Glyph to turn a Druid's Moonkin form into... a Moonkin spirit. Aaaargh! Why why why? If you're gonna make a glyph that changes a form, make it a decent change, since chances are if a person wants a glyph that changes their Moonkin form it's because they don't like Moonkin form! Make it... I dunno, Farie Dragon form or something. That has precedent.

Good thing that's not what it said, then.



I'm still not sold on pet battles, but otherwise I'm definitely looking forward to more to do at max level. And hey, I've been wanting to shoot Garrosh in the face since Nagrand.

They are really going to have to make sure with this glyph that either the person using it can not mount, or Moonkins can now mount, because that would have a significant impact on PvP then.

Honestly that glyph was just put in for all the people who whined that their character wasn't pretty enough in Moonkin form. These are the same people who complained Tree form axed because it was too ugly. At least Treeform is coming back as a glyph too.

Besides there is one glyph that is much better news.

The Moonbeast: You can now cast Healing Touch, Rejuvenation, and Tranquility without canceling Moonkin Form.

That one is huge, it is going to make my life so much easier now. Would have made getting Dragonwrath so much easier if I could have done the solo part in Moonkin form. They should add Rebirth to it too and it would be perfect. Much better then a cosmetic one that was created because people want to be pretty, this one has some actual in-game use.

Beta opt-in is up for those who don't have annual pass.

http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/21/mists-of...d-official-faq/

Ok, that's better. Brain no worky sometime.

http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/21/mists-of...ttle-net-pages/

Beta client is already showing up apparently o-o

LET THE DATA RIPPING COMMENCE!

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2693-Welcome-to-Pandaria

minimap and icons so far

My Beta is active, and I am downloading the client as we speak.

Hmmm so much for massive leaks during the Alpha, and Blizzard can not stop them. We are are in a public Beta now, so Blizzard did managed to stop any early leaks before they wanted them.

Gotta give blizz credit for finally stopping alpha leaks

I didnt get in invite I will probably be the next few waves of AP users

Only reason I think I got in this soon is I have been a customer continuously since release date. Don't worry, you will get in there. Besides, it is going to be an unstable mess for a while at start anyway.

yeah seems there is already problems for PC users. apparently for Mac's its all fine and dandy.

MMO champ is leaking all the stuff now anyway


*drooooolz*

Really good thing I have a Mac then!

Still not going to be able to start testing till tomorrow night though, if the actual servers are up that is. I could transfer my guys over now, but I really want to make sure they end up in a PvE server, if they have one with this testing. Past Beta tests did have distinct servers, not sure if MoP will follow suit.

not my pics

but the character creation looks better now with preview mug shots.





EDIT: red fur can have a tail as well




Been watching some Panda gameplay and this xpac is a lot more along than Cata's beta was o-o

Honestly, even if I like Pandaren or they'd pick a race that I didn't think was idiotic, I would probably still avoid the beta. It seems kind of a waste to go through an inferior version of everything I'm going to have to do again about five times over with no reward.

so Shammies get some weird trade offs.

We can now control a Fire or Earth ele at 90 if we pick a talent but the Enhance wolves lost their pet bar

some new armor sets. loving the Shaman set

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2701-C...-Models-Preview

well with pandaren on the eventual horizon, my inability to turn down a wow expansion launch, and a bunch of my friends just randomly deciding to play (I think it's because of the recruit a friend promotion), I'm back in the world of azeroth.

This was the longest break yet, but I'm a warrior this time around and I'm sort of getting back to my roots.

I've started to do my testing. Right now there is really not much open. Just the first two dungeons and the Pandaren starting zone. Pandaria itself is locked up. The only way to get to the first zone is to die while doing the Temple of the Jade Serpent and then Spirit Resurrect. However doing that isn't much help, as of right now no quests are active. I decided not to do that trick, as I am here to do testing.

I did try out the new Balance Druid stuff. Unfortunately, right now the Glyph of the Stars does allow Balance Druids to mount in form. I'll be reporting that little bug asap to kill it. Right now a lot of the classes are a bit of a mess, I lucked out that my main's stuff was more complete, then say Priests, which are really screwy atm. One word to Hunters, you will be cannibalizing a lot of stats via reforging to get all the Expertise needed to get to cap, but it is doable. Fortunately, that will only be an issue for a couple weeks when the MoP set up patch hits and the actual expansion. I wasn't able to do much with Sayil though, Hunters just don't have much implemented yet.

I decided to work in the Pandaren area, as that is where Blizzard wishes the main thrust of testing to occur right now. Made a Brewmaster, so I am going to be working with him to uncover all sorts of bugs. So far the area is in a pretty good state for this being a Beta.

a green axe that drops in Netherstorm used to always take up my bags back in TBC....now the same axe goes for 6000 gold on my server.

Transmorg has really made the economy on old items weird @_@

Gordon-bennet... what is this axe called? Just out of curiosity.

Glorious War Axe

http://www.wowhead.com/item=25220

I wanted it for a Draenei Warrior

What about grinding up Shattered Sun rep? It's the same model and colours I think.

warrior is only lvl 1 and need a BOE. since I think they made it so you cant transmorg something then send it to a toon retaining the old image.

You can only transmog items you can actually use. Level restrictions apply.

Argh how could I forget that.

so anyway started a new Warrior Draenei with the Chest, Shoulder and Axe heirlooms...plus guild perk...I am leveling way too fast. I think when I get to lvl 10 I will just use the heirloom swords and go back to quest reward armor and head to Westfall. (I've done Bloodmyst isle so damn much @_@)

I don't know if this was mentions before, I'm sure is has, but I'm reading over whats going to happen in the next expansion. It seem like as soon as the game lunches there will be 9 level 90 heroic dungeons and a raid with 14 bosses, I don't know how that will fit in to the raid finder or if they will still have that next expansion.

They confirmed there won't be a prevailing theme to the next expansion as respects to the other expansions in terms of an evil villain trying to conquer the world and what not. But rather a throwback to the days of exploration in vanilla wow, each patch will be it's own theme or episode kind of like with the troll patch in 4.1 that didn't tie in with Deathwing at all.

Most of the dungeons will be scaled to size in the world and require players to quest through them before they have access to them. They are removing group quests for something else, not sure waht, like mini-dungeon quests of 4 or less or something, skimmed over that part.

The final patch they said will be Siege of Orgimmar, where both sides try to remove Hellscream as warchief and put Thrall back in charge by invading the orc capital city.

Raid Finder is still in, new loot system and everything. There are 14 bosses in the first tier, but they're split up between three different raid instances, kind of like tier 11.

One of the raids is the Heart of Fear, where you fight the Mantid Queen who has been possessed by the Sha of Fear. Yes that's right, a giant fear bug. You fight Parallax in Mists of Pandaria. I'm going to bet Jaina Proudmoore features heavily in this raid, since it's hinted she takes on an Emerald Twilight bent (or would that be Jade Twilight ) after what happens to Theramore.

There's also a Mogu raid, and another in an area called the Terrace of the Endless Spring. Not sure what the deal with that one is, maybe it's an undead raid with ancient Panda spirits or something.

=O! Are you in the beta?

Shaman
Skills
Stormlash Totem: New. Summons a Stormlash Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster, empowering allies within 30 yards with lightning. While empowered, allies' spells and attacks will trigger bursts of electricity, dealing additional Nature damage to their target. Lasts 10 sec. 5% of base mana, 5 min cooldown, Instant.


*drooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooools* so we have to pop Ascendance, Bloodlust, Stormlash and our 90 talent for massive dmg eh?

also

I was trying stuff out on my Brewmaster last night and was happy to see he got his low level tank tools. The bad news is that Blizzard renamed them to take away the drunk aspect. Drunken Haze was from around back in WCIII TFT, seeing ti now as Dizzying Haze just does not look right. I'm hoping it can be changed back, but we may be stuck with it because of a ratings issue.

Monk's primary armor will be leather, right? I want to make sure I'm saving up for the right Heirlooms. Also, will there be new Heirloom in this patch too?

Silly beta testing screen shots I found, apparently they didn't create Pandaren underwear yet, lol.

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Monks use Leather, yeah. The heirloom's that work best for them are the ones that also would be used by Druids. So the Int ones for the Healers, and Agility ones for the Tanks and Melee DPS. One one issue is at the moment there are no good polearms or staves for the Brewmaster tanks. At least the other two specs can get suitable heirloom weapons weapons.

What weapons can they use?

Staves, Polearms. Dual wield all 1-handed weapons -except- daggers.

Can they duel wield from the beginning like rogues, or do they have to wait like hunters and warriors?

From the beginning. The objective of the very first quest for Pandaren monks is to grab a pair of white fist weapons off a rack and equip them.

back to checking..

This new expansion seems like something they wanted to do with the story for a while now. I get the feeling they didn't like being restricted to conformed story line. Every expansion they made had elements that really didn't fit in with the expansion, like in BC they had that mage tower (I use to remember it's name) and troll raid. In WotLK they had like four dragon themed raids and an old god raid, which I really didn't how that tied into with the undead, they should of saved those dragon raids for Cata. Even in Cata they had that troll patch they included and even a whole desert style Indiana Jones themed zone.

With this new expansion, they can add any silly raid or theme without worrying about it tying in with the theme or lore of the expansion. It could be Pandas, Trolls, Dragons, Undead or even Ogres. Yep, no rhyme or reason to what they release, complete structureless freedom, I'm sure it will be great... ._. ....

Karazhan was the home of Medivh, who was possessed by Sargeras, lord of the Legion. It still kind of seems like something they wanted in Vanilla and didn't get to (consider that Atiesh, the legendary staff from Naxx 40, could teleport the wielder to Karazhan). The trolls got a patch because trolls are awesome.


Ruby Sanctum is officially considered part of Cataclysm. Malygos has a vague link in that his former consort was Sindragosa, but the dragon raids kind of feel more like they were lead-ins for Deathwing. The trolls didn't get a patch this time....because instead they got Zul'Drak.


The Neferset were being corrupted by agents of Deathwing, and the goblin Nazi guy whose name escapes me was being funded by other agents of Deathwing. Barely connected, but still. The trolls were apparently just being opportunists taking advantage of the chaos.

I have to wonder what Blizz are going to do for April Fools this year. I mean, they've already announced Pandaren, so I'm not sure how they can top that in terms of bad jokes (ducks thrown objects).

Yeah, the Troll stuff was related to the Cataclysm, since they saw it as their opportunity to carve out something of the empire they used to have before all those Elves and Humans started curbstomping them. Actually, one thing I'd have like to have seen with that patch would have been Heroic versions of Sunken Temple and Zul'Farak, since a) having more than two dungeons on that patches rotation would have been nice, and b) I can't see that it wouldn't be the best time to do it. I'm not sure when we'll see another event which allows the Trolls to get all uppity again.

They could do it for a later patch in Pandaria. The trolls pretty much always get some kind of major content. I wouldn't want to see classic Zul'Farrak disappear, though. It's one of my favorite parts of leveling. Sunken Temple, on the other hand.....well, most of it is ALREADY gone, so whatevs.

I don't think we'll see a Sunken Temple revamp until they start building up to the N'Zoth raid, which probably will not even be until the next expansion after Mists. At least, that would serve the overarching story better, at any rate.

The developers' stated "logic" on which instances to redo as Heroics baffles me, though. They want to revisit the "most beloved" content by... removing it from the game and replacing it with an unproven sequel. Riiiight.

Maybe I would be less annoyed at them butchering my favorite instance if they threw me a bone, like having Durandal actually drop that Lionheart sword he's wielding -- also removed from the game for no good reason! But no, he has a mace in his loot table, and it's probably just Mograine's Might with level 90 stats. Because Cookie's Tenderizer was too stupid to raid with, but 2H melee can kill Cho'gall with a rock tied to a stick.

The troll patch in Cata was a lead into a MoP storyline. Zandalari island is very close to Pandaria, they were allied with the Mogu before the Mists rose and blocked them out. You can even see Zandalari island on the mini-map rips people have gotten from Pandaria.

Malygos's appearance in WotLK just made sense as Northrend is the Blues homeland. Frostwyrms come from Blue remains, and the Magmawyrms and Emberwyrms are a much rarer occurrence, Arthas just began production of them at the beginning of Wrath. Also Obsidian Sanctum was the first lead in to Cataclysm, as Sartheron was guarding the first clutch of Twilight eggs. Tenebron, Vesperon and Shadron were the first Twilight dragons we ever saw.

As for April Fools, the perfect thing would be to announce High Elves are going to be a playable race! >:D
(Actually with Theramore's current plan, that would seriously nix that idea, it's the last High Elf High population center left.)

I fear it might just sprawl into DBZ territory with each new patch bringing a more threatening, powerful, unknown and unexplained end raid boss then before. Now we are fighting the lord of the Mogu, next patch we have to take down the king of the quilboars! I would prefer to have a reason or at least a back story as to why I'm forming a lynch mob to brake into this guy's house and relieve him of all his valuable shiny baubles.

With the other expansions, the raids made more sense, you were clearing out all these fortifications and strongholds to make a path to the end boss. That is how I saw it at least. I'm a bit unclear with the relations of this new expansion with the others, how long have these new raid bosses been around? Why are they now so threatening? Are they more threatening the Deathwing? Or were they just put off until more pressing threats could be dealt with?

You see, I'm a big fan of the lore, I'm like the only person I know who actually reads the quest boxes. I love following the story and love seeing reoccurring characters. I love finding out the generals of the front line in the lich king raid is now the same person in charge of this quite town in some low level zone like he retired there or something.

My biggest fear is that with no preexisting lore from the strategy games and novels, the coherency of the stories might suffer greatly. But then again, I always have concerns for new expansions.

It may take some doing, but I will murder you for that.

I think the new April Fools was just weird voices when ever you change zones. That or I got a legion of dead raid boss ghosts stalking me now. =/

Ugh just realised I never got my Shaman to Crusader in WOTLK. time to redo lots of dailies for heirlooms @_@ (rather than wasting my points)

I gave up on the lore at the end of Frozen Throne. Blizzard's awful writers are welcome to do what they wish now.

eh the biggest issue in my opinion is they created stories without endings in vanilla and then either retcon-ed them or never finished them.

also the lack of any Draenei love storywise is friggin annoying. they are just a footnote from TBC now.

I heard some people talk about that, but to be honest I never heard it. The veiwable April Fool's joke was the "Blizz 4 Kidz" games on the site.

That was Deadly Boss Mods. The author pretty much used the mod to do that. I had to use a script to disable it. Blizzard also added Crabby back to the website and official forums, complete with new dialogue, and the ability to wear lots of different hats. Very happy blizzard brought him back, I loved him from last year

As for Lore, I have been pretty fine with it, until Cataclysm when everything just fell apart. A lot of people have been liking to blame Metzen solely for it, but he really isn;t the main cause. The biggest issue with Cata was they really dropped the ball big time on the Alliance lore, to which the two biggest blunders here were how the Worgen's story was treated, and the Twilight Highlands intro. The Worgen story just stops at the end of the starting zone and to actually see it to it's conclusion you have to make a Foresaken character. They just get shoved off to Kalimdor and forgotten about.

Twilight Highlands is even worse. There was actual dialogue recorded for it. That was where we were supposed to have learned about Benidictus' betrayal, as well as a grand opening that gave Varian some well needed in game development. Instead we got the adventures of Fargo Flintlock. Both this issue, and the Worgen one can be traced back to Dave Kosak. The really big story issues entered the show when he joined the team as the Head Quest Design Developer in the middle of Wrath, right when they were working on the Cata stuff. Fargo was his own web comic character, so he scuttled the Alliance intro to shove that in the player's faces. He is also a huge Sylvanas fanboy, he wrote the official short story about her, hence the lavish development of the Foresaken starting areas, even at the expense of one of Cata's headlining new races.

Now for Metzen, his biggest issue was he turned Thrall into a universal singularity Mary Sue who even eclipsed the main expansion villain. Deathwing got hardly any development and he was on the box. We also got do deal with Thrall's extremely aggravating wife through all of this. It really looks bad when the Aspects can;t function without Thrall's guidance. I admit I am a little worried that the last raid in MoP will be Thrall dominated again and he will be as much of a story black hole as he was in Cata. I was hoping he would have died at the end of Cata with how damn powerful he has become now.

That being said, the Lore stuff I have seen in MoP so far are a really nice improvement from Cataclysm. Getting away from Super Villain who is going to destroy the world (again) is breathing a breath of fresh air into the game, and I am so happy for something different.

Cutting off Worgen right after the starting zone and pretending like their plight doesn't exist any more is weak story telling. The Forsaken story line continues through about the game and even into Cata, through out the horde quest lines you always run into some Forsaken research post looking to prefect their plague. While there are a few Worgen towns along the way, none of them seem to be interested in finding a cure for their people.


Oh my gosh, I hated Twilight Highlands story telling! There was a big lead up to this being the Twilight Cult's main base of operations where the Alliance and Horde would clash with Deathwing's forces in a final attempt to stop him like in Icecrown with the Lich King. But no! 90% of the quests have nothing to do with the Twilight Cult, they were just quests involving an ongoing conflict between Dwarves and Orcs. You really don't get into any Twilight stuff until your nearly 85 and by the time I hit 85, I'm done with questing. Tho I must admit, I am interested to learn what is up with that wingless dragon chained up in the Twilight base that keeps whispering me when were I fly by.


I like to think the less we know of Deathwing the more mysterious and evil he appears. The biggest down fall for him lore wise is that it really doesn't do a very good job explaining his origins or motivations in game, only in the novels. They say he was recovering from his injuring in Deepholm, but they did a poor job explaining how he got injured. In the original story the horde nearly killed him in the second war and he was recovering from that. We know that he is trying to destroy the world but they just explain it as him just being mad when in fact he is a servant of the old gods and by destroying the world he would free them. Heck, the first and second Legion invasions where the plans of the old gods an attempt to brake their prisons.


While it is something new, I'm not feeling the motivation behind it, whats the new driving force for our heroes?