WoW Expansion announcement at GSC

It looks like Blizzard is taking a different approach this year and, instead at BlizzCon, next World of WarCraft expansion will be unveiled at this year's Gamescom.

Event will be streamed live, August 6 at 9AM PDT (6PM for us living in GMT+1).

In other news, Character names on accounts inactive since Cataclysm will be released so, if you want to make sure you keep your character names, be sure to re-activate your accounts. If not, you will receive a "free" character rename.

IT'S LEAKING!!!

The time has come, the battle's on, oh friends of mine...

It's that time of the year. Winter... I mean, BlizzCon is coming and with it, shitload of "leaks" are appearing all over the internet in regards to next World of WarCraft expansion. Although, Blizzard's guys released a major content patch few weeks ago, fans are merciless and can't wait to see / hear what Blizzard has in store for them next.

Most of the currently available leaks posted throughout the internets is pure speculation and rubbish because of one single thing: All of them are unsubstantiated and everything that you can "learn" from them is a pure fan fiction. We still need to wait for Blizzard to submit a patent trademark request for next expansion so, wait for something like this to appear on MMO-Champion. They are usually the fastest to post the information... That, however, does not mean that provided fan fiction does not make a fine reading material. It gives us insight about what people expect to see in the upcoming expansion.

Here are my 3 favorite Expansion theories: (Note: These are just a speculation about potential expansions.)

Hellfire Citadel is final Raid of the Expansion?

First off, if you want your own [Corrupted Dreadwing] then go and farm Apexis. This week (July 3-6) is Apexis Crystal Bonus Weekend where creatures eligible for dropping it give increased amounts of it. This rule does not apply to Quest/Event Rewards. You don't need much, only 150.000 [Apexis Crystals] (he said sarcastically). Another interesting thing that you can buy is [Rukhmar's Sacred Memory] which along with [Cursed Feather of Ikzan] and [Time-Lost Figurine] makes a nice trio of Arakkoa Transformation toys.

Cory Stockton (@mumper) gave an interview earlier this week and he said that "Hellfire Citadel is currently planned to be the last raid of the expansion" which is, kinda, a let down. Using in consideration all previous expansions had 3-4 major Content Patches and Draenor had only 2, with shitload of negative feedback received from players makes me think they are trying to abandon Draenor as soon as possible and start their focus on new storyline. What will be a new Storyline? We'll probably find that out on this year's BlizzCon that will take place at the Anaheim Convention Center on November 6-7, 2015.

Hellfire Citadel Loading Screen

If 6.2 is the final (major) Patch for WoD, we'll be stuck with it for 5 months, plus the time since announcement 'till release of the new expansion, which seams highly unlikely given that they have been constantly flamed when ever there was a time-gap where nothing is released (example being gap between end of Orgrimmar Siege and our venture into Draenor) and it is supported with his Cory's response:

There isn't anything to announce about future patches, but part of that comes down to how Patch 6.2 plays out. How far players progress in Hellfire Citadel and Tanaan Jungle will give the team an idea of how long the content will last.

Which means, if Citadel is received with positive feedback, we may see at least 1 more Raid but, that's just my speculation.

It is sad that Plains of Farahlon weren't implemented into the game as it was intended originally. It would have be nice to see what Netherstorm looked like before Ner'zhul's portals ripped Draenor apart (in Main Universe).

Patch 6.2: Some thoughts...

I honestly don't know what was I expecting. I mean, I was expecting something but I didn't know what. So far, situation is so hectic that it is pretty close to impossible to kill a Rare Creature unless you accidentally aggro it while walking along it's spawn point or you join a group of "Rare Hunters" that are camping them and announcing themselves on General Channel.

In correlation with the release of the Patch, price of [WoW Token] jumped by about 10.000 gold over night and it's current price is ~53.000 gold per Token on EU realms while price on US realms stands steady at ~25.000 gold pieces per Token. (Source: WoWTokenInfo, 27.06.2015.)

 [Cursed Feather of Ikzan] dropped by High Priest Ikzan. Why isn't this classified as a Toy?

Overall, Tanaan Jungle has the same vibe that Timeless Isle had only bigger. Vast area with lots of Achievements, Treasures, Rare Creatures that drop ILVL650 Baleful Tokens which are useless if you are seasoned Raider that's a member of the Guild with a Raid Progression... But very useful thing if you are gearing up an Alt Character as iLVL650 is minimum requirement (announced by Blizzard Devs) in order to even be considered for Normal version of Hellfire Citadel.

Timewalking event was finally implemented and it brought a bit of Nostalgic feel to the game. You can queue through RDF for it and band up with 4 other players to re-live old dungeons as it was meant to be played rather than going back as High Level player and facerolling through. Currently available dungeons are from TBC era: The Arcatraz, The Black Morass, Mana-Tombs, The Shattered Halls and The Slave Pens. Timewalking is a Weekend event that lasts for 3 days and will end on Monday. Next Weekend event will be Apexis Bonus event where drop of Apexis Crystals will be multiplied and they will be found more often while looting. Next Timewalking event will happen on July 17th when we will have the chance to tackle down WotLK dungeons in same manner.

Mythic Dungeons are finally opened. Same Dungeons only a bit more challenging. They are on a weekly lockout, drop item level 685 gear, and allow you to use [Seal of Inevitable Fate] for bonus rolls. Speaking of Seals, cap for [Seals of Tempered Fate] was increased to 20 and you can buy them at your Tanaan faction hub vendors for 300 gold pieces per Seal.

In "Garrison Related" news, I created The Shipyard and for a moment everything looked awesome. Then I found out that I need to grind reputations so I can obtain more ships and I got easily bored by it. As every ship has a chance to be destroyed if mission fails (win chance less than 100%) and because I am Resource Efficient, The Shipyard won't see my foot setting onto it's soil for a while now because all current available missions has a chance of success around 50%, which are odds that I don't like at all. Especially if Rare ship is in question.

Drop chance of Salvage Crates was nerfed and you will see them in less quantities than you could. High-value Gold follower missions are nerfed and you will see less of them, especially on your alts. (Since it is semi-related to the Garrison) Ashran's grouping system was nerfed and you can't queue for it while in Raid group so, goodbye Nemesis pre-made groups... Profession cooldowns and Buildings yield double amounts of materials now and you get twice as much as before. Profession Upgrade Tokens underwent a change so it could be easier to create them and amount of materials needed to create them has been normalized. And for some god damn reason, we are getting dismounted AGAIN while interacting with finished Work Orders.

Guide: TIME-LOST Proto-Drake

Meeting The Dawn by keisinger037

I was goofing around YouTube last night and I stumbled upon this video on "How to Farm [Time-Lost Proto-Drake]" and thought it would be nice to be shared as it explains everything. Thanks to SerroDan for making the guide.

Spawn coordinates shown in the video are (31,69) (35,76) (51,71) (52,35) in Storm Peaks.

_NPCScan & _NPCScan.Overlay (download Overlay.Broker as well for easier configuration) are used in this video (War Drums & Horn and Map Path overlays) and it would be best to download them so you can have better understanding of the TLPD Pathing in-game.

Here are the Macros that he uses:
If you are on your own (no one else farming it):

/target Vyra
/target Time-Los
/focus
/run if UnitName("Target") then PlaySoundFile([[Sound\Interface\PVPFlagT

­akenMono.ogg]], "Master"); print(date(), UnitName("Target"), "Found"); SetRaidTarget("target",8); end

Easy Sniping if you have competition (there is someone else farming it):
(replace the "XXXXX" with the name of your INSTANT cast spell):
/target Vyra
/target Time-Los
/focus
/run if UnitName("Target") then PlaySoundFile([[Sound\Interface\PVPFlagT

­akenMono.ogg]], "Master"); print(date(), UnitName("Target"), "Found"); SetRaidTarget("target",8); Dismount(); end
/cast XXXXX

Have fun!

Patch 6.2: Fury of Hellfire, Next Week

Release date for Patch 6.2 is June 23. The day we venture into Tanaan Jungle to face Gul’dan and the twisted remnants of the Iron Horde.

If you are a member of the guild with serious raid progression, take this week as a last chance to get few more gear upgrades from Blackrock Foundry by spending all remained [Seals of Tempered Fate] because you won't be needing them that much after 6.2 goes live.

This is also your last chance to obtain Ahead of the Curve / Cutting Edge achievements from Highmaul and Blackrock Foundry.

Find your path...

As I mentioned in previous publication, [Draenor Pathfinder] is a new achievement added in Patch 6.2 and initial reward for completing said achievement, [Soaring Skyterror], is a re-color of [Iron Skyreaver], just as I suspected.

To accommodate the achievement requirements, [Master Treasure Hunter] will be renamed to [Expert Treasure Hunter] with old name being used for new achievement awarded to people when they gather 100 Treasures. All other Treasure Hunter achievements are being updated not to include/count treasures found in Tanaan Jungle.

Along with that, [Tanaan Diplomat] (A) / [Tanaan Diplomat] (H) are making an entry, being awarded when players reach Revered status with new Reputation Factions. So far, estimates are that Revered status for these factions can be obtained in different time spans with the longest one being reachable within 2.5/3 weeks from the launch, if Daily Quests are completed every day.

Models for next Tier of Armor Sets are released and, to avoid cluttering the post, you can check all of them on WoWhead. Personally, I like Rogue set the most. Shoulders and Helm look really nice and those daggers on the belt... Awesome...

In order to spare you from sifting through achievements and check everything by yourself, WoWhead launched a new app on their website to allow players to easily check if we are ready to be attuned for Draenor Flying so, check it out on http://wowhead.com/flying

Apparently, Redub and Myself are 100% ready to grind some reps in Tanaan upon release.

If YOU ARE NOT PREPARED! (sorry, I just had to) then check out WoWhead's guide on Draenor Pathfinding so you can be ready as fast as possible.

[Dwarven Bunkers] are being updated and they will offer [Seals of Inevitable Fate] instead of [Seals of Tempered Fate] that will be used in upcoming Hellfire Citadel Bonus Drop Rolls.

Another new thing is 6.2 are [The Shipyards] and I am looking forward to construct it. I just hope it does not turn out to be a total trainw... I mean, shipwreck.

We WILL be Flying in Draenor!

Looks like we will be flying in Draenor after all... Blizzard "caved".

Patch 6.2 was marked as a "Release" on PTR and we can expect the launch announcement any time now.

Be prepared to spread the wings of your flying mounts but, you will need to meet a few conditions. Patch 6.2 brings new meta-achievement called [Draenor Pathfinder] and in order to obtain it, you will need to complete following:

• Achievement [Explore Draenor]: Head to every corner of Draenor and reveal every obscured section of the map.
• Achievement [Treasure Hunter]: Only 100 are required. If you don't have 100, download HandyNotes_DraenorTreasures addon (HandyNotes is required for it to work) and collect them. If you don't want to bother with addons, you can buy Treasure Maps from Grakis (Stormshield) and Srikka (Warspear) at a price of 100 gold pieces per Map.
• Achievement [Loremaster of Draenor]: Only main Quest Chains need to be completed. If you didn't do them... What are you waiting for?
• Achievement [Securing Draenor]: Bonus Objectives / Apexis Daily Quests. If you haven't completed them by now, you can buy Scouting Missives from Sergeant Crowler (A) and/or Sergeant Grimjaw (H).
• Earn Revered status with 3 new Tanaan Jungle factions coming in Patch 6.2:
  The Saberstalkers, Order of the Awakened, Hand of the Prophet (A) / Vol'jin's Headhunters (H)

Initially, this new meta-achievement will give a new mount as a reward, The Soaring Skyterror. There are no images related to this mount for now but, using in consideration the name we may be looking at a re-color of either a [Dread Raven] or [Iron Skyreaver]. You never know, though... We may be looking at something new as well.

Players will remain ground-bound on Draenor until a small follow-up patch (6.2.x), when all players who have earned Draenor Pathfinder on at least one character will unlock the ability to fly in Draenor on all their level 90+ characters.

A new Mount is introduced as a Garrison Mission reward as well. If you are annoyed with camping [Poundfist] for hours only to find out he spawned some time after you left the party, like it happened with me a few times because I got tired of waiting, you will have a chance to obtain your own [Coalfist Gronnling] by sending your Followers to do the camping for you :)

Mission is called [Breaker Two] (our fans for sure), it will cost you a 100 Resources and will be 12 hours long.

New rewards from Garrison Missions, introduced in Patch 6.2 include following:

[Elixir of the Rapid Mind], [Frozen Arms of a Hero], [Burning Blade], [Medallion of the Legion], [Cinder Pup], [Bulging Barrel of Oil], [Huge Ogre Cache], [Champion's Honor], and [Void-Shrouded Satcher] which gives a nice Heirloom Trinket [Touch of the Void].

The Hinder-lands...

Another zone bites the dust, another selfie is forgotten....

Starting the day off with a dungeon, we end up in Maraudon, a dungeon I personally really like, but Exodiä clearly hates. Luckily, it's a dungeon that's seperated into 3 different areas now, which means it takes no time at all. I do not like that direction, but I am not one to argue quickly.

Afterwards we entered the Hinterlands through a secret Dwarven tunnel, and cleared some quests at Revantusk, where the innkeep keeps losing his lunch... But good god, the Jintha'Alor quests were quite a pain. Up and down the same damn pyramid-style hill.... not something we enjoyed... though still better than Ghostlands.

We even made our first honor kill here when we were attack by a Druid. Overall there was a lot of alliance activity, but not much conflict. Eventually we summoned and murdered a spider... all in a day's work.

Arathi Highs and Lows

Good lord this zone.

Arathi Highlands used to be a zone I didn't mind that much back in the days... that has changed. There were roughly 30ish quests, but there was such a massive run around to get from one side to the other, only to walk back again... and again... and again. Last few quests weren't too bad at Faldir's Cove, but that didn't make up for the entire hassle.

At least the quests were limited in number, which another zone could learn something from.

Selfies are scheduled soon(TM).