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Update: Blizzard Stance on WoW Australia
We've received an official statement from Blizzard on the current rumors of WoW being banned from retail outlets in Australia, thanks to Nethaera.
Quote from: Nethaera
Blizzard Entertainment and its affiliates work very closely with the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia to ensure that we are in full compliance with Australian law as it relates to the distribution and operation of our games, including World of Warcraft. We’d like to reassure all of our players that World of Warcraft is currently, and has always been, distributed and operated legally in Australia.
Guide Update: RETLOL - The Guide
Hottage just released an updated version of RETLOL - The Guide that's compatible with the current state of Retribution Paladins in Wrath of the Lich King. If you're a Paladin who has been on the fence about the Retribution spec, or you're looking for a few pointers, check it out.
New Guides: Frenzyheart Tribe and The Oracles
A double dose of new general reputation guides today direct from a new member of the content team, DarkFact. Whether you're looking to complete achievements like Mercenary of Sholazar or you just want to get your hands on one of the three non-combat pets and mount available, these guides will no doubt help you out.
Check out the Frenzyheart Tribe guide!
Check out The Oracles guide!
"Some" 3.1 Class Changes to be Announced "Fairly Soon"
For those of you aching for 3.1 info, Ghostcrawler posted that they'll be announcing some of the class changes for 3.1 fairly soon. Keep your eyes peeled as that could also mean the 3.1 PTR will be going up soon.
Quote from: Ghostcrawler (Source)
We are going to be announcing some of our plans for classes in 3.1 fairly soon. The announcements will be prominent. They will not be comprehensive. We are not going to announce every change we are going to make. We are going to risk giving you some insight into a work in progress, even though we may ultimately decide not to make some of the changes. You guys can help me remind other players of that when they get angry because we didn't deliver a change that they were "promised." :)
More on the Arena Matchmaking Rating System
We reported last night that Slorkuz posted a great explanation of the Matchmaking Rating, but that wasn't quite detailed enough for some. So, Slorkuz posted yet again today with a bit more information to clarify some points.
Quote from: Slorkuz (Source)
It is likely that is due to your opposing team also having a low matchmaking (hidden) rating and a higher team rating, perhaps after a team reset.
Imagine this, the players in both team A and B are 1200 rated players. The teams are then reset to 1500 team rating and both teams queue up against each other. The situation we then have is the following:
Team A: 1200 matchmaking rating and 1500 team rating.
Team B: 1200 matchmaking rating and 1500 team rating.
Lets say that you face this same team 50 times in a row with a 50% win rate. The end result of this is that both teams will end up with around 1200 team rating. Why? Because this is the same situation as described in the previous post happening to both teams at once.
In short, both teams are in reality 1200 rated teams due to matchmaking rating, and going 50/50 with an equally ranked team will ensure that both teams' team rating tries to match the respective matchmaking (hidden) ratings.
US Free PvP Realm Transfers
Quote from: Zarhym (Source)
We are now offering free character moves from select high population PvP realms. These moves are scheduled to end Tuesday, February 10, at 8:00 PM PST provided our transfer goals are not reached prior to this time. We recommend to anyone who wishes to use the free character move system to do so at your earliest convenience.
You can begin your free move by visiting the Character Move page located here: https://
PvE free character moves coming soon.
Source Realms: Arthas, Black Dragonflight, Bleeding Hollow, Bonechewer, Boulderfist, Burning Blade, Burning Legion, Dark Iron, Deathwing, Destromath, Dragonmaw, Dunemaul, Firetree, Frostmane, Illidan, Kel'Thuzad, Laughing Skull, Lightning's Blade, Magtheridon, Mal'Ganis, Mannoroth, Sargeras, Scilla, Shattered Hand, Skullcrusher, Stormreaver, Tichondrius, WildHammer
Destination Realms: Anub'arak, Balnazzar, Darrowmere, Lethon, Ysondre, Zuluhed
More Blue Posts
Strand of the Ancients: Random "First to Defend" Coming Soon (Source)
In its original implementation, Strand of the Ancients had an internal coin toss that determined which faction would start on defense. Issues arose during the initial testing whenever Alliance started on defense, so we took out the coin toss temporarily. We understand that starting on defense every match can have its disadvantages, and we intend to implement the coin toss in an upcoming patch.
Melee DPS Boosts Coming: Rogues, Feral Cats, Arms Warriors (Source)
As far as melee dps goes, we think rogues, cats and Arms warriors are all a little low. We haven't announced specific changes yet but they are coming.
Death Knight (Skills / Talents / Glyphs)
Why not have Ebon Plague count as a third disease for all DKs? (Source)
This is the right solution. However, as I said the last time this question was asked, our priority right now is making sure more DKs spec Frost or Blood, not how to reward groups that bring multiple Unholy DKs. We do recognize it is annoying though and we'll get it fixed.
Ebon Plague Bug Isn't An Easy Fix; Talent Redesign Possible (Source)
Yes, thank you. The bug is not trivial to fix or we would have done so and it isn't worth bumping other changes off the list in order to buy time to fix it at the moment. It might involve re-designing the talent.
Hunter (Skills / Talents / Glyphs)
Ferocious / Cunning Pet Tree Roles (Source)
The Ferocious pets were intended predominantly for PvE use. We figured a pet with a stun would not be very popular in a raid encounter compared to a pet that just did more damage. (It is possible in a 5-player dungeon that the stun might come in handy).
Since "Ravage" has traditionally been a stun, it made sense to put them in the Cunning tree.
We are willing to make changes to make the Cunning tree more viable for PvP and other situations. Frankly, most of the community feedback on hunters has been on their shot damage or on which pet provides the highest dps boost in a raid setting. More feedback on hunter pet families and their talent trees would be useful. Too often, though, this discussions wander off topic into the role of the pet or the hunter in general.
Ideally we'd like to see nearly every Ferocious pet and the occasional Cunning pet feel like they were valid choices for PvE and nearly every Cunning pet and the occasional Tenacity pet feel like they were valid choices in PvP. Our priority lately has been on the hunter trees themselves though.
Mage (Skills / Talents / Glyphs)
Mage Status Report (Source)
- Arcane spec in PvE: We like that Arcane is starting to feel like a viable alternative to FFB in PvE.
- Arcane burst potential in PvP: We think Arcane has too much burst potential in PvP. We want to fix it without undoing the progress we've made on #1, or sending all Arena mages to Frost.
- Improved Scorch Debuff is too unique: We agree that the Scorch debuff is too much of a unique snowflake.
- Frostfire spec plays too much like Icy Veins / Fire: This is definitely a concern, but lower priority than these other issues.
- Frost spec in PvE: Definitely a concern. We would love to get the "Shatter combo" vibe in PvE, but we haven't figured out a way to do it yet that doesn't involve buffing Cone of Cold, which would be bad for PvP reasons. (Ghostcrawler meant Ice Lance not Cone of Cold)
Shaman (Skills / Talents / Glyphs)
Elemental Shaman Status Update (Source)
Apologies in advance for the brief answers.
On survivability, part of the problem is that some classes just do too much damage in PvP right now.
But we are looking at Enhancement and Elemental shamans in PvP for 3.1. We hope to be able to announce more details soon.
We don't want to inflate the bonuses for Mail, but it's possible health in general is low for Shamans. That has come up a couple of times.
Forum Watch: What was your first Epic item in WoW?
This thread is inspired by one going on over on the official WoW forums. Feel free to share the memory of the first Epic item you acquired in World of Warcraft!
Retail Sales of WoW Banned (Temporarily?) In Australia?
Well, this is interesting if so. It appears that retailers in Australia are now barred from selling games that haven't been classified by the Australian Classification Board.
Quote from: IGN (Source)
Australia, February 3, 2009 - In a shocking move this morning, the Sydney Morning Herald has reported that Australian retailers will no longer be allowed to sell any online game that has not been classified by the Australian Classification Board.
This move directly affects games such as World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, Age of Conan and Pirates of the Burning Seas – titles that don't contain a single-player experience, and therefore did not apply for classification. The previous understanding was that online games, by their nature, fell outside of traditional national classifications – a loophole that the Classifications Board want stitched up.
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