The MoP pre-patch (patch 5.0) will go live August 28th.. this will also cause the PvP season to end that date, impact your raid lockouts..etc..

Haven’t seen the official announcement..but did find this ‘blue’ post as confirmation:

 Please be aware that with the release of the pre-expansion 5.0.4 patch on Tuesday, August 28, all raid lockouts will be reset. This means that you will not be able to extend a raid lockout beyond the week before the patch release.

Important security update from Blizzard!

Players and Friends,

Even when you are in the business of fun, not every week ends up being fun. This week, our security team found an unauthorized and illegal access into our internal network here at Blizzard. We quickly took steps to close off this access and began working with law enforcement and security experts to investigate what happened.

At this time, we’ve found no evidence that financial information such as credit cards, billing addresses, or real names were compromised. Our investigation is ongoing, but so far nothing suggests that these pieces of information have been accessed.

Some data was illegally accessed, including a list of email addresses for global Battle.net users, outside of China. For players on North American servers (which generally includes players from North America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia) the answer to the personal security question, and information relating to Mobile and Dial-In Authenticators were also accessed. Based on what we currently know, this information alone is NOT enough for anyone to gain access to Battle.net accounts.

We also know that cryptographically scrambled versions of Battle.net passwords (not actual passwords) for players on North American servers were taken. We use Secure Remote Password protocol (SRP) to protect these passwords, which is designed to make it extremely difficult to extract the actual password, and also means that each password would have to be deciphered individually. As a precaution, however, we recommend that players on North American servers change their password. Please click this link to change your password. Moreover, if you have used the same or similar passwords for other purposes, you may want to consider changing those passwords as well.

In the coming days, we’ll be prompting players on North American servers to change their secret questions and answers through an automated process. Additionally, we’ll prompt mobile authenticator users to update their authenticator software. As a reminder, phishing emails will ask you for password or login information. Blizzard Entertainment emails will never ask for your password. We deeply regret the inconvenience to all of you and understand you may have questions. Please find additional information here.

We take the security of your personal information very seriously, and we are truly sorry that this has happened.

Sincerely,
Mike Morhaime

Here’s the FAQ they referenced.

Is there anything that players need to do right now to protect themselves?
While there is currently no evidence that any of the password or player data has been misused, we encourage our North American players to change their passwords. Click here to login and change your password.

In the coming days we will implement an automated process for all users to change their secret questions and answers, as a precautionary measure. We’ll also prompt mobile authenticator users to update their authenticator software.

Additionally, while Blizzard has no indication that any of your information was shared with any other unauthorized parties or that there has been any unauthorized use of your data, we urge all members of our community to closely monitor all of their online accounts.

Players should also be wary of fraudulent emails (phishing). Unfortunately, because email addresses were exposed, it is entirely possible that this could result in an increased, targeted phishing campaign being sent to our users. Check this page for tips on how to spot and avoid these types of fraudulent emails.

What data was affected?
Here’s a summary of the data that we know was illegally accessed:

North American-based accounts, including players from Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia:

• Email addresses
• Answers to secret security questions
• Cryptographically scrambled versions of passwords (not actual passwords)
• Information associated with the Mobile Authenticator
• Information associated with the Dial-in Authenticator
• Information associated with Phone Lock, a security system associated with Taiwan accounts only

Accounts from all global regions outside of China (including Europe and Russia):

• Email addresses

China-based accounts:

• Unaffected

At this time, there’s no evidence that financial information of any kind has been accessed. This includes credit cards, billing addresses, names, or other payment information.

What information related to Mobile and Dial-In Authenticators was exposed? What about Phone Lock?
With regard to Dial-In Authenticators, hashed (not actual) phone numbers were accessed. This is phone data from the relatively small number of people who opted into the program.

With regard to Mobile Authenticators, information was taken that could potentially compromise the integrity of North American Mobile Authenticators. We have no evidence that other regions were affected. We are working quickly to provide software updates to users.
Additionally we believe the integrity of the physical authenticators remains intact.

The information relating to Phone Lock represents a small number of hashed (not actual) phone numbers from Taiwanese players who opted into this service and had a North American Battle.net account.

Was the physical authenticator compromised?
We believe the integrity of the physical authenticators remains intact.

How did this happen?
Like all companies doing business online, it is not an uncommon occurrence to experience outside parties trying to illegitimately gain access to the operation’s structure at some level. We are continually upgrading our security technologies, policies, protocols and procedures to protect our customers and our games against the threats that increasingly arise in today’s online world.

When did Blizzard learn of the unauthorized access?
The trespass into our internal network was detected by us on August 4, 2012.

Why did Blizzard announce this on August 9?
We worked around the clock since we discovered the unauthorized user to determine the nature of the trespass and understand what data was accessed. Our first priority was to re-secure our network, and from there we worked simultaneously on the investigation and on informing our global player base. We wanted to strike a balance between speed and accuracy in our reporting and worked diligently to serve both equally important needs.

What action has Blizzard taken?
Upon learning of the unauthorized access, we worked quickly to re-secure our network. Afterward, we immediately notified law enforcement as well as security experts and launched an ongoing investigation to determine what had occurred. We also took steps to notify players, which happened in a matter of days from the time we discovered the illegal access.

Was any personal or financial information accessed?
At this time, there is no evidence that financial information was affected or accessed. There’s also no evidence that personal information such as real names or billing addresses were accessed.

What can you tell us about the scrambled passwords that were accessed?
Cryptographically scrambled versions of passwords for North American players were accessed, protected by Secure Remote Password (SRP) protocol. This information alone doesn’t give unauthorized users the actual passwords — each password would need to be deciphered individually. The added layer of protection from SRP makes that process computationally very difficult and expensive.

Why not immediately invalidate the secret questions and answers that were compromised?
This was a difficult decision to make but in the end we believe that keeping the secret questions and answers in place still provides a layer of security against unauthorized users who don’t have access to the compromised data. In the meantime, we are working quickly to create a mechanism for players to change the secret question and answer on their account. Our customer service staff will also know to use additional measures to verify player identities and not rely solely on secret question and answer.

Why not immediately revoke the mobile authenticators?
Similar to the decision surrounding secret question and answer, we still believe that keeping mobile authenticators active provides a layer of security against unauthorized users who don’t have access to the compromised data. In fact, the mobile authenticator information by itself won’t grant access to a Battle.net account — that still requires the actual password as well. We are working quickly to deploy new mobile authenticator software and will notify players to update as soon as it’s available.

Are you taking additional security measures as a result of this occurrence?
We are continually upgrading our security technologies, policies, protocols and procedures to help protect our customers and our games, and will continue to monitor the situation closely.

Teams have also been working around the clock in an ongoing investigation with law enforcement and security experts, to gain a more detailed understanding of what happened. As we conclude the investigation there will be lessons learned that can help strengthen our security going forward.

So, bare minimum.. go change your password… I’d also change your secret question/answer for an added step, even though Blizz is going to force you to change that one again soon.  Also, if you used the same password anywhere else.. change it.

Blizzard has announced that the next expansion to World of Warcraft. The Mists of Pandaria will street on September 25th.. Pre-orders are now available for the ‘regular’ edition, a digital deluxe edition, and the Collector’s edition..  Head on over to worldofwarcraft.com to pre-order (or pre-purchase) your digital copy, and your local reseller for the others!

Blizzard announced today that they are laying off about 600 people worldwide.

CEO Mike Morhaime had this to say:

Over the last several years, we’ve grown our organization tremendously and made large investments in our infrastructure in order to better serve our global community. However, as Blizzard and the industry have evolved we’ve also had to make some difficult decisions in order to address the changing needs of our company.

From what I’ve read so far this morning, Blizzard has indicated the layoffs won’t come from game development.. so I guess it’s customer service, community, and some of the other ‘support’ branches that are getting let go.

Hopefully the folks that are suddenly out of work, will be able to find new gigs soon.

Today is (was?) Day 1 of Blizzcon.. so of course this is the day we get the big announcements..

In no particular order.. here’s what I know was announced today.. and my thoughts on each one:

Annual Pass

On the surface..this isn’t anything new, as Blizzard already offers annual subscriptions for WoW.  The only differences I saw between the Annual Pass announced today, and a ‘normal’ year long subscription is that you get a in game mount (Tyrael’s Charger).  The Annual Pass can be paid for monthly, but is still a 12 month contract.  Purchasing an Annual Pass also gets you a guaranteed beta key for the next expansion.

The big difference is….  purchasing an Annual Pass..gets you a “free” copy of Diablo 3 (digital download) when it comes out.  This seems to be a move by Blizzard to turn your WoW subscription into a “Blizzard Pass” – similar to Sony’s Station Pass.  If this is the case.. I think Blizz should just come out and say so.. and throw SC2 into the deal to.  I can’t see anyone justifying a year long WoW subscription just to get the expac (which, I don’t think a release date was announced for today).. D3.. and a mount..

If it’s going to be a ‘Blizzard pass’.. give me access to ALL blizzard games for the $15.00 a month (or, whatever it comes out to yearly).

Mists of Pandaria

The next expansion to WoW… is Kung Fu Panda 3… Po comes to Azeroth..

Err.. ok.. so that’s not really what they’re calling it.. Blizz is calling it “Mists of Pandaria” and is highlighting these features:

• New Race – Pandarian
• Completely lame racials included (Bouncy!.. Epicurean!)
• Neutral faction till level 10..then you choose Horde or Alliance (wonder if this means cross faction communication is possible via the Panda language?)
• Female model not done yet.. Hey wait.. that sounds like what everyone heard till weeks before Cataclysm launched about the Worgen.. guess this will be the same thing, and the model will end up being… not good.
• New Class – Monk
• Big feature… no auto attack!  Hey.. wait.. where have I seen that feature before in a game.. oh yeah… TOR!
• Hybrid – can tank, DPS, heal.
• New Talent System
• This one could actually be good.. Blizz is reducing the number of talents 1 every 15 levels now
• At each level, you get to pick one of three talents.. Blizz says this means “no cookie cutter” or “mandatory” talent builds.. I’m sure we’ll still see them.
• Level cap raised to 90
• New Continent – Pandaria
• 5 new zones, 1 continent
• No flying till max level
• Pet Battle System
• Pokemon comes to WoW (that is pretty much all that needs to be said)

All in all… a pretty ‘meh’ announcement from Blizzard today… Nothing announced today gives me any urge to re-subscribe to WoW to try it.

In closing..

Lightsabers are greater than Pandas

And you thought patch 4.2 with the ‘Firelands’ raid instance would be the big WoW news today.. ;)

First, Blizz announces a new ‘battle chess’ package that includes the original WoW and The Burning Crusade for $19.99. As part of that, if you already own just ‘vanilla’ WoW, you auto-magically get The Burning Crusade expac, for free. Bet there’s some surprised level 60 Twinks who started getting XP tonight.

Here’s the release on that:

Haven’t yet ventured beyond the Dark Portal? Beginning today, June 28, players will be able to get both the original World of Warcraft and the game’s first expansion set, The Burning Crusade, for only $19.99 as part of the new digital Battle Chest now available in the online Blizzard Store. In addition, anyone who owns the original World of Warcraft, regardless of when they purchased the game, will automatically be able to access all of the content and features from The Burning Crusade expansion at no additional cost. It’s time to set forth from Azeroth, adventurer — Outland awaits!

Then, Blizzard has essentially gone F2P for the first 20 Levels.  They’ve removed the level restrictions on trial accounts, and added the TBC races to what you can play on a trial.  The 10/14 day trial deals have been removed and replaced with the ‘starter’ edition.  Snippet from the FAQ:

What is the World of Warcraft Starter Edition?

The World of Warcraft Starter Edition allows players to access World of Warcraft for free — all you need is a Battle.net account and an Internet connection. Starter Edition players can play up to a maximum character level of 20 and are able to upgrade to a full, paid account at any time, allowing them to continue their adventures where they left off. The Starter Kit gives gamers who are interested in trying out World of Warcraft a chance to experience the game before purchasing a copy..

Go nuts now all you F2P’rs ;)

I’ve messed around on the PTR a bit, and thought I’d share my initial thoughts.  Please keep in mind I haven’t spent huge amounts of time on the PTR, it’s been two or three dungeons for each class I tried, and some time on target dummies.  Not exactly exhaustive testing, but enough for me to form some opinions.

Mage (I used a pre-made, since my Mage’s gear is pretty bad since I don’t play her much).

—The blast wave change makes me a sad panda.  Yeah, from a tank perspective the knock back could be a pain in the ass, but, when soloing/questing/PvP it was a handy survival spell for fire.  Turning it into what is, essentially, Flamestrike with a slow, doesn’t make sense to me.

– I’ve only messed with the Fire tree so far, but, despite the BW change, there are some nice synergies and buffs..getting Pyroblast as our ‘signature’ spell when you specialize Fire is nice… still has too long of a cast time to be used for anything but your opener or when Hot Streak procs and you get it for free.

– For an expansion that is going away from the AoEFest that Wrath is, and closer to the Single Target/CC needed that TBC was, I don’t get the overabundance of AoE spells in the Mage arsenal.  BW, Flamestrike, Blizzard, Arcane Explosion, Dragon’s Breath (kinda), The new Mage Fire Orb thingy (81 spell, so I couldn’t test it).  It seems like a good portion of our arsenal is going to be unusable for a lot of content (until we get back to where we are now in Wrath, with everyone grossly over gearing the content).  We’re still going to be using FFB/Fireball/Icebotl/Arcane Blast, as our ‘main’ attacks, so there probably won’t be a whole lot of change in our rotations, compared to other classes at least (from what I’ve seen so far).

If I get a chance, I’ll try arcane and frost out, to see how those feel but, at this point, I’d have to say that getting my Mage to 85, won’t be a high priority (4th out of 5)- we get Heroism, but, everything else feels like more of the same, only with less survivability.

Druid –

I’ve tried Kitty, and Resto so far on the PTR.

—–Resto

- No Tree form is… interesting.  The couple of times I’ve healed, have been in the easier of the Wrath heroics, so I haven’t felt the need to switch forms.. being able to see myself casting is odd.. but, at least it means druids might finally be able to get those achievments that require us to “wear” a costume that we can’t ever shape shift in without losing it.

- My biggest gripe with Resto is that for years people have been told ‘standing in stuff on the ground, is bad’ for most fights… with the addition of Efflorescence…. people need to stand in stuff on the ground to be healed =(   Hopefully, Blizz won’t screw with us, and add a Boss mechanic that has a similar visual appearance to Efflorescence.

- The LB change to one target only will take some getting used to.. I kept trying to do what I’m used to, and keeping 3 stacks of LB up on the tank + whoever was also taking decent damage.. and kept removing LB from one of them.

- The increased Mana costs and, in some cases, longer CDs for our spells, makes healing less of a ‘spam WG’ thing, and makes you put a bit of thought into it, to try and conserve some Mana.

- Mana… my mana bar MOVES!  I had no idea!   ;)  On live, as long as no one in the group is stupid, I can heal the easier heroics without stopping and without my mana bar getting below maybe 75% over the course of the entire run.  The healing runs I did so far on the PTR, the tank tried for non-stop, but the DPS kept dieing due to some of the tanking changes and not letting the tank build aggro, even with the “extra” mana cost of the Revives, I didn’t drink during the runs, and still ended up with between 25-40% of my mana left.  So, I’d imagine that come Cata and the supposedly harder dungeons,  waiting for mana will again be something tanks need to do.

—- Kitty

Overall, Kitty didn’t feel too different.. my DPS was pretty low, but some of that is because Blizz hasn’t tuned all the numbers yet, and part is.. I’ve never been able to get super high DPS via kitty, I always clip my DoTs.  The changes I’ve noticed so far to kitty, do make it more forgiving if you don’t have the rotation down to the split second that the live version feels like it needs.

– Feast of Flesh — Should have been left called  ‘nom nom nom’, it was way cooler of a name.

Like Mages, kitty felt pretty much the same to me, we’re still basically rogues when we’re in kitty form, with the same combo point mechanic (which Pallies now also get..Blizz must really like CP).  I think Blizz spent the bulk of their feral time, on Bear to make the tanking rotation something more than binding swipe to every key and sleeping on the keyboard (just kidding! everyone knows you bind it to every other key  ;) )

I haven’t had the opportunity to tank anything yet on the PTR..but hope to soon so I can chime in on that side, but I’m concerned that this latest attempt by Blizz to normalize rage generation will screw things up as badly as their last attempt.  Right now, the druid would probably be 3rd on my list (of my 5 80s) to take to 85 first and claim as a ‘main’ for at least the first part of the expansion.

– Hunter

- First, no ammo — YAY!

- Increased durability levels on all armor to match Plate durability = Boo!   If Blizzard wants to ‘normalize’ repair costs to make it ‘fair’ for plate wearers, there’s gotta be a better way then charging the rest of us more.  (Ok, technically, this isn’t hunter specific, but I thought of it while working on this part).

-Focus -  Obviously, outside of the whole ‘No Ammo’ promise Blizzard is finally delivering on, the switch from Mana to Focus as our resource is the big change for the Hunter class.  It’s going to take some getting used to, especially until Hunter’s get aspect of the Fox and can move and shoot at the same time.  As Survival, my rotation on Live for a Boss fight is basically Black Arrow -> Appropriate Sting, Explosive Shot, Steady Shot, SS, ES, lather, rinse, repeat, and use LnL procs when they pop up.   On the PTR, because of how expensive some shots are, I’m having to go Black Arrow, SS, Sting, ES, SS, SS, to get enough focus up to continue the rotation.  I’m sure Blizz is still tweaking focus regen numbers and focus cost numbers, so I’m not too concerned about “wasting” part of BA’s up time by not getting ES up right away after it.

-DPS – Numbers are still being tweaked, but for non-BM hunters, it feels about the same.  BM is crazy right now on the PTR, with Kill Command critting for like 12k pretty regularly.  Expect a BM nerf before 4.0 goes live, or, we’ll all be BM for the xpac, just like we were for most of TBC.

- Pets –  Blizzard gave some much needed love to the pets this patch.. giving each family a different buff/debuff/ability to make it easier for a 10 man raid to provide a buff without a class… including Heroism via the Corehound (OMG! BM will be a raiding spec!).  Hopefully, we’ll get some more pet types to tame, so everyone won’t feel the need to bring a wolf just because that pet is the ‘raiding’ pet buff wise.

- Trap Launcher  — One word… Awesome.   Takes the Ice Arrow idea, expands it to every type of trap we’ve got… so LnL procs can be ‘forced’ for Survival, without having to run into melee the boss to drop a trap, will make CC in Cata 5 mans easier, won’t have to kite the target to the trap, take the trap to the target.

At this point I’d put the Hunter as 1st or 2nd on the list of ‘main’ choices, I think once people get used to Focus, it will feel like a more appropriate mechanic than Mana.. and hey.. at least we don’t have Combo Points.. plus, we get camouflage!

- Death Knight

– I’m digging the change in the way runes ‘refill’ now.. it takes a little getting used to, and it is easy to unload everything and then not have ANY runes left if you’re not paying attention..

- Runic Empowerment — WAY too random, having another way to recharge runes is good.. having it be RNG over happening, and what rune it refills is less good.  For Frost (which is my prefered spec, I like dual wielding Tankards O’ Terror) this isn’t as bad, because frost has been more priority based then a set rotation for quite some time now.  For Unholy, this is a bigger pain.  Ghostcrawler has said they’re considering adding a way for Unholy to turn this off, because it messes that playstyle/rotation up soooo much.

– Dedicated Tanking tree –  Boo.  This was one of my favorite things about the DK, was that if you took the ‘required’ talents (5/5/5)… you could tank in ANY tree, as long as you clicked the Frost Presence button.  I’m also not sure that Blood is the appropriate tree to have picked to be the ‘tank’ tree, but, I guess with all the changes to healers in Cataclysm, it makes sense to give your tank some self healing abilities to help keep himself standing.  I’d try tanking on the PTR..but my tank gear is predominatly Naxx level, so I’d get pwn’d pretty easily.

– Festering Strike — This is nice, a way to extend disease duration on your current target, that unlike Pestilance (on live), doesn’t also spread it to nearby targets, thus breaking CC.

– Unholy is gaining some nice pet buffs with SI and Dark Transformation, that, combined with the talents to make the disease harder to dispell, makes me think Unholy will end up being the PvP tree.

Kids are calling, so I gotta stop now.. but, I’ll rank the DK as 1st or 2nd on the list with the Hunter.. looks like one of those two will be my ‘main’ to start Cata with, at least based on how things feel on the PTR right now.  In case you’re wondering, my Pally is taking the 5th spot.. I can’t play a pally with combo points… it just feels wrong (no, I haven’t actually tried… so, it might be better then it reads in patch notes).

Cataclysm is definitely coming ‘soon’!  The 4.0.1 PTR is up.. this is the big patch that will drop shortly before Cataclysm goes live that has all the class changes, new talents, etc.. in it.. good time for alt-o-holics to get a taste of each class and decide who to make your main come Cataclysm!

The new launcher, and the ability to get in and play while the bulk of the content is still downloading, is neat too.

They were data-mined awhile back by MMO-Champion (and other sites), but Blizz has cleaned them up a little, and is now ‘officially’ releasing the previews of the druid forms for the new races.

Worgen looks cool… Troll druid forms look like something that escaped from the circus.  The official preview page is here.