Malygos 5 Minute Video, EU Free Transfers, New Site Poll

As a note, there's a new 3.0.8 PTR build available, so stay tuned for news of any changes in the next article.

Heroic: You Don't Have An Eternity - Tutorial Video

Kyth is back with another great tutorial video, this time related to the achievement which requires you to kill Malygos within 5 minutes or less!  She's also put together a text version of the tutorial, so be sure to check it out.

Achievement Tip: Going Down?

For those of you still looking for a place where you can fall 65 yards to complete the Going Down? achievement, and you don't want it to happen some day on accident, look no further!  While many have suggested Shattrath City as a way to complete it, that particular approach can sometimes be risky; especially for those without some form of Safe Fall.  However, The Storm Peaks has a location in Dun Niffelem perfect for the achievement.  Simply fly out to Dun Niffelem; you can do this on your flying mount or by taking the flight path.

Once you're on the ledge overlooking Dun Niffelem, head over to the Sons of Hodir flight master -- Halvdan -- and look down into the city.  Line yourself up between Halvdan and King Jokkum -- at the edge of the cliff -- so that it forms a straight line and you're in the middle.  Now mount up on your 100% speed land mount and run down toward King Jokkum; this should deal about 95% damage and reward you with the Going Down? achievement.  If you don't have a mount speed modifying effect, you may also be able to take a bit of additional damage, allowing you to complete the Ultimate Triage achievement as well -- a 2-for-1 deal!

Check out the screenshot below for an example of the positioning you'll want to have prior to mounting up and running off into Dun Niffelem.

EU Free Character Migration - January 14th, 2009

Quote from: Thundgot (Source: 14/01 Free Character Migration)

Due to population differences between the highest and lowest populated PvP realms, the following Free Character Migration will be available from January 14th to 20th:

Horde only: Magtheridon --> Haomarush, Trollbane, Zenedar
Alliance only: Aszune, Emerald Dream, Runetotem, Shadowsong, Silvermoon --> Magtheridon (more about this: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=7575650109&sid=1)

Burning Legion, Crushridge --> Vek'nilash, Xavius
Sylvanas, Twilight's Hammer --> Bladefist, Karazhan
Al'Akir, Grim Batol --> Burning Steppes, Haomarush
Kazzak, Stormscale --> Dentarg, Lightning's Blade
Outland, Ravencrest --> Boulderfist, Trollbane
Ragnaros, Stormreaver --> Agamaggan, Daggerspine

Argent Dawn --> Darkmoon Faire, Steamwheedle Cartel, The Sha'tar

Please note that any migration may be closed at any time should a destination realm's population rise too high.

If you have any questions about this specific migration, please feel free to add them below. However, note that migration is opened based on realm population analysis, not popular demand, so requests for other free migrations will not be responded to.

FAQ: http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/faq/charactermove.html

Blue Posts

Ghostcrawler Explains Dev Number Preference Over Player Numbers (Source)

The context is everything. If players are comparing themselves to a dual-wielding DK doing 7000 dps, yes then of course they are going to feel like their dps is puny. But in that example they are comparing themselves to a class in a broken situation. If we notice that players with low or high numbers always have a certain spec then it might lead us to find a bug in the spec. Assassination rogues are a little low at the moment because there was a bug in Master Poisoner for a long time that nobody detected. When we fixed it, their dps dropped. Some fights greatly favor certain classes or specs. Patch is great for classes that can blow their cooldowns to great effect. Warriors like fights like Thaddius with lots of free rage generation through damage. The context is everything.

We like numbers and it awesome that the WoW community is so good at providing them. Just don't leap to conclusions that the numbers can't support.

Pets and Scaling (Source)

Yes, I have tried to post several times that the way pets receive buffs from their masters is inconsistent. We need to take a holistic look at stats, especially those like hit, spell pen and haste. It doesn't make sense, for example, for a pet to receive a percentage of your spell hit. Where are they ever going to get the remainder of their hit from?

Many classes have pets now, and those classes have different stats to provide to those pets. While locks and hunters (and DKs to a lesser extent) are the most dependent on having a good system in place, the whole paradigm just needs to be reexamined. It is on the list.

Haste and Armor Penetration (Source)

Haste and armor pen are things we put on lower level gear to make it lower level gear. Higher level gear will be more suitablly optimized.

Treeform Casting Barkskin While Silenced (Source)

If you have bark, then why do you need more? :) Seriously, this is something we are considering.

Only One Tree in Raids? (Source)

I am not finding this is a general rule (one tree per raid) except for groups that just tended to keep the same players they had in BC. Except for paladins with their weird buff stacking mechanics (something we are looking at) I do see plenty of concerns from all classes that there isn't enough reason to bring more than one of them. Yet, that was kind of the point. All things being equal, we would prefer you to bring a diverse group (to avoid raid stacking and get everyone into the raids) but we don't want to overly penalize you if you cannot for whatever reason.

Druid (Skills / Talents / Glyphs)

Living Seed (Source)

I don't think Seed is nearly as bad as Replenishment. We get caught in this cycle sometimes where a class says "I don't want X stat" so we give them a talent that uses it and then the response is "now you are making me want a stat I don't want." That's overly pithy to describe the situation, but it does come up a lot.

PvP Survivability (Source)

PvP survivability is not something we want to address on a class by class basis at this point. A lot of players feel they are dying too quickly. Going through all the talent trees to offer survivability doesn't get at the root of this concern. As an aside, non-tanks often skip survivability talents anyway unless they are borderline OP in PvP. We are trying to bundle more of them with offensive effects.

Will HoTs Ever Crit? (Source)

Honestly, there is a technical limitation that prevents hots (and dots) from being able to crit. We are removing that limitation though, so who knows. :)

Poor Idol Choices (Source)

We will try and add more. Typically these need to go on vendors (though not always) since they are so spec specific (and therefore prone to causing frustration when they drop).

Paladin (Skills / Talents / Glyphs)

Is Judgement of Light Threat Being Removed in 3.0.8? (Source)

Yes.

Priest (Skills / Talents / Glyphs)

Priest Class Feedback (Source)

It’s ironic because we have actually ended up discussing priests so much lately. Usually the discussion starts with me asking other designers to help me understand the issue. I must admit to being at a little bit of a loss over why so many priests seem so dissatisfied with the class (and to be fair, there are many players there with the opposite feedback). I usually don’t find myself at such odds with the community, but in this case I am still having trouble understanding the issue. (And I apologize in advance to the druids, shamans and paladins who feel priest issues already dominate this forum.) I don’t honestly think that priests are just so upset about the CoH nerf that it makes them turn their back on the class. A lot of players seem really unhappy with the role of the priest as having lots of tools. I have a priest and I heal a lot. Prayer of Mending is a fun spell. Guardian Spirit is a fun spell. Those are just the tip of a pretty big toolbox.

Rogue (Skills / Talents / Glyphs)

PvE DPS Performance (Source)

Patchwerk isn't necessarily the perfect test case for dps. It is a simple fight, but these days it is also getting very short and some classes thrive on short fights where they can maximize specific abilities or cooldowns. The rogues don't have to move, but neither do the hunters or Frostfire mages. The warriors aren't getting a ton of extra rage from collateral damage.

But I tend to agree that rogues are too low. They should look better in 3.0.8 when some of the 6000+ dps outliers are brought down some.

I think in retrospect rogues (talking Assassination really) were the victims of a couple of tricky bugs. We all freaked out at the damage they were doing near the end of beta and lowered their damage only to find later that a few poison bugs were causing some of the excessive damage.

The primary reason we haven't fixed it yet is because rogues seem to be doing very well in PvP and careless dps buffs for noble PvE purposes could just make that situation worse. I do apologize for the situation rogues are in currently and we hope it will look better after 3.0.8.

P.S. I know some players don't give a fig about PvP and are offended that we have to worry about PvP balance when solving PvE problems. WoW is enjoyed by a lot of different players for different reasons and we try to keep them all in mind.

Shaman (Skills / Talents / Glyphs)

Survivability in PvP (Source)

So, looking at only the survivability suggestion for a moment, do you think those are just reactions to the way Arenas are playing out right now? Put another way, is it the shaman or is it the other classes?

As an aside, we here so many great things about the wolves from experienced Arena shamans that I am always surprised not to see them mentioned more in shaman PvP discussions.

New Site Poll: What was the first class you played in World of Warcraft?

This week's poll asks the question "What was the first class you played in World of Warcraft?"  Because of the nature of this question, and there are no doubt stories to be heard on why you decided to go with that class when you started the game, I've also created a forum thread related to the poll.  As always, the poll is embedded below, but you can also find it in many areas of the website in the "Latest Poll" module.  Once you've voted, let everyone know why in the thread!

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