In Development: PvP Mercenary Mode
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker
/ Official Forums
)
They say, “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer”—and soon, you’ll be able to do just that.
In an upcoming patch, we’ll be adding a feature that allows you to act as a mercenary for the opposite faction in PvP. Whenever your faction is experiencing a long wait time to get into Ashran or unrated Battlegrounds, agents of the enemy faction will appear in your base in Ashran (Stormshield for the Alliance, Warspear for the Horde). These agents will allow you to enter Ashran or Battlegrounds disguised as an enemy player, and actually fight as the opposite faction.
When you compete as a mercenary, you’ll still earn all the same rewards you would have by winning or losing as your own faction (with the exception of faction-specific achievements). You’ll also have your race automatically changed into one appropriate for the opposite faction while you’re still inside the Battleground or Ashran. Perhaps most importantly, however, you’ll experience much shorter queue times, as our matchmaking system will be able to fill up groups much quicker!
Our goal with Mercenary Mode is to allow players who want to participate in Ashran or unrated Battlegrounds the ability to do so without having to wait through long queues, while still maintaining the spirit of the core Alliance vs Horde fantasy. We’ll be testing this feature soon on the Public Test Realm, and look forward to hearing your feedback!
Patch 6.2.1 PTR Patch Notes
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker
/ Official Forums
)
Patch 6.2.1 is now available for testing on the Public Test Realms (PTR)! Participating on the Public Test Realms lets you test a patch before it has been released on live realms. If you'd like to help test and provide feedback, you can start by copying your character and downloading the PTR client. Once you've had a chance to try things out, visit the PTR Discussion 6.2.1 forum to discuss the patch. To report issues or errors, use the in-game Submit Bug feature (found under Game Menu -> Help -> Submit Bug) or by visiting the PTR Bug Report 6.2.1 forum.
PTR Disclaimer
In Development: Flying on Draenor
Flying has been enabled on Draenor for level-90+ characters that have attained the account-wide achievement, Draenor Pathfinder. To help facilitate testing of this feature, accounts that have not yet obtained the achievement will be able to purchase a Manual of Rapid Pathfinding from Flaskataur in their Garrisons on the PTR.
In Development: PvP Mercenary Mode
Players will be able to act as a mercenary for the opposite faction in PvP whenever your faction is experiencing a long wait time to get into Ashran or unrated Battlegrounds. Agents of the enemy faction will appear in your base in Ashran (Stormshield for the Alliance, Warspear for the Horde) and allow you to enter Ashran or Battlegrounds disguised as an enemy player, and actually fight as the opposite faction.
While competing as a mercenary, players will automatically have their race changed into one appropriate for the opposite faction. Players will still be able to earn all the same rewards as winning or losing as their original faction (with the exception of faction-specific achievements).
Upcoming PvP Rewards Hotfix
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker
/ Official Forums
)
Since the release of Patch 6.2, we’ve gotten a ton of feedback regarding the Champion’s Strongboxes rewarded from Ashran and Rated Battlegrounds. We’ve been discussing that feedback heavily since the patch released, and wanted to take a moment to clarify some confusion as well as share an upcoming change.
To start, we’d like to clarify exactly what can be found inside a Champion’s Strongbox, as some (though certainly not all) players seemed to be anticipating items that they’d never have been able to get from the Strongboxes anyway:
With that said, we definitely recognize that the Strongbox rewards (or rewards from any box, for that matter) are unclear, and that’s something we’re looking to improve upon in the future.
In addition, we’re currently in the process of applying a hotfix that will remove the Versatility belts, boots, and bracers from the Strongboxes, and make them available on the Conquest vendors instead. Once this hotfix is active, Champion’s Strongboxes will only reward helms, chestpieces, gloves, shoulders, and legs, as well as the Accolade random stat trinkets. Remember that armor pieces earned from Strongboxes do not grant set bonuses, so most players will only want to equip one of those pieces.
We feel that this change will allow there to still be a benefit to earning the Champion’s Strongboxes over the course of the season, but due to the fact that you’ll still want to complete your set bonuses, that benefit will be a little extra flexibility in gearing choices instead of simply having Versatility items another player may not have won. This also greatly increases the chances of earning a desirable item from your Strongbox (at least, until you have everything you want from them) by reducing the overall number of possible items you could get.
Thanks again for all of the feedback on this topic. We’re hopeful that this change will greatly improve the gearing experience in Warlords Season 2, and are taking all of your feedback to heart as we plan for future seasons.
Continue reading...
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker
/ Official Forums
)
They say, “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer”—and soon, you’ll be able to do just that.
In an upcoming patch, we’ll be adding a feature that allows you to act as a mercenary for the opposite faction in PvP. Whenever your faction is experiencing a long wait time to get into Ashran or unrated Battlegrounds, agents of the enemy faction will appear in your base in Ashran (Stormshield for the Alliance, Warspear for the Horde). These agents will allow you to enter Ashran or Battlegrounds disguised as an enemy player, and actually fight as the opposite faction.
When you compete as a mercenary, you’ll still earn all the same rewards you would have by winning or losing as your own faction (with the exception of faction-specific achievements). You’ll also have your race automatically changed into one appropriate for the opposite faction while you’re still inside the Battleground or Ashran. Perhaps most importantly, however, you’ll experience much shorter queue times, as our matchmaking system will be able to fill up groups much quicker!
Our goal with Mercenary Mode is to allow players who want to participate in Ashran or unrated Battlegrounds the ability to do so without having to wait through long queues, while still maintaining the spirit of the core Alliance vs Horde fantasy. We’ll be testing this feature soon on the Public Test Realm, and look forward to hearing your feedback!
Patch 6.2.1 PTR Patch Notes
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker
/ Official Forums
)
Patch 6.2.1 is now available for testing on the Public Test Realms (PTR)! Participating on the Public Test Realms lets you test a patch before it has been released on live realms. If you'd like to help test and provide feedback, you can start by copying your character and downloading the PTR client. Once you've had a chance to try things out, visit the PTR Discussion 6.2.1 forum to discuss the patch. To report issues or errors, use the in-game Submit Bug feature (found under Game Menu -> Help -> Submit Bug) or by visiting the PTR Bug Report 6.2.1 forum.
- Text in red means it's newly added or has changed since the last update.
Crossed outmeans the change has been reverted since the last update.
PTR Disclaimer
- Please keep in mind that the notes below are not final, and details may be subject to change before the release of Patch 6.2.1.
- New information for features that are still in-development will be added as it becomes available.
- Not all content listed in the PTR Patch Notes may be available for testing or may have a limited test window.
In Development: Flying on Draenor
Flying has been enabled on Draenor for level-90+ characters that have attained the account-wide achievement, Draenor Pathfinder. To help facilitate testing of this feature, accounts that have not yet obtained the achievement will be able to purchase a Manual of Rapid Pathfinding from Flaskataur in their Garrisons on the PTR.
- Please note there may still be areas or pockets on Draenor where flying has not yet been fully implemented. These areas will be tracked and listed in a forum thread titled "Flight in Draenor – Reported Bugs Thread" on the Patch 6.2.1 PTR forum.
In Development: PvP Mercenary Mode
Players will be able to act as a mercenary for the opposite faction in PvP whenever your faction is experiencing a long wait time to get into Ashran or unrated Battlegrounds. Agents of the enemy faction will appear in your base in Ashran (Stormshield for the Alliance, Warspear for the Horde) and allow you to enter Ashran or Battlegrounds disguised as an enemy player, and actually fight as the opposite faction.
While competing as a mercenary, players will automatically have their race changed into one appropriate for the opposite faction. Players will still be able to earn all the same rewards as winning or losing as their original faction (with the exception of faction-specific achievements).
- This feature is still in development and is not available initially on the PTR. Mercenary Mode will be enabled later in the PTR process.
- See the blog “In Development: PvP Mercenary Mode” for more information.
Upcoming PvP Rewards Hotfix
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker
/ Official Forums
)
Since the release of Patch 6.2, we’ve gotten a ton of feedback regarding the Champion’s Strongboxes rewarded from Ashran and Rated Battlegrounds. We’ve been discussing that feedback heavily since the patch released, and wanted to take a moment to clarify some confusion as well as share an upcoming change.
To start, we’d like to clarify exactly what can be found inside a Champion’s Strongbox, as some (though certainly not all) players seemed to be anticipating items that they’d never have been able to get from the Strongboxes anyway:
- Strongboxes can never reward items that can be purchased with Conquest Points.
- Strongboxes can never reward cloaks, necks, or rings.
- Strongboxes can never reward items with set bonuses.
With that said, we definitely recognize that the Strongbox rewards (or rewards from any box, for that matter) are unclear, and that’s something we’re looking to improve upon in the future.
In addition, we’re currently in the process of applying a hotfix that will remove the Versatility belts, boots, and bracers from the Strongboxes, and make them available on the Conquest vendors instead. Once this hotfix is active, Champion’s Strongboxes will only reward helms, chestpieces, gloves, shoulders, and legs, as well as the Accolade random stat trinkets. Remember that armor pieces earned from Strongboxes do not grant set bonuses, so most players will only want to equip one of those pieces.
We feel that this change will allow there to still be a benefit to earning the Champion’s Strongboxes over the course of the season, but due to the fact that you’ll still want to complete your set bonuses, that benefit will be a little extra flexibility in gearing choices instead of simply having Versatility items another player may not have won. This also greatly increases the chances of earning a desirable item from your Strongbox (at least, until you have everything you want from them) by reducing the overall number of possible items you could get.
Thanks again for all of the feedback on this topic. We’re hopeful that this change will greatly improve the gearing experience in Warlords Season 2, and are taking all of your feedback to heart as we plan for future seasons.
Continue reading...