Kemortia

I find the new skins pretty poor looking, based on what they've previewed so far. I was really hoping they'd re-model the feral forms, since they are all pretty low poly count looking compared to Northrend stuff. It's also disappointing that it's going to be based off hair color, as it's possible you'll end up with an ugly cat form but the bear skin you want. So you'll be forced to either live with being ugly in one form, or pick a skin set that works for you without perhaps being your primary choice. I don't mean to be overly critical, but this one just seems like some wasted design time that could of gone to something better. Do it right or don't do it all, and all that.

Eek, Shaman

 

ildon

They are new models. This was confirmed by Nethaera.

 

Denogran

You're in luck, turns out: GC's post on new feral forms and Neth on color mapping of bear and cat textures

 

Leviathon

CM's always like countering things and then are wrong. I am the poster that Zarhym responded to in that topic but after 4 years I am pretty sure a major patch won't be out anytime soon after seeing how Blizzard releases content. The arena seasons is going to last at least 5 months for example.

World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> ETA on Valiant Quest Replacement?

 

Mideci

Let's again consider the gaps between the completely unrealistic belief of 6-8 weeks for 3.2 and the "3.3 won't be out until April/May" that was refuted by Blizzard.

If you use 4 months as an arena season minimum, you get a new patch in middle August. If you use 5 months, it's middle September. Split the difference and we have 9/1. If you repeat that between 3.2. and 3.3, we are at 1/15 for 3.3, which would optimally last 7 months till "neXpac". A little on the long side, but not exactly terrible if you have a stated goal of having nearly everyone kill Arthas. Not every guild will have killed Yogg/clear Ulduar by the time Icecrown has shipped and giving them a bit more time before the neXpac ships to finish Wrath would hardly devastate the majority of guilds. If it's like last time, a lot of you will level and gear up your alts before becoming completely bored. Some will take breaks between expansions, etc.

For what it's worth, extremely short back-to-back arena seasons of 4 months have Icecrown out in mid-December and a 9 month window until Wrath is 21 months old (TBC lasted 21 months). 5 month long seasons move Icecrown to mid-February and even a 9 month window allows 2 years between expansions (more akin to the vanilla --> TBC window). Even mid-February is far enough ahead of April/May for the blue post to remain true. And, regardless, I'd be willing to go on record as guessing 3.3/Icecrown is due earlier than that, but there is wiggle room in the development schedule allowing it to slip that far.

 

Leviathon

For 3.3 maybe I am being a bit too pessimistic but I think you are being overly optimistic if you expect 3.2 over the summer but I guess we will find out in the coming months.

 

moowalk

Bear in mind that point gains from arenas have increased significantly as of two weeks ago. This is relevant since everyone will get their furious gear faster and perhaps that allows Blizzard to shorten the season a fair chunk.

 

Leviathon

I don't see how people getting their gear faster correlates to the season ending quicker.

 

Vaccine

He is saying the arena seasons current length is a result of two things, the time they think it will take an average player to obtain a reasonable about of gear from it and just from previous patches timings. I see no reason why this arena season couldn't be shorter (or longer) than the last one. If they are doing a hold over raid for 3.2 it would make sense also that that patches lifespan was shorter as a result anyway. Also I still believe they are trying to shorten each expansion cycle anyway as selling more boxes is always going to be better for them.

 

Zaleiria

Now we have this:

I think this contributes to the idea that we'll have another "tier" of raiding gear in 3.2, even if its a half tier or so. The justification for removing the reward of the original glory protodrakes is that the Ulduar gear would trivialize that, and unless we have a new tier of gear, there's nothing but time that would make it any easier.

I'm still not completely sure what the Argent Tournament is all about, but that's the closest thing we have so far. The description doesn't make it sound that deep (a few 25man encounters?), but perhaps it is.

 

Leviathon

I think we will see a new tier of items out of the Colliseum just not a actual tier 9 set and more of a off tier type thing like the AQ sets. It would allow them to just make the sets less exotic and more like the arena sets also with a Argent Crusade type look.

 

Uzziel

There was an article on Wowinsider (now wow.com) that talked about Hippogryph skins that aren't in the game yet. The thread is here. Some of these mounts are in the game, but others are not. Perhaps the Tournament Raid will have a 310% hippogryph associated with it rather than proto-drakes. Pure speculation, but possible with the fact that not all the hippogryph textures are used.

On a side note, is there a possibility that the next tier of raiding will have its "easy mode" drop 239 ilvl gear (same as hardmode now) and the hardmode dropping 252. There have been items found in game files over at mmo-champion (link) that show PVP gear of the 252 ilvl variety which could correlate to the equivalent tier as the tournament. This would allow for a smooth equation for Blizzard to follow with subsequent raids: easy mode for new tier is equivalent to hard mode of previous tier.

 

Leviathon

Blizzard always adds in a bunch of extra textures for things so that the texture is there if they ever wish to add it in game. This is done most often for items since there may be a weapon color for example that ends up being a NPC only color.

 

Talq

Those PVP items have been in the files since before release - as per the MMO champion article which was in September 2008. Annoyingly they are also in armory, so RAWR's item cache picks them up constantly.

 

Liebestod

So Zarhym has made another 3.2-relevant post:

I offered my analysis of it over at my blog:

 

Axanor

I would think that T9 has a strong possibility of being a 5+3 set, like Sunwell was. It would let them balance around the T9 set bonuses and allow players a "full set" to wear around and show off years down the line.

 

Camaris

Posted by Bornakk:
We really have no idea what that the actual PvE content will be like, but that sounds to me like a pretty straightforward indication that we will be getting a proper Tier 9 to mirror the S7 Something Something Gladiator sets.

 

Ivriniel

Did any Blizzard source ever confirm that we are limited to 3 tiers per content cycle?

I just don't see why some of you seem to rule out that we have Tier9 in 3.2 and Tier10 in 3.3.

 

Whitemane

Well, they pretty much did. They have said earlier how often they wish to release new expansions and there are probably not going to be any changes in how fast they can/will release major content patches. That means the number of major contents patches between each expansion should be fairly fixed. The Argent Coliseum does seem a bit like cheating though, it should not require just as much effort by the Blizzard team as a normal dungeon. Or at least that's how it sounds to me, so not sure if you can actually call it a major content patch.

 

◊ nathanbp

Every single content cycle so far has had 4 tiers of loot. Just because there were only 3 "tier sets" per doesn't mean they can't add in the middle ("Tier 2.5" in AQ40) or add the last 3 pieces in the next tier (Sunwell style).

 

Tharamis

I would guess that there would be a new version of the BRD Tier .5 arena quest / third boss of Magisters' Terrace in this new coliseum.

Would be pretty interesting to have a 10/25 man version of that.

 

Aildrik

I believe a dev stated that the area under Karazhan was a "developer playground" and wasn't meant to be player content.

I completely agree about Hyjal; obviously there was some reason Blizzard went through the effort to create the zone, but the fact they have locked it away leads me to believe they had plans which must have fallen through during beta. I would love to hear the story behind that area.

With regards to Uldum and the various portals throughout Azeroth and Outlands, I always sort of thought those were window dressing. The portals are there to remind players that Azeroth and Outlands are but one of a multitude of worlds and hint at past events and conflicts, but which are now dormant or defunct.

 

Leviathon

No Blizzard specifically said the portals were meant to be instances and even Metzen when WotLK was announced said that one portal was going to open before WotLK or shortly after which would have us meet Alleria.

 

• adamb10

Alts rejoice:

World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> Upcoming Mount Changes

 

Axanor

Makes sense- with all the powerlevelling now available alts and new characters are cash-strapped in the leveling process.