Wrath of the Lich King Timewalking, Blue Posts, NA Road to B

[Haggle]

Upcoming PTR Wipe and Patch



Obtaining the Galaxy Gifts Card Back & 3 Free Packs, Deck Spotlight: Budget Friendly Decks, Card Design Competition #25



New StarCraft Warrior Hero and Voidseeker Mount - StarCraft 2 Legacy of the Void



Bonus Event - Wrath of the Lich King Timewalking

The Wrath of the Lich King Timewalking Dungeon Event is live! Be sure to pick up A Frozen Path Through Time from the NPC outside of your Town Hall in the Garrison, as it rewards an extra bonus roll and Iron Fleet Treasure Chest.

• Ahn'kahet


• Gundrak


• Halls of Lightning


• The Nexus


• Utgarde Pinnacle

Level	Type	Slot	Name	Model Viewer
660	Neck	Neck	Shadowseeker's Pendant
660	Finger	Finger	Nerubian Shield Ring
660	Neck	Neck	Slasher's Amulet
660	Finger	Finger	Stained-Glass Shard Ring
660	Finger	Finger	Jedoga's Greatring
660	Neck	Neck	Necklace of Taldaram
660	Neck	Neck	Amulet of the Spell Flinger
660	Off Hand	Off Hand	Talisman of Scourge Command	Modelviewer
660	Back	Back	Cloak of the Darkcaster	Modelviewer
660	Back	Back	Subterranean Waterfall Shroud	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Head	Elder Headpiece	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Shoulders	Mantle of Echoing Bats	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Legs	Skirt of the Old Kingdom	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Wrists	Flame Sphere Bindings	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Hands	Gloves of the Blood Prince	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Hands	Silken Bridge Handwraps	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Shoulders	Sprinting Shoulderpads	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Waist	Pyramid Embossed Belt	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Legs	Kilt of the Forgotten One	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Legs	Legguards of Swarming Attacks	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Hands	Ahn'kahar Handwraps	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Head	Brood Plague Helmet	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Shoulders	Spored Tendrils Spaulders	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Wrists	Glowworm Cavern Bindings	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Hands	Gauntlets of the Plundering Geist	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Hands	Fiery Obelisk Handguards	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Head	Faceguard of the Hammer Clan	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Chest	Bonegrinder Breastplate	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Chest	Battlechest of the Twilight Cult	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Waist	Crawler-Emblem Belt	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Feet	Volazj's Sabatons	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Feet	Greaves of Ancient Evil	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Wrists	Bracers of the Herald	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Hands	Web Winder Gloves	Modelviewer
660	Two-handed Axe	Two Hand	Edge of Oblivion	Modelviewer
660	Two-handed Axe	Two Hand	Ice-Rimed Chopper	Modelviewer
660	Bow	Ranged	Titanium Compound Bow	Modelviewer
660	Staff	Two Hand	Staff of Sinister Claws	Modelviewer
660	Dagger	One Hand	Blade of Nadox	Modelviewer
660	Crossbow	Ranged	Amanitar Skullbow	Modelviewer
660	Wand	Ranged	Wand of Ahn'kahet	Modelviewer

Level	Type	Slot	Name	Model Viewer
660	Neck	Neck	Burning Skull Pendant
660	Finger	Finger	Gal'darah's Signet
660	Trinket	Trinket	Offering of Sacrifice
660	Neck	Neck	Amulet of the Stampede
660	Finger	Finger	Hemorrhaging Circle
660	Finger	Finger	Arcane Focal Signet
660	Back	Back	Cloak of Bloodied Waters	Modelviewer
660	Back	Back	Shroud of Moorabi	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Chest	Embroidered Gown of Zul'Drak	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Chest	Arcane Flame Altar-Garb	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Waist	Snowmelt Silken Cinch	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Waist	Living Mojo Belt	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Legs	Leggings of the Ruins Dweller	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Feet	Slithering Slippers	Modelviewer
660	Back	Back	Shroud of Akali	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Head	Helm of Cheated Fate	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Shoulders	Shoulderguards of the Ice Troll	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Waist	Sash of Blood Removal	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Legs	Gored Hide Legguards	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Feet	Boots of Transformation	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Feet	Gorloc Muddy Footwraps	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Wrists	Bracers of the Divine Elemental	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Head	Helmet of the Shrine	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Chest	Hauberk of Totemic Mastery	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Waist	Slad'ran's Coiled Cord	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Waist	Belt of Tasseled Lanterns	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Legs	Cannibal's Legguards	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Hands	Grips of the Beast God	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Head	Ground Tremor Helm	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Shoulders	Snake Den Spaulders	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Shoulders	Pauldrons of the Colossus	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Chest	Forlorn Breastplate of War	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Chest	Engraved Chestplate of Eck	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Feet	Mojo Frenzy Greaves	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Wrists	Steel Bear Trap Bracers	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Hands	Horn-Tipped Gauntlets	Modelviewer
660	Bow	Ranged	Drakkari Hunting Bow	Modelviewer
660	One-handed Mace	One Hand	Frozen Scepter of Necromancy	Modelviewer
660	Staff	Two Hand	Witch Doctor's Wildstaff	Modelviewer
660	Fist Weapon	One Hand	Fist of the Deity	Modelviewer
660	Wand	Ranged	Wand of Sseratus	Modelviewer

Level	Type	Slot	Name	Model Viewer
660	Trinket	Trinket	Winged Talisman
660	Back	Back	Shroud of Reverberation	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Chest	Ornate Woolen Stola	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Waist	Flowing Sash of Order	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Legs	Woven Bracae Leggings	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Hands	Traditionally Dyed Handguards	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Hands	Giant-Hair Woven Gloves	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Waist	Belt of Vivacity	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Feet	Slag Footguards	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Wrists	Advanced Tooled-Leather Bands	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Hands	Charged-Bolt Grips	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Head	Helm of the Lightning Halls	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Waist	Cord of Swirling Winds	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Waist	Mail Girdle of the Audient Earth	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Legs	Patroller's War-Kilt	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Head	Planetary Helm	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Shoulders	Iron Dwarf Smith Pauldrons	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Waist	The General's Steel Girdle	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Feet	Skywall Striders	Modelviewer
660	Two-handed Axe	Two Hand	Colossal Skull-Clad Cleaver	Modelviewer
660	Staff	Two Hand	Lightning Giant Staff	Modelviewer
660	Dagger	One Hand	Librarian's Paper Cutter	Modelviewer

Level	Type	Slot	Name	Model Viewer
660	Trinket	Trinket	Sphere of Red Dragon's Blood
660	Finger	Finger	Band of Frosted Thorns
660	Neck	Neck	Amulet of Dazzling Light
660	Finger	Finger	Band of Glittering Permafrost
660	Off Hand	Off Hand	Tome of the Lore Keepers	Modelviewer
660	Off Hand	Off Hand	Telestra's Journal	Modelviewer
660	Back	Back	Cloak of the Enemy	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Legs	Opposed Stasis Leggings	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Feet	Attuned Crystalline Boots	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Feet	Cleric's Linen Shoes	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Hands	Gloves of the Crystal Gardener	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Hands	Gloves of Glistening Runes	Modelviewer
660	Back	Back	Rippling Azure Cloak	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Head	Helm of Anomalus	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Shoulders	Spaulders of the Careless Thief	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Chest	Crystal-Infused Tunic	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Feet	Cavern Leather Treads	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Chest	Hauberk of the Arcane Wraith	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Legs	Frozen Forest Kilt	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Feet	Cleated Ice Boots	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Feet	Dragon Slayer's Sabatons	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Wrists	Bands of Channeled Energy	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Wrists	Interwoven Scale Bracers	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Hands	Gauntlets of Serpent Scales	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Head	Arcane-Shielded Helm	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Shoulders	Chiseled Stalagmite Pauldrons	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Waist	Girdle of Ice	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Waist	Flame-Bathed Steel Girdle	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Feet	Greaves of the Blue Flight	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Feet	Rift Striders	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Wrists	Insulating Bindings	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Wrists	Glassy Silver Bracers	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Hands	Grips of Sculptured Icicles	Modelviewer
660	Shield	Off Hand	Bulwark of the Noble Protector	Modelviewer
660	One-handed Mace	One Hand	War Mace of Unrequited Love	Modelviewer
660	Fist Weapon	One Hand	Drakonid Arm Blade	Modelviewer
660	Dagger	One Hand	Glacier Sharpened Vileblade	Modelviewer
660	Wand	Ranged	Wand of Shimmering Scales	Modelviewer

Level	Type	Slot	Name	Model Viewer
660	Neck	Neck	Amulet of Deflected Blows
660	Trinket	Trinket	Vestige of Haldor
660	Trinket	Trinket	Meteorite Whetstone
660	Neck	Neck	Gold Amulet of Kings
660	Finger	Finger	Signet of Ranulf
660	Finger	Finger	Ring of the Frenzied Wolvar
660	Off Hand	Off Hand	Seal of Valgarde	Modelviewer
660	Back	Back	Shroud of Resurrection	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Shoulders	Silken Amice of the Ymirjar	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Waist	Girdle of Bane	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Legs	Sorrowgrave's Breeches	Modelviewer
660	Cloth	Wrists	Cuffs of the Trussed Hall	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Shoulders	Ceremonial Pyre Mantle	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Shoulders	Silent Spectator Shoulderpads	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Chest	Drake Rider's Tunic	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Chest	Ymirjar Physician's Robe	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Legs	Ravenous Leggings of the Furbolg	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Legs	Crenelation Leggings	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Feet	Tundra Wolf Boots	Modelviewer
660	Leather	Hands	Gilt-Edged Leather Gauntlets	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Shoulders	Massive Spaulders of the Jormungar	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Shoulders	Mantle of Discarded Ways	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Waist	Sovereign's Belt	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Wrists	Dragonflayer Seer's Bindings	Modelviewer
660	Mail	Hands	Tear-Linked Gauntlets	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Head	Crown of Forgotten Kings	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Shoulders	Ferocious Pauldrons of the Rhino	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Chest	Reanimated Armor	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Chest	Ornamented Plate Regalia	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Waist	Skadi's Iron Belt	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Legs	Ancient Royal Legguards	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Feet	Harpooner's Striders	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Feet	Berserker's Sabatons	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Feet	Echoing Stompers	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Wrists	Svala's Bloodied Shackles	Modelviewer
660	Plate	Wrists	Bands of Fading Light	Modelviewer
660	Shield	Off Hand	Tor's Crest	Modelviewer
660	Bow	Ranged	Trophy Gatherer	Modelviewer
660	One-handed Sword	One Hand	Red Sword of Courage	Modelviewer
660	One-handed Sword	One Hand	Ymiron's Blade	Modelviewer
660	One-handed Sword	One Hand	Jeweled Coronation Sword	Modelviewer
660	Staff	Two Hand	Staff of Wayward Principles	Modelviewer
660	Dagger	One Hand	Ritualistic Athame	Modelviewer
660	Dagger	One Hand	Netherbreath Spellblade	Modelviewer
660	Wand	Ranged	Brazier Igniter	Modelviewer

Blue Posts

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Ashran Events Credit

We're aware of this bug, where players that are teleported into Ashran do not receive credit for event victories, and are working on a fix.



No need to leave quest or group, just walk out of Ashran towards your faction base, then just walk back in. As simple as that.

In the meantime, while this isn't a pretty work-around, running out of Ashran and back in before your 30-second timer expires should temporarily fix the issue. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)



Pet Battle Daily Quests

Yesterday I was able to go on THREE different level 100 toons and take my pets around to battle the pet trainers of Dreanor.

This was never intended. As your collection is account-wide, it has been intended that most pet-related quests are also account-wide.



I talked to a dev about this, and we think there was a bug at play for you that was resolved with a recent minor patch. I've personally never seen the ability to run the same pet dailies on different characters on my account. With a few exceptions, again, that is not intended.



I've done my garrison pet daily across all 3 toons for the entire expansion, quite an oversight if they really want to call this unintended.

Your different characters each have their own different garrisons. It's the out-in-the-world battle pet quests that are intended to be account wide on a daily basis. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)



Patch 6.2.1 Delay

You should have been more direct.

I don't see how I was indirect. The explanation is necessarily complicated, because the way the whole topic of flying played out internally was complicated. Not everyone was on the same page and that led to mistakes in communication on our part, and confusion and frustration on the community's part.



Really my primary point in this thread was just that we didn't intentionally lie to people. We were fairly open about acknowledging the debate over whether to add flying, and the community latched onto various pieces of messaging spread across many months, in order to try to prove we had been deceitful, as though that benefits us somehow.



Bottom line is we screwed up in how we handled this.



Too much tap dancing with a touchy subject causes this kind of thing. You guys played games with flight, trying to stretch out an expansion thin on open world content. The players aren't stupid, they see right through the double talk and misdirects.



The way flight was handled was shady, and the way it was implemented back into the game was as well. Personally I feel like it was all planned out in advance to minimize the inevitable loss of subs from a weak expansion. You guys knew subs were gonna nose dive and you needed to hold onto a carrot to put in the game down the road to pick things back up.



Timing. With Blizzard it's all about the timing. And the money. Sad to see it come down to that from a company that used to really have the 'by gamers for gamers' feel to it.

And just to reiterate, no.



We weren't playing games, thinking this was some way of stretching out content, or using double talk to pull a fast one on players. The reason people believe some or all of that to be true, however, is because we didn't handle the situation well, at all, so people developed their own conspiracy theories about what was "really happening."



Edit: As a side note, I wouldn't work for a company that pulled the tactics you say you "feel like" were "all planned out in advance." If you feel that to be true, I guess you have no reason to believe I'm telling the truth right now, but I'm still stating it for the record.



My reputation in life matters to me a lot, whether personal or professional. I'm not going to go against my moral code for the good of a company. Fortunately for me, that's why Blizzard has been a good fit for me career-wise.



Sorry, but I actually don't believe that it wasn't part of a timeline for this expansion. There was a lot of misinformation and misdirection. A lot of shady things (flying mounts on the CE box cover?) that helped to maximize expansion sales before dropping the bomb on players.

That is very sad. And clearly I'm not going to convince you otherwise. But it's sad. Like I said, I wouldn't be here discussing these things if your vision of Blizzard was reality.



You don't gain customer loyalty through deception or bait-and-switch tactics. You don't ever believe that making a profit and gaining loyalty are mutually exclusive. You make awesome products that you're passionate about, and that you think people will feel are worth enjoying; and you listen to their feedback about those products to see what things can be improved for a majority of customers. The folks here at Blizzard know this.



But WoW is also a huge ship of a game. If people on these forums think the ship is on the wrong course, we might agree on some level, but it takes time to correct for that. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

PvP

We do. It's week 2, not much has been added yet.

we increased the MMR scaling in RBGs by 30% this season. Rating inflation is active in RBG. (holinka)



You add something like 100 mmr a week into the arena bracket why not just do the same for rbgs?

Inflation resets each season. It increases 10 points per week. It is and always has been in RBG (holinka)

how does inflation reset if ppl have mmr of 2.9k in arena the first day?

their MMR was higher than 2900 at the end of last season (holinka)

Road to BlizzCon - Watch the NA Online Qualifiers

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

The first of our three WoW Arena North American Online Qualifiers cups on the road to BlizzCon is already underway—and this Saturday, you’ll be able to watch the battle unfold live on Twitch!



On Saturday, July 18 at 2 p.m. Pacific time (check here for your local time zone), join seasoned WoW Arena commentators Jared “vhell” Coulston and Josh “Lore” Allen for some action-packed matches at Twitch.TV/WoW. Follow along with every Frostbolt, Fear, and Flash of Light as the top 8 teams from our first Online Qualifier Cup compete to secure one coveted spot at the Americas Regionals.



More information on the North American Online Qualifiers is available in our official blog. Full details on Online Cup 1, including brackets and teams, are available on Battlefy. Who will you give your energy?



Signups for Online Cup 2 are now open as well! Teams can register here on Battlefy.

Ghostcrawler Tweets

Ghostcrawler has recently provided longer answers to some questions than tweets would allow.

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion

Always loved the work you did on my two favorite games. Saw you at Pax East last year, talked briefly. thoroughly enjoyed it. Question time: Clearly the player interaction that you did in WoW didn't end so well. Do you feel that is just the purview of smaller communities/games?

I don't feel that it ended badly. I'm curious why you would have that perception. I greatly enjoy interacting with players. I remember back in the day how frustrated I would get when I couldn't tell what on earth the developers were thinking with a particular change (or lack of change), so I always try to pay that back now that I am in the industry.



It is definitely hard for one person to be the spokesperson when dealing with a very large community. That was never my intention on WoW, but it often felt that way because I like to talk to players. One of the things I really like about Riot is how everyone is not only permitted, but encouraged to get out there and talk to players. It helps convey that we are a group (a large group) of developers and no single contributor has undo influence on the state of the product as a whole.



In terms of game design: Do you think the "design collaboratively" approach has it's downsides? That sometimes there needs to be someone who has more influence on embracing his vision on a product?‎

It definitely has its downsides, but it is still my prefered way to work. I am sure we are familiar with games that were developed by a strong auteur who just used other developers to carry out their vision. Such a vision can end be really consistent, since it came from one person, and there is a certain efficiency to just being able to tell people what to do.



On the other hand, when you work collaboratively, it is possible to produce a stronger design because more people are beating on it to make it great. You just have to make sure not to let the vision become too diluted or devolve into design by committee. Morale is often higher on collaborative projects because everyone feels more ownership of the vision. Finally, the development process isn't as brittle because you aren't so reliant on a single point of failure. If anything you are growing additional strong designers who can go off and do work independently.



Working by consenus doesn't have to mean that there are no deciders, leaders or vision holders. I find it works best when there is someone to say "Let's sail in that direction" and then the rest of the team figures out how to make that happen.



What is the biggest lesson you've learned during the design of each of your 3 major releases (AoE, WoW, LoL)?

That's a great question. I don't know that these are the biggest lessons I learned but they are the ones that first came to mind.



AoE - Players need to understand where the game is going. It's not an interesting decision if players aren't informed and are just guessing. "What unit am I supposed to build?" or "I don't understand why I lost" are big red flags.



WoW - Players get bored when they run out of content (and this can mean hitting a brick wall in addition to just completing everything). Content doesn't mean something they could theoretically do just for the sake of doing something. It means something they are motivated to do. Some players might have fun completing every single quest, but that doesn't mean it counts as content for everyone.



LoL - I never would have imagined you could ask players to learn such an unreasonable volume of information. You need to understand the mechanics of every champion and have a good understanding of how to play several of them, including things like item builds. And millions of players rise up to that challenge.



How do you have developed your way to work, in particular the interaction between your colleagues and peers/subordinates/superiors if any, throught your career? I am talking work/project wise. Feel free to not fully reply if i invade privacy!

I think it's common for newbie leaders to micromanage both because they have a really earnest desire to do the right thing and because they are eager to demonstrate that they can have an influence on a team. That was certainly me the first time I became a manager. I was terrible at it, but my team helped me realize that, and I vowed to do better. One thing I try very hard to do now is to let teams have a lot of autonomy because making mistakes is really the only way to learn how not to make them. I try to remove blockers and be there as a safety net when things go awry.



Having extraordinarily thick skin helps a lot with interactions with others because I'm not ever going to get offended by anything my colleagues say. I strive to be even tempered and reasonable because when you get stressed out and panic you send the message that you can't handle it.



I also try to be very empathetic, with both players and colleagues. When you can really put yourself in someone else's shoes you stop viewing them as a potential obstruction and you start to think about how you can help them out. Showing interest in their work also goes a long way. It's so stupidly simple, but you can go a long way towards earning colleague respect if you just keep your commitments. If you told them you'd send an email, freaking send it. Once they write you off as unreliable, they are going to stop going to you for help and you've missed the chance to earn a reputation as a problem solver. You want to be the problem solver.



I care a great deal about mentorship. Seeing someone rise up to become a future lead for the company is one of the most rewarding experiences in my life, let alone my work, and I have been fortunate to experience it several times. Related, it's really hard to be the boss of people who are also your friends, but I have navigated that minefield pretty well so far.



I don't pretend to be the last authority on this stuff. I have worked with people who seemed like total assholes who were still really effective and loved by their teams. So clearly they figured out how to make it work.

Was that what you were looking for?

Warcraft Movie - Comic-Con Panel

No footage of the movie is shown here, just discussion with the cast and director.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/5022-Wrath-of-the-Lich-King-Timewalking-Blue-Posts-NA-Road-to-BlizzCon-Warcraft-Panel