Facebook MMO-Champion Giveaway!
Christmas will be here very soon and I figured I could run a couple of giveaways/contests on MMO-Champion during the holidays, I'll try to restrict it to virtual goods to make sure that I don't have to lawyer up and prevent anyone outside of the US from getting anything.
We'll start with a nice Blizzard Store companion pets/mounts giveaway today with the following prizes:
I'm in a Facebooking mood today and to win one of these prizes, you just have to follow the steps:
The winners will receive codes to redeem their companion pets, I'll need to know if you play on an US or an EU server first since these codes are region-locked. It also means that you can totally enter and just give the code to someone else for christmas, because giving is nice sometimes!
If everything goes as planned, you can probably expect a couple of extra giveaways during the holidays to keep everyone happy! Disregard Christmas, acquire companion pets!
Project Titan confirmed
In an interview with Destructoid.com, Frank Pearce confirmed that "Titan" is Blizzard's next-gen MMO. It's not really anything new if you've been reading the site regularly but at least, we have an official confirmation now.
Keep in mind that he just confirmed that it's the next-gen MMO, anything I said earlier isn't official (yet?) and if their plans didn't change you won't see it before a few years anyway.
Omnotron Defense System Heroic World First kill by Paragon
Paragon is starting to take the lead and killed a 3rd boss in 25-man heroic mode yesterday: the Omnotron Defense System! Congratulations to them, hopefully this is the last time I ever have to wonder if it is spelled Omnitron or Omnotron like in the achievement.
Raidcomp Update/Bug Fixes
Raidcomp has been updated with a couple of additions/bug fixes, thanks to chaud!
Changelog
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Heroic Difficulty
There have not been any across-the-board nerfs to Heroics, let alone any changes made due to complaints about difficulty.
We're happy right now with the overall difficulty of Heroics, but that doesn't mean we won't make tuning adjustments to certain encounters or abilities if we feel they're unintentionally over- or underpowered. That's what we've been doing in our hotfixes recently. Here's an example:
[...] And I'm saying it's unfortunate to view difficulty in such a black-and-white way. We've also made changes that affect difficulty in the other direction that I wouldn't necessarily call buffs.
Players were able to bypass Vapors using line of sight. This was fixed.
Yes, this was a reduction in damage to Slam, but damage was reduced so that we could change the ability so it ignores all resistance modifiers, which makes it easier for us to keep the ability tuned how we want.
This didn't necessarily buff difficulty, but it was a change to prevent players from skipping certain trash pulls.
This one doesn't really reinforce my point, but I thought it was a slightly hilarious issue.
We've also removed experience, reputation, and sometimes loot from several creatures in dungeons which were too easy to farm. (Source)
Phasing
Phasing in World of Warcraft, be it normal phasing or terrain phasing, plays a heavy role in questing right now. Accepting quests, completing quest objectives, turning in a quests: these actions can all move your character from one phase to another for the purpose progressing a specific story.
For clarity, terrain phasing is very similar to normal phasing (which hides or reveals sets of creatures, intractable items, NPCs, and buildings); however, instead of just allowing us to adjust objects in the world, terrain phasing actually gives us the ability to change the world itself -- or, more specifically, how it appears to you. Despite these capabilities, we don't currently use phasing to moderate population levels or arbitrarily isolate characters within a certain level range from the rest of the community *. It's simply a means for us to provide our players with more dynamic and engaging content.
* Goblin, worgen, and death knight starting areas could be considered an exception, given that Kezan, Lost Isles, Gilneas, and Acherus are all separated from the world-at-large via phasing. This is due to the nature of those starting experiences, though, and not out of a desire to restrict player interaction.
New World of Warcraft Wallpaper
The official website has been updated with a new wallpaper featuring Stonecore.
New Fan Art
The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated!
Blizzard Art Gallery Update
The WoW Classic Gallery has been updated with 4 early artworks of World of Warcraft. (Yay high-resolution!)
The Daily Blink - A Flyer in the Auction House
Last but not least, today's Daily Blink, reminding us that mages are our friends... Sometimes.
More...
Christmas will be here very soon and I figured I could run a couple of giveaways/contests on MMO-Champion during the holidays, I'll try to restrict it to virtual goods to make sure that I don't have to lawyer up and prevent anyone outside of the US from getting anything.
We'll start with a nice Blizzard Store companion pets/mounts giveaway today with the following prizes:
- 1 x World of Warcraft Pet: Lil Ragnaros
- 1 x World of Warcraft Pet: Moonkin Hatchling
- 1 x World of Warcraft Pet: Pandaren Monk
- 1 x World of Warcraft Pet: Lil' K.T.
- 1 x World of Warcraft Pet: Lil XT
- 1 x World of Warcraft Mount: Celestial Steed
- 10 x Curse Premium accounts.
I'm in a Facebooking mood today and to win one of these prizes, you just have to follow the steps:
- 1. "Like" MMO-Champion on Facebook with the box below!
- 2. Go to the contest news post and "Like" it as well.
- 3. Winners will be randomly selected on Sunday at 08:00PM GMT.
The winners will receive codes to redeem their companion pets, I'll need to know if you play on an US or an EU server first since these codes are region-locked. It also means that you can totally enter and just give the code to someone else for christmas, because giving is nice sometimes!
If everything goes as planned, you can probably expect a couple of extra giveaways during the holidays to keep everyone happy! Disregard Christmas, acquire companion pets!
Project Titan confirmed
In an interview with Destructoid.com, Frank Pearce confirmed that "Titan" is Blizzard's next-gen MMO. It's not really anything new if you've been reading the site regularly but at least, we have an official confirmation now.
Keep in mind that he just confirmed that it's the next-gen MMO, anything I said earlier isn't official (yet?) and if their plans didn't change you won't see it before a few years anyway.
Omnotron Defense System Heroic World First kill by Paragon
Paragon is starting to take the lead and killed a 3rd boss in 25-man heroic mode yesterday: the Omnotron Defense System! Congratulations to them, hopefully this is the last time I ever have to wonder if it is spelled Omnitron or Omnotron like in the achievement.
Raidcomp Update/Bug Fixes
Raidcomp has been updated with a couple of additions/bug fixes, thanks to chaud!
Changelog
- Separated Feral Druids into DPS and Tank.
- Added interrupt counter.
- Moved Curse of Weakness to Physical Damage Reduction.
- Only Beast Mastery Hunters may bring Bloodlust and Ferocious Inspiration.
- All Hunters may now bring Agility and Strength.
- Several hunter pet abilities tagged correctly.
- Only Affliction and Demonology Warlocks apply Spell Critical Strike Chance (Shadow and Flame).
- Scrolls/Drums "maybe" marking removed.
- Armor (%) Buff category renamed to Armor.
- Several improperly flagged Shaman totems corrected to be flagged as Maybe when less than two or three shamans in the raid.
- Protection Warriors no longer give a healing debuff through Furious Attacks.
- Shaman Curse Removal count corrected.
- Mage Remove Curse count corrected.
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Heroic Difficulty
There have not been any across-the-board nerfs to Heroics, let alone any changes made due to complaints about difficulty.
We're happy right now with the overall difficulty of Heroics, but that doesn't mean we won't make tuning adjustments to certain encounters or abilities if we feel they're unintentionally over- or underpowered. That's what we've been doing in our hotfixes recently. Here's an example:
- The Crystal Shards creatures in the Corborus encounter are now level 86, down from 88.
[...] And I'm saying it's unfortunate to view difficulty in such a black-and-white way. We've also made changes that affect difficulty in the other direction that I wouldn't necessarily call buffs.
- Ripsnarl's Summon Vapor mechanic now ignores line of sight and correctly spawns a Vapor in regardless of where players are standing.
Players were able to bypass Vapors using line of sight. This was fixed.
- Impaling Slam by Forgemaster Throngus now does much less damage, but is no longer mitigated by fire resistance.
Yes, this was a reduction in damage to Slam, but damage was reduced so that we could change the ability so it ignores all resistance modifiers, which makes it easier for us to keep the ability tuned how we want.
- The "corpse-catching" mechanic now properly teleports players to the entrance platform of the dungeon.
This didn't necessarily buff difficulty, but it was a change to prevent players from skipping certain trash pulls.
- Troll druids in particular, when shapeshifting into Cat/Bear form, were dealing an extra 5% damage to themselves via Beast Slaying when afflicted by Barion Ashbury's Asphyxiate. This caused them to die instead of being taken down to 1 health. This has been corrected and Asphyxiate now properly ignores damage modifiers.
This one doesn't really reinforce my point, but I thought it was a slightly hilarious issue.
We've also removed experience, reputation, and sometimes loot from several creatures in dungeons which were too easy to farm. (Source)
Phasing
Phasing in World of Warcraft, be it normal phasing or terrain phasing, plays a heavy role in questing right now. Accepting quests, completing quest objectives, turning in a quests: these actions can all move your character from one phase to another for the purpose progressing a specific story.
For clarity, terrain phasing is very similar to normal phasing (which hides or reveals sets of creatures, intractable items, NPCs, and buildings); however, instead of just allowing us to adjust objects in the world, terrain phasing actually gives us the ability to change the world itself -- or, more specifically, how it appears to you. Despite these capabilities, we don't currently use phasing to moderate population levels or arbitrarily isolate characters within a certain level range from the rest of the community *. It's simply a means for us to provide our players with more dynamic and engaging content.
* Goblin, worgen, and death knight starting areas could be considered an exception, given that Kezan, Lost Isles, Gilneas, and Acherus are all separated from the world-at-large via phasing. This is due to the nature of those starting experiences, though, and not out of a desire to restrict player interaction.
New World of Warcraft Wallpaper
The official website has been updated with a new wallpaper featuring Stonecore.
New Fan Art
The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated!
Blizzard Art Gallery Update
The WoW Classic Gallery has been updated with 4 early artworks of World of Warcraft. (Yay high-resolution!)
The Daily Blink - A Flyer in the Auction House
Last but not least, today's Daily Blink, reminding us that mages are our friends... Sometimes.
More...