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Live
Blizzard's Timeless Isle Preview, Open Beta for Battle.net Desktop App
Open Beta for Battle.net Desktop App
In the months ahead, the game launchers for World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, and Diablo III will be automatically updated to our new desktop app for Battle.net, designed to improve the launcher experience and streamline your ability to play Blizzard games—but if you’re interested in upgrading now, you can!
The open beta test has begun, and everyone’s invited to download and install the app now in preparation for the switchover. If you’re interested in upgrading in advance, simply click the button below.
Download the Battle.net App
What’s this launcher update do? The new single sign-on functionality allows players to log in once to access World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III, and the upcoming PC and Mac versions of Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and stay logged in for up to 30 days.
Players can also install games directly through the ap
Live
PvP Season 13 Ending Soon
Season 13 is planned to end on August 27th--while this isn't confirmation of a Patch 5.4 release date, generally the end of a season is close to the start of a new patch.
Many weapons have been brought to bear and countless spells have been cast in this action-packed PvP season—now the time has come for the victors to reap their rewards!
On Tuesday, August 27, the 13th Arena and Rated Battleground Season is scheduled to end. On that day we'll begin an approximately one week process to determine end-of-season reward eligibilities.
Qualified players should note the following in order to ensure you receive your just rewards:
Please refrain from transferring your characters to another realm or faction until after PvP Season 13 has ended.
The awarding of PvP Season 13 titles and mounts will occur approximately two weeks after the season ends.
will be converted to
at the end of the season, and any Honor above 4,000 will be converted to gold at a rate of 35 silver per point. A few other things to keep in mind once the season has ended:
The
cap will remain at 4,000.
[l
Live
5.4 PTR: Build 17299, Spell Changes, New Cosmetic Armor, and More
Check out the latest additions!
Patch Highlights
This build only has a few items. However, it has a new armor set tagged as Cosmetic, meaning it can be transmogged onto any Cloth, Leather, Mail, or Plate armor! Click on the image to view it in our 3D Modelviewer.
Kor'kron Dark Shaman Set
:
Kor'kron Dark Shaman Belt
,
Kor'kron Dark Shaman Bracers
,
Kor'kron Dark Shaman Cowl
,
Kor'kron Dark Shaman Gloves
,
Kor'kron Dark Shaman Kilt
,
Kor'kron Dark Shaman Shoulder
,
Kor'kron Dark Shaman Treads
,
Kor'kron Dark Shaman Vestment
.
In addition,
Zarhym Altogether
has been updated--the skull is no longer named Tom, but is now a tribute to Community Manager Zarhym.
For more context on the spell changes, check out Ghostcrawler's
dev blog from yesterday
explaining 5.4 Class Changes.
Changed Set Bonuses and Legendary Procs
Item - Hunter T16 2P Bonus
:
Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot and Multi-shot reduce the cooldown of Rapid Fire by
Live
Patch 5.4: Dev Watercooler on Upcoming Class Changes
Yeah, I know, long time no watercooler. I’ve been busy.
I wanted to take a moment to provide context for some of the Patch 5.4 class changes that we’ve been making. If you haven’t already, you’ll want to get acquainted with the
5.4 PTR Patch Notes
, as this watercooler is going into detail on the changes listed. I’ll discuss the changes to each class, but here are a few things to keep in mind before we get started:
The team made a lot of changes to glyphs that weren’t working out well or were just to provide some new choices. There were a lot of changes so to keep this blog manageable, I’m not going to go into them in detail.
I’m not going to get into specific damage or healing tuning unless it requires extra explanation for some reason. In general, you can assume that your damage was too low or too high if you see generic buffs or nerfs to abilities.
As I write this, Patch 5.4 has not shipped yet, so if there are changes yet to come, I’m obviously not going to be able to cover
Live
5.4 PTR: New Mounts, Pet Limit Increased and Pet Ability Scaling on Wowhead
Battle Pets: Collections and Ability Scaling
Good news for pet collectors in 5.4! Lead Content Designer Cory Stockton
confirmed that the pet collection cap will be 1000 in 5.4, up from 650
. While this may seem like a big increase for right now, keep in mind that Mists of Pandaria added hundreds of
wild battle pets
, and we're sure to see even more next expansion.
We've also recently added battle pet ability scaling to
Wowhead petability pages
. Users have long been able to check out spell scaling for class abilities, so we wanted to do the same for pet abilities!
You can scale pet abilities now by modifying the pet type, breed, level, and quality under an
ability's main tooltip
.
New Mounts
Keeping with the vanity items theme of this blog, several new mounts have been added recently to the 5.4 PTR and our amazing users have alread
Live
5.4 PTR: Siege of Orgrimmar and Timeless Isle BoA Gear, Talk Azeroth with Olivia
This week, Olivia Grace is fed up to the teeth of constantly talking about the in-game store so swears off it for now—long may it continue.
Instead, she's tackling something came to light following some research she did to answer a recent viewer question: item levels. She reckons gear is pretty broken in WoW right now and wants your ideas to fix it; Olivia gives a couple of her own to get you started.
She also tackles Ghostcrawler's recent tweets about item squish, in this context, and despite her rapidly disappearing voice, Olivia still manages to answer a viewer question or two in another packed show.
If you want to have your question answered the best way to get in touch with Olivia is via email to olivia@zam.com, or twitter @oliviadgrace, or by leaving a comment below!
Siege of Orgrimmar Heirlooms
In a recent PTR build, epic BoA items were datamined! These heirlooms drop from
Garrosh Hellscream
on Flex, Normal, and Heroic difficulty--another incentive to run raids besides LFR. These items have interesting models as well--they are based on Horde PvP weapons from classic WoW.
We've received confirmation from Blizzard that the item levels and stats are not final yet.[/b
Live
5.4 PTR Patch Notes: Updated August 7th
The 5.4 PTR Patch Notes were updated with lots of profession details tonight:
Archaeology
Mantid Artifact Sonic Locator
no longer randomizes digsites when acquired, and is more difficult to obtain. They can now only be purchased as part of a
Mantid Artifact Hunter's Kit
, which includes a
Lorewalker's Map
.
Blacksmithing
New
Raid and PvP blacksmithing plans
have been added. These new plans can be researched by crafting
Balanced Trillium Ingot
s, allowing the blacksmith to learn a random new plan.
Plans for
Balanced Trillium Ingot
could be found as a drop from creatures in Pandaria.
Cooking
A number of
new cooking recipes
have been added, including new foods that give +300 to a primary stat and
noodle carts
. Some of these new recipes can be learned from drops in the
Vale of Eternal Blossoms
, others from quests.
Enchanting
Items formerly obtained with
Valor Points
that now cost
Justice Points
as well as gear crafted from new PvP recipes or plans will now disenchant into
Live
5.4 PTR: Build 17271, Spell Changes and More
Check out the latest additions!
Build Highlights
New zone tied to cooking quests for noodle carts:
The Secret Ingredient
New achievement for aiding Zarhym's skull friend on the Timeless Isle:
Zarhym Altogether
Moonfang items from the Darkmoon Faire:
Moonfang's Pelt
,
Moonfang's Paw
More epic weapons--perhaps tied to Timeless Isle rares with vanity looks, like
Ordon Sacrificial Dagger
and
Hozen Can Opener
Blizzard Store items:
Pouch of Enduring Wisdom (5)
,
Pouch of Enduring Wisdom
Icons
Click the cut for the spell changes!
Live
Talk Azeroth with Olivia: Support and the Store, Play with the Blues Event
Play With the Blues Event
Today from 2-4pm PST, Blizzard Devs and Community Managers will be hosting a
"Play with the Blues"
event on the PTR! They'll be testing out the
Timeless Isle
, an exciting zone filled with rare spawns, BoA epics, and tons of vanity loot!
Not sure where to start? Check out our
Timeless Isle
coverage--we've been having a blast tracking down all the hidden details on the island:
BoA Items, World Bosses, Battle Pets, Timeless Coins
Timeless Isle Vanity Loot
Celestial Pet Tournament
Timeless Isle Rare Spawns
Celestial Tournament and Sky Lantern Updates
Talk Azeroth: Episode 9
We've al
Live
Patch 5.4 Feature Preview: Connected Realms
<div class="detail"><p><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 2em;">Over the years, World of Warcraft players of all kinds have naturally migrated to different realms to play with their friends, find new guilds, strive for Heroic boss kills, search for the most competitive PvP experiences, and otherwise try to find the right place to call home. Over time, these shifts in player population can sometimes create a less-than-optimal play experience for those on less popular realms, making it tougher to find guilds, conquer group content, and get what they’re looking for from the Auction House and in-game economy.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 2em;">In Patch 5.4, we’re looking to address this with a new feature called <strong>Connected Realms</strong>. Building on our existing cross-realm technology, a Connected Realm is a set of two or more standard realms that have been permanently and seamless “linked.” These linked realms will behave as if they were one cohesive realm, meaning you’ll be able to join the same guilds and Arena teams, access a single Aucti
Live
5.4 PTR Patch Notes: Updated August 2nd
The 5.4 PTR Patch Notes were updated late last night with some class and ability changes. Here's the highlights:
Trinket, enchant, set bonus, and legendary meta-gem effects whose triggered effect benefits from haste no longer also have their chance to trigger the benefit from haste. Activation chances for those effects have been adjusted to compensate. You can check out the updated proc per minute details on our PTR tooltips, like
Cha-Ye's Essence of Brilliance
.
Heroic Scenarios no longer have a minimum item level requirement to enter. This will make putting groups together easier on alts.
All enemies in Throne of Thunder now have a debuff called Shado-Pan Onslaught, which reduces their health and damage by 20%. Since 5.4 introduces a new raid tier, making the older tiers easier makes sense.
Class changes include
Shadow Word: Death
increased by 80% when used on enemies that have less than 20% health, but the cooldown is no longer reset if the target does not die, and Dash, Dive, and Charge no longer costing Focus to use.
There were also some significant changes to Vengeance:
Vengeance now grants Attack Power equal to 1.5% of the damage taken, down from 1.8% (The tooltip said 2% but it was actu
Live
Siege of Orgrimmar Loot Tables, Clarifications on Off-Spec and Upgradable Legendary Capes
The 5.4 Dungeon Journal has been updated to include loot drops from all Siege of Orgrimmar bosses--check out the loot drops and dungeon strategies below.
We also have some clarifications on the
legendary capes coming in Patch 5.4 as well
. There's plans to include options to get legendary capes for your off-spec, and there's also some discussion on whether or not capes can be upgraded. It looks like the legendary capes will end up at ilvl 608 regardless of the item tech behind it.
Lore
I'm not completely sure how things are set up in the build that's going up today, but our intent is actually that you'll be able to acquire multiple Legendary cloaks, if you like. So, if you wanted, you could actually get one for both your Protection and Retribution spec :)
As an update, there's been a very slight change of plans. Our current thinking is to either start the Legendary cloak off at 2/2 upgraded (regardless of whether you upgraded the Epic cloak or not), or just have it set t
Live
5.4 PTR: Build 17260--New BoA Items, Siege of Orgrimmar Loot
A new PTR build is on its way--many Siege of Orgrimmar raid epics were added, as well as Timeless Isle achievements and some new BoA items.
Check out the latest additions!
Patch Highlights
New BoA items--currently they have "Hellscream" in the name and are epic, but Blizzard has reached out to clarify with us that the
item levels are not final
. They are:
Hellscream's Barrier
,
Hellscream's Cleaver
,
Hellscream's Decapitator
,
Hellscream's Doomblade
,
Hellscream's Pig Sticker
,
Hellscream's Razor
,
Hellscream's Shield Wall
,
Hellscream's Tome of Destruction
,
Hellscream's War Staff
,
Hellscream's Warbow
,
Hellscream's Warmace
Many new Timeless Isle achievements, including
Fire-Watcher
for getting tons of Bloody Coins,
Timeless Champion
for killing all the rare spawns,
Treasure, Treasure Everywhere
for looting all the chests, and
Going To Need A Bigger Bag
for getting all the rare items.
Many new Siege of Orgrimmar epics were added. Check out the thousands of raid items, which we've organized by slot and armor type:
Cloaks
[url=
http://ptr.wowhead.com/items=2?filter=qu=4:5:6:7;cr=82;
Live
5.4 PTR: Celestial Tournament Updates and Legendary Questline Clarifications
Celestial Tournament Updates
The
Celestial Tournament
, a place where players can battle celestial battle pets and famous pet battle tamers for cool prizes, is a bit more festive on the PTR now. There are tons of spectators and banners, as well as new vendors who sell noodle bowls and the new alcoholic drink
Dragon P.I.E.
!
The available teams were tweaked since last week as well--
Nairn
, a tribute to
Kristian Nairn
who plays Hodor on
Game of Thrones
, now has a battle pet ability tribute as well--
Nairn!
, which is strong against undead. He's also joined by a new direwolf pet,
Summer
.
There were also some new teams after Tuesday's reset--including Sully who has an Undead Socks pet, and Lorewalker Cho. Players can also now heal battle pets inside the tournament from
Cowardly Zue
, but y
Live
5.4 PTR Patch Notes: Updated July 29th
The 5.4 PTR Patch Notes were recently updated by Blizzard with class and item changes. For the most recent datamined changes, check out our coverage of
Build 17247
.
PTR Patch Note Changes
Death Knight
:
Death's Advance
now grants a flat 10% Haste to all things, up from Haste for melee (attack speed and Rune regeneration) only. The movement speed buff remains unchanged.
Fixed a bug that caused
and
Runic Corruption
to incorrectly increase activation rates of some trinkets and effects.
Ghoul's Leap and Gnaw abilities are no longer on a global cooldown, and no longer cost Energy.
Hunter
:
no longer initiates auto-attack.
Charred Glyph
: Camouflage also reduces spell damage taken by 10%.
Mage
:
Rune of Power
now has an increased effective range. The Mage can remain up to 8 yards away from their
Rune of Power
and still receive benefits to mana regeneration and spell damage (up from 3 yards).
Monk
:
Fixed a bug that caused the damage of some abilities for Brewmasters with
Live
5.4 PTR: Timeless Isle Vanity Loot
The
Timeless Isle
not only has tons of
rare spawns
--it also has tons of vanity loot like character disguises, pets, and BoA items!
To read more about the
Timeless Isle
, check out our recent posts on
rare spawns
including maps,
transmog looks
, and our initial look at
BoA gear, world bosses, and Timeless Coins
.
Bloody Coin
Items
Speaker Gulan
by The Blazing Way has special vanity items that cost
Bloody Coin
. To get this currency, you will have to World PvP.
To flag up for World PvP, you'll first need
Censer of Eternal Agony
, which costs 2500
Timeless Coin
. On use, it sacrifices 90% of your health, turns you translucent, and makes you hostile to players of both factions. Killing players with this buff awards one
Bloody Coin
.
Here are the vanity items from
Bloody Coin
. Big thanks
Live
5.4 PTR: Build 17247--Spell Changes, Tier 16 Names and Models, and More
A third PTR build is coming this week! Check out the spell changes and new additions.
Click here for the latest additions!
Patch Highlights
New Battle Pet:
Sky Lantern
More Timeless Isle items:
Bubbling Pi'jiu Brew
: Pour the brew onto the ground, summoning a Spectral Windwalker to fight for you for 10 min.
Flimsy Sky Lantern
: Right click to summon and dismiss your Sky Lantern.
Golden Glider
: Ride the glider, reducing your falling speed for 2 min.
Misty Pi'jiu Brew
: Pour the brew onto the ground, summoning a Spectral Mistweaver to fight for you for 10 min.
Thick Pi'jiu Brew
: Pour the brew onto the ground, summoning a Spectral Brewmaster to fight for you for 10 min.
Tier 16 Names and Models
In this PTR build, Tier 16 items were give names, instead of using placeholder T15 names. They were also assigned their models, which we datamined previously. Currently on the PTR, you can purchase Tier 16 gear but it resembles Tier 15 gear.
These colors below are for Normal itemsets. It appears that the colors for LFR, Flex, and Heroic were not assigned to items
Live
5.4 PTR: Timeless Isle Transmog and Cosmetic Glyphs
Timeless Isle Transmog
We've mentioned before that the Timeless Isle has ilvl 496 Bind-on-Account epics, but we also realized that some of these epics have unique looks as well!
Cloudscorcher
: any Mage or Warlock spec
Cranefeather
: Leather Agility specs
Ordon
: Mail Intellect specs
Crimsonscale
: Mail Agility specs
Cliffbreaker
: Plate DPS specs
Click on the images to view them in our 3D Modelviewer!
[model itemset=9,111475,8,111476,7,111477,10,111471,1,111479,5,111470,3,111474,6,11
Live
5.4 PTR: Celestial Pet Tournament and New Battle Pets
The Celestial Pet Tournament is now open for testing on the 5.4 PTR, and there's also over 20 new battle pets to collect!
Celestial Pet Tournament
To participate in the pet tournament, speak to
Master Li
and pick up the weekly quest
The Celestial Tournament
.
You must have 30 pets at level 25 in order to be able to enter, but this requirement will most likely be tweaked in a future build.
Once zoned into the tournament, you cannot heal your pets. You must exit the tournament to heal your pets, which means you must start the tournament over from the beginning.
There are seven challenges in the tournament: three pet tamers that each have three legendary battle pets, and then four legendary elite battle pets. You must complete them all in order to win the tournament, so it does require you to have leveled a fair number of pets.
To keep things fresh, the three pet tamers will change every week--one is even
Game of Thrones
themed with a Hodor tribute pet!
On the PTR, your collection of pets doesn't copy over, but you get a random assortment of level 25 pets, including some Collector's Edition ones.[/
Live
5.4 PTR Patch Notes: Updated July 24th
Blizzard updated their 5.4 PTR Patch Notes with class and glyph changes-when looking at the
datamined information from earlier
, see if it's listed here officially! Here's the additions from today:
Druid
:
now defaults to generating Lunar energy towards a Lunar Eclipse when used after being resurrected or zoning into a new area (used to default to generating Solar energy).
Hunter
:
A Murder of Crows
now deals 40% more damage.
Charred Glyph
: Reduces the range of
by 7 yards.
Charred Glyph
:
also reduces spell damage taken by 10%
Mage
:
Mastery: Frostburn has been replaced by
Mastery: Icicles
. When the Mage damages an enemy with their
Frostbolt
, and
Flurry
, (14% + 1.75% per Mastery) of the damage done is stored as an Icicle for 15 seconds.
Mastery: Icicles
also increases the Water Elemental’s Water Bolt damage by (14% + 1.75% per Mastery). Up to 5 Icicles can be stored at once. Casting
Ice Lance
launches all stored Icicles at the target.
Frostbolt
no longer increases the d
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