Patch 2.4.1 & Daily Blue

World of Warcraft Client Patch 2.4.1

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/...

Hunter

• Tranquilizing Shot no longer incorrectly restricts use of other Hunter abilities in specific situations.

User Interface

• Combat Log
  • Only the last 300 combat log entries are now stored.
  • Filter settings are now properly saved.
  • Changing zones will no longer reload the entire log

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a sound engine error that was causing lock-ups on exit.
• Fixed a shader error that was causing kernel panics on Mac PowerPCs.
• Fixed a bug on Mac that was preventing the intro Cinematics from playing.

Daily Blue (Blizzard) Posts

Sunwell Progression Phase 2

The NPC's that provide updates on your current percentage towards a goal are the quest givers for the dailies that actually work towards that objective. All other dailies continue to function towards reputation and rewards/gold, however.

So right now you probably have the two that work towards taking the armory, and one in Shattrath for opening the portal. That's going to vary from realm to realm though of course.

2008 WoW Arena Tournament have launched

The 2008 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament has now officially begun. Players from around the world can compete on our special tournament realms using the new tournament format. We have leveled the playing field by allowing participants to choose and customize their character and equipment and team up with fellow players to clash in 3-vs.-3 Arena battles. For more information on the tournament, including how to register and participate, please visit our Arena Tournament information page. Good luck and good fight!

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/to.../index.xml

Arena Tournament sign up restrictions

Tournament registration is not closed. We do not currently have a time at which it will be closed.

We do understand and share the frustration some express about not being able to participate, but unfortunately there are laws and regulations that prevent us from including all countries in contests and this kind of tournaments. The restrictions vary based on the exact contests and tournaments (luck factor and prize value being two key points), and while we try to adapt most contests and tournaments to include as many as possible, spanning all - or even most - European countries with these events is very tricky.

At the same time we do wish to have these events in Europe, and also not make them a significantly "lighter" version of those in other regions. We see this as "include as many as possible", not an "everybody or nobody" scenario, and continually work to include as many countries as possible in each event.

WotLK: 70-80 50% more XP (experience points) than 60-70?

Drysc answers to players speculations about leveling speed for 70-80.

Possibly, we haven't announced or even decided on anything final whatsoever, but it really doesn't matter how much the XP curve is increased. The important factor is how much XP you'll be getting from the quests and kills.

You can make the bucket 10x bigger, but if the water filling up the bucket increases comparably then it's really no different. What that does though is makes older water sources less desirable to fill your bucket from.

Raid encounters are designed with the use of addons in mind

No, I think we assume that those who are working on the extreme endgame PvE content are going to be doing anything they can in order to help increase their chances for success. By both embracing the UI mod community and their addons, as well as assuming that players are going to be using them to great effect versus our encounters, we have to design encounters that assume their use or the encounter is trivialized by those on vent, those with a countdown, those with a threat meter, etc. Once a lot of the guess work is removed with mods we have to raise the complexity beyond what a mod can purely assist with. I think at this point we're forced to assume everyone is using mods to great effect versus our design complexity, which in turn forces everyone to use those mods. It's probably somewhat debatable what mods are required and where, but it's certain that we have to take them into account, lest the game be trivialized.

UI Mods have become an integral part of the game for many players, and we've been extremely pleased with the amount of customization and information they're able to provide. We're continually working to assess and implement new UI features, many of which have come straight from the community, to help ensure that the default UI is as full featured as possible while remaining uncluttered, clean, attractive, and easily approached.

Regarding the recent changes to the size of weapons

There were changes made to the Tauren weapons, while sheathed, to address issues where weapons would clip through the ground or the player model itself. The item size is reduced while sheathed so that they aren't dragging through the ground, etc.

My own personal opinion is also so that the weapons in Lich King can be longer and/or more complex, but I wouldn't take that as an official reason.

There is an issue though where the main hand will appear smaller than the off-hand while sheathed, which I would guess probably isn't intended.

We're of course very aware that the visual representation of a player's character is extremely important, and we attempt to make changes to it as infrequently as possible.

As the change was made to fulfill an artistic desire to reduce the amount of clipping the weapons exhibited while sheathed we have no plans to revert the change at this time.

Growl changes (Hunters)

I've spent most of the day today testing hunter pet aggro.

First let me say that Growl and Charge interaction is not the same as it was in 2.3.3, this is being looked at separately by the developers. I'm specifically looking at the reports that other pets are not not holding aggro as well in 2.4 as they did in 2.3.3.

Second let me remind you all that threat meter add-ons are not an accurate tool for testing threat. We have internal tools that can display exact threat numbers but those functions are not available to mods in any way.

Third Growl does not appear in the combat log on the "self" filter by default. You must turn it on by selecting Spell Casting message types in the settings for that filter. You can always see Growl in the combat log if you use the "everything" filter.

I have been able to verify by side by side comparison that Growl auto-casts consistently when turned on and that it is doing the exact same amount of threat in 2.4 as it did in 2.3.3.

I also did side by side testing of two identically geared and talented hunters (using a copy of a retail character that reported this problem) with identical fully skilled pets and compared threat.

I sent the pets to attack an unkillable target. After the opening growl I turned on Auto-shot, and hit Arcane Shot. I then chain cast arcane shot 9 more times as soon as it was off cooldown. I then compared the threat of the pet and the hunter. Both were within 10% of each other.

I repeated this on 2.3.3 and 2.4 and the results were nearly identical.

I also repeated this test using Improved Hunters Mark (as I notice all the hunters reporting it have that talent) and the threat for both the pet and the hunter were higher but still within acceptable margins and aggro was not lost by the pet by the 10th arcane shot on 2.3.3 or 2.4.

There may be a bug with hunter pet aggro, but it is not caused by Growl. If anyone has more information or observations about threat they can post here and I'll try to take a look at them.

Doom Lord Kazzak will not be moved

Are there any plans to reposition Kazzak or to move the new daily quests?

There are currently no plans to move him. If you stay to the western side there isn't much of a chance of him getting to you, or you can gather up some friends and remove him from the area for a few days.

There's a chance a Blizzard in-game threat meter will be developed

During the Q&A portion of the most recent BlizzCon's Raid & Dungeon panel Scott Mercer, Lead Encounter Designer said:

"I know that UI mods are a huge part of raiding, and it's something that, you know, we're also talking about, in the future we're actually talking about putting a threat meter inside our game."

That's of course a statement simply saying that there are discussions happening, which is in no way a promise or indication that a threat meter will be implemented, but that it's something that's been in discussions for implementation.