricks of the Trade with Blood DK abilities
  • A buff to Necrotic Strike's attack power scaling
  • A PvP-related change to Incanter's Ward, halving the effect but doubling the duration, as has been recently discussed the devs think this might be a part of their burst issues in PvP.
And lastly, Eye of the Black Prince can now be used to apply a prismatic socket on Reborn weapons. Hit the break for the full notes.

Read more →

Filed under: Mists of Pandaria

Reminder: Deadline for BlizzCon ticket information is tomorrow

Reminder Deadline for BlizzCon ticket information is tomorrow
For those of you planning to attend BlizzCon 2013, Blizzard has posted a friendly reminder on its community sites that ticket information needs to be finalized by Tuesday, May 14 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. That's tomorrow night, so get to it if you haven't already done so.
BlizzCon Ticket Reminder: Attendee Information Deadline-May 14
If you purchased BlizzCon 2013 tickets for family or friends, just a reminder you have until next Tuesday, May 14 to enter or edit attendee information, including:
  • The names to be printed on the badges.
  • Battle.net account names for the pre-show online merchandise sale for BlizzCon ticket holders-more details to come. (Please note that only registered accounts will be able to access this pre-show sale.)
  • Optional game information such as World of Warcraft character, realm, clan, and BattleTag.
If this information hasn't been entered by May 14, all badges will default to the name on the purchaser's Battle.net account. Don't miss the opportunity to customize your badges!

For more info, check out the Badge Information page.

Head to your Order History within Battle.net account management to edit attendee information before it's too late!

This information is particularly important if you're getting your ticket through a friend or family member. If the name on your ticket does not match the name on your photo ID, you will not be able to pick up your badge on your own. That, and if you don't select your franchise preferences, you might end up with a Diablo III badge instead of a World of Warcraft one. You wouldn't want that, would you?

Filed under: BlizzCon

Live Hearthstone Stream

Update: The livestream is now over, but you can check out the Video on Demand above! The final game is very much worth sticking around for, really captures the excitement of Hearthstone. We hope to see more of these in future!

If you're as excited about Hearthstone as we are here at WoW Insider, you'll want to check out the above stream, as Hearthstone Fireside Duels go live on Twitch.tv. Lead Designer Eric Dodds and designer and Shoutcaster Ben Brode, who is fast becoming the voice of Hearthstone, are sitting down to several duels, as well as answering viewer questions on Twitch and Twitter.

The duels so far have shown off the mage, shaman, warrior, paladin, warlock and druid, but it's possible that we'll get to see some of the other heroes in action today, as well as the minion cards. It's also a great chance to get more into the game's mechanics, and develop more understanding, thanks to the live nature of the duels, and the Q&A. Community Manager Phenteo is also on hand in the Twitch chatroom to field viewer questions.

The one question they don't seem that keen to answer just yet is this: does this mean a beta is impending? It seems fairly certain that Hearthstone will be at Blizzcon, at the latest, but who knows, it seems quite likely that there might even be a beta at Gamescom, given that Blizzard unveiled the Mists trailer there last year. What do you think?

Filed under: Hearthstone Insider

World of Warcraft loses 1.3M subscribers since February, down to 8.3M

WoW loses 13 million subscribers since Feb down to 8 mil
Today's Activision-Blizzard financial reports states World of Warcraft took a subscriber hit this quarter, losing 1.3 million players since February.

The loss brings the total number of WoW players down to 8.3 million, its lowest level since the launch of the Burning Crusade expansion in 2007. Subscriber levels have fallen by about a third since WoW's post-Cataclysm peak of 12 million subscribers. The loss is hardly unusual -- you have to remember that WoW is a 9-year-old game, and we're at a pretty uninteresting time in the expansion cycle.

Have we mentioned yet that we're really excited to see if Blizzard is announcing a new MMO at BlizzCon?

Filed under: Blizzard, The Burning Crusade, BlizzCon, Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria

Blizzard's guide to preparing for Patch 5.3: Escalation

Blizzard's guide to preparing for Patch 53 Escalation
The countdown to patch 5.3 is well and truly upon us, as Blizzard Community Manager Daxxarri posted a detailed blog on how to ready your account and gird your loins for the upcoming conflict. As ever, you can see the full post after the break.

There's a reduction in XP to get from 85-90, first and foremost, and Daxxarri actually posts that you should dust off your alts! Next up on the list is clarification of Item Upgrades. The voidbinders have returned from their vacation in, well, the void most likely, and are back to upgrade your items. PvPers can only upgrade season 12 items, at the same cost as before, 750 Conquest for upgrades of four item levels, and (most likely, although the blog says different) 1500 honor points for an upgrade of eight item levels. PvE gear can be upgraded in the usual manner, at the massively reduced cost of 250 Valor Points to upgrade per 4 Item Levels, for a total of 500 Valor for 8 Item Levels per item. This also applies retroactively to all items that can be upgraded using Valor, and the exact same numbers apply to Justice gear.

Blizzard is also adding more ways to get your hands on Lesser Charms with patch 5.3, they will drop from outdoor world creatures level 90 and above, as well as from rare spawns in Pandaria. There are also a ton of PvP changes, which we've covered at length, and some other useful tidbits. One thing which isn't discussed is currency conversion, but it seems likely, though not absolutely certain, that no conversion will take place. The PvP season is still ongoing, and there is no new raid tier. Hit the break for Daxxarri's full post.

Read more →

Filed under: Mists of Pandaria

Diablo 3 bug sees trillions in gold duping, auction houses shutdown

Sure, we all like gold. But even the most gold hungry among us can see the problem with a bug that allowed players to accumulate trillions of in-game currency, which is exactly what happened with Diablo III's patch 1.0.8. As a result, the game's Auction House was taken down, and Blizzard is still debating what actions to take to correct the issue, but Lylirra posts on the official forums that roll backs won't be necessary.

Lylirra - Auction Houses Temporarily Offline -- Update
12:00 a.m. PDT: At this time (and after careful consideration), we've decided to not move forward with rolling back the servers. We feel that this is the best course of action given the nature of the dupe, how relatively few players used it, and the fact that its effects were fairly limited within the region. We've been able to successfully identify players who duplicated gold by using this specific bug, and are focusing on these accounts to make corrections. While this is a time-consuming and very detailed process, we believe it's the most appropriate choice given the circumstances. We know that some of you may disagree, but we feel that performing a full roll back would impact the community in an even greater way, as it would require significant downtime as well as revert the progress legitimate players have made since patch 1.0.8 was released this morning.

I know it would be a pretty big blow to lose character levels or gear acquired legitimately, so if they can go after the actual accounts that used the exploit and remove just their duplicated gold, that seems like the best option to me.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Economy, Account Security, Diablo 3

Patch 5.3 PTR patch notes updated for May 7

Patch 53 PTR patch notes updated for May 7
The latest batch of patch 5.3 PTR patch notes have landed on the official Blizzard blog, containing various highlights, some of which have recently been covered here on WoW Insider. Let's take a look at our highlights, and you can check out all the patch note changes after the break.
  • The Strength of One's Foes: All bosses in Mogu'shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, and Terrace of the Endless Spring now have a chance to drop either a Sigil of Power or Sigil of Wisdom
  • Minimum level requirement to enter and equip items found in the following dungeons via Dungeon Finder have been adjusted.
    • Gate of the Setting Sun is now available in Normal difficulty, and accessible to level 89 characters.
    • Grim Batol is now accessible at level 84, down from level 85.
    • Lost City of the Tol'vir is now accessible at level 84, down from level 85.
    • Magisters' Terrace is now accessible at level 68, down from level 70.
    • The Mechanar is now accessible at level 68, down from level 70.
  • PvP Power conversion ratio to obtain 1% damage at level 90 has been changed from 265 to 400.
  • To facilitate a more balanced team composition, players now need to select a role when queuing up for a Battleground or Rated Battleground.
  • Justice Heirloom vendors now have Heirloom shields in stock.

Read more →

Filed under: Mists of Pandaria

Patch 5.3 PTR: Collectors' achievements galore

Patch 53 PTR Achievements galore!
Wowhead's Perculia has been as busy as ever cataloging the new achievements currently on the patch 5.3 PTR, putting together a comprehensive guide over at Wowhead.

Do head over to check that out, but we're going to pull some of the more exciting ones out, with a focus on pets and mounts. WoW Insider also recently covered the new Gorgeous title, which comes from completing all the achievements in the new battleground, Deepwind Gorge.

First up, for completing Raiding with Leashes II: Attunement Edition, collecting all 10 of the new pets which have been dropped into the old raids listed on the achievement, players are awarded yet another pet, Tito's Basket! In the same vein of pet-related achievements awarding yet more pets, the Brutal Pet Brawler achievement awards a Stunted Direhorn. Lastly, in the pet battles category, there's an achievement called The Longest Day, which, when you look at the tooltip, you'll realise is aptly named. Carrying out that mammoth task will award you a Marked Flawless Battle Stone, which can be used to boost any pet to Rare quality.

What's more, mount collectors rejoice, because there's a new benchmark, 200 mounts, for which Mount Parade awards yet another mount, the Armored Dragonhawk, in blue for the Alliance and a fetching red for the Horde.

Filed under: News items

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