Remember the huge scourge invasion that accompanied the roll-out of patch 1.11? After a few weeks of undead-slaughtering fun, the scourge invasion points across Azeroth vanished - whether your server had finished the invasion event or not. The "end" of this event was somewhat disappointing, as it occurred without any fanfare, and left me with a heck of a lot of now useless necrotic runes in the bank. However, there's now some suggestion from Blizzard that this invasion won't be a one-time event - though as to how often the scourge may become restless and attempt to invade Azeroth, no one yet knows.
Like the invasion or not, it was an excellent way to rack up Argent Dawn reputation, and the rewards (consecrated sharpening stones, blessed wizard oil, +damage versus undead armor), while situational, were useful. And, while I'm glad the invasion isn't a permanent thing, I think having it back on some regular basis will make for an entertaining diversion.
I play on a number of servers, and a fashion is spreading through them -- players are donning new tabards everywhere from Ahn'Qiraj to Zul'Gurub. The two items, Tabard of the Argent Dawn (left) and Tabard of the Scarlet Crusade, surfaced in the last patch.
The Argent Dawn tabard is obtainable as a result of the invasion event. Initially, you have to take ten Necrotic Runes to the Argent Quartermaster at Light's Hope Chapel. Finishing this quest will activate an Argent Quartermaster, and you can then trade more Necrotic Runes for items like mana potions and Consecrated Sharpening Stones (+AP against undead). For ten runes, the tabard is yours. I found this tedious to solo, but when grouped with a mage and a couple of others the runes flow heavily.
It seems that, with every new patch, there are always a few changes that, for one reason or another, don't make the release notes. But never fear, Blizzard won't be able to pull the wool over your eyes once you check out this list of undocumented changes in 1.11, compiled by the folks at WorldofWar.net.
Nothing extremely signifigant was left unnoted, it seems, but there are plenty of little tidbits that are very helpful to know relating to specific quests, factions, and other things. Check out the list at their forums, and be sure to add anything you might have found, as well!
For those of you who have left comments asking specific questions about the ongoing Scourge Invasion event, this post over on the official forums might just be what you're looking for; it's a FAQ (frequently asked questions, for you acronym-impaired) all about the Scourge event, that answers just about all the questions we know the answers to so far. We still don't know how long the event will last or what it will take to defeat the invasion, but there are plenty of tips here to get you started on the path. Kudos to player Ghostwalka for putting it all together.
My experience so far with the event has been limited to taking on a few isolated undead in Stormwind & encoutering a Necropolis in Winterspring that scared the heck out of me when I first saw it. I plan to dive headfirst into the events this weekend, though, and this post has me surious to see some of the things that will happen. Check it out & while you're out there battling the Scourge, report anything new you find back here to us!
When I first flew into Stormwind yesterday, I thought there was something wrong with my monitor. A thick, choking haze filled the air, and a group of mysterious soldiers had set up camp in town and were spreading disturbing news. The Scourge has invaded Azeroth, and all able-bodies have been called to her defense.
The invaders chosen method of conquest is by the use of an armada of flying necropolis'. Yes, it's an odd concept, and no, I have no idea how they make cities fly, much less dead ones, but I saw it with my own eyes, so take my word for it...these things are huge.
Swarms of powerful undead have flooded the Plaguelands, Azshara & other areas, gaining their power from mysterious obelisks scattered throughout the land. Horde & Alliance could be seen fighting side-by-side against the unholy legions, trying to destroy the crystals. Who knows how long the combined forces of both factions will be able to stave off the invaders...but it's been pretty freakin' cool so far.
Have you heeded the call to arms against the Scourge? Seen anything interesting during the event so far? Let us know...
Today's release of patch 1.11 was the first chance we had to see how the new background downloader application would help us on patch day. The full patch file ended up being about 150MB, but for me, the background downloader had previously snagged 127MB of that, making the patch download fairly quick and painless. Of course patch day itself wasn't completely painless - the servers came up a few hours later than anticipated and the login server was sluggish when things first started coming online, but over-all the patching process seemed to go fairly smoothly. Did anyone have any negative experiences with the patch downloading process today?
Well, it's about time for another holiday...and no, that Children's Week crap didn't cut it. As reported on XGPGaming, starting tomorrow, June 21st, the festival of Midsummer Fire will kick off in Azeroth, with dancing, quests, and a huge fireworks display to close it all off. The report states:
* Bonfires have been lit across Azeroth in festival camps to rekindle the spirits of its celebrants and ward off ancient evils. These sacred flames are guarded by flamekeepers and it's rumoured that the myriad powers of the flames includes both cleansing and blessing. * Dancing around ribbon poles is a popular activity amongst friends and fellow celebrants in the many festival camps. Although traditionally a focus for the joyous celebrations, all participants will without doubt appreciate the resulting resistance to heat! * Fire Festival quest givers can be found in the capital cities. As the celebration of the flame is spread throughout the land of Azeroth there will be many new perilous journeys to embark on with exciting seasonal rewards to match those heroic enough.
There is no announcement of the event on the official Blizzard page as of yet, and the patch notes don't make mention of it, either, but it sounds legit to me, so I guess we'll see if it appears tomorrow. If so, remember you heard it here first....or, second, rather.
For those of you who, like me, are still waiting patiently for your realm to come back online after today's patch, you might want to take a gander at the things that have changed with version 1.11.
IGN has posted the patch notes on their site, and it looks like, as usual, every class recieved at least a little bit of tweaking. The biggest news for me, though, might just be the fact that the stacking numbers of certain items have been increased, so I can now carry stacks of 20 leather (among other things) around instead of 10! That's huge news for the slot-impaired, like myself.
Anything in the notes you weren't expecting? Anything you found shocking? Chime in....
Today's maintenance will be extended by two hours in order to apply patch 1.11. However, instead of pushing maintenance time two hours later (to 1:00PM PDT) they're starting maintenance two hours earlier (at 3:00AM PDT). I don't know about you, but I can't wait to jump online and dive into the new scourge invasion content with my real characters. Not to mention the rest of the patch - mage changes, shaman changes, Naxxramas, updated PvP armor, new items for Argent Dawn & Cenarion Circle reputations, a legendary caster item, keyrings (yay!), new flightpaths (Ratchet and Un'Goro, primarily), debuff prioritization, and probably a number of other changes that have slipped my mind. Hopefully the patching process will go as smoothly as possible and let us get back to playing.
There's a limited number of debuffs that can be placed on any target - currently, the maximum is 16. This is enough where it's not usually problematic, but in a raid environment it's not difficult to hit that maximum, and when you do, the oldest debuff on the target is bumped off in favor of the new one. This becomes a bit problematic when, for example, the short-lived "shadow vulnerability" debuff left by a warlock's improved shadow bolt talent starts bumping off more important things. To fix this, Blizzard has long been working on a system that prioritizes debuffs and leaves the most important ones on, while letting the less useful ones get bumped off. However, Tseric informs us that the "basic structure" of this prioritization system will be going live in patch 1.11 - to much rejoicing.
Once again it's been a fun run on the PTRs, but they have, officially, closed. Of course, the real news here is that this means patch 1.11 has been mostly finalized, and that we should expect patch deployment soon - possibly as early as this week. On the matter of a release date, Tigole tells us, "No promises as to when the patch is going live, but if I were you, I'd start working on that Argent Dawn rep by tomorrow -- either that or pillage the guild bank while the pillaging is good." Of course, what that means is up in the air, but if you'll excuse me, I think I need to be getting a Scholomance run together about now...
Blizzard has updated their Argent Dawn page with some new reputation rewards that will be available in patch 1.11. For the armor rewards, it looks like we can expect another token system, but the only thing reputation seems to impact is the cost of the goodies. There are six blue items and six epic items (not sets, but assorted items available). Also, epic-quality tailoring, leatherworking, and blacksmithing patterns with high amounts of frost resistance (for Naxxramas, presumably) available at revered reputation and higher.
The main Warcraft site has been updated with additional information about the Scourge invasion that will be coming with patch 1.11. So what should we expect? A threatening necropolis over both Stormwind and the Undercity as the Scourge prepare their invasion force, as well as specific Sourge incursions in Azshara, Blasted Lands, Burning Steppes, Eastern Plaguelands, Tanaris and Winterspring. The Argent Dawn representitives around Azeroth will be coordinating efforts in an attempt to repel the invasion - with rewards for those who aid them.
Tigole has announced two changes to dungeons that we should see in patch 1.11. These aren't live on the test realms yet, but should be in a few days.
The release timer is being removed for players in instances. This should come as welcome news for anyone who has ever died at the beginning of the Nefarian encounter.
To prevent exploits, players will no longer be able to zone into an instance during certain encounters ("almost entirely raid bosses," explains Tigole).
Here's an interesting list of new items we can expect to see in the 1.11 content patch. There are some components shown for what appears to be a legendary caster item, though the final product is still a mystery. And I don't know about you, but the suspense is killing me!
Remember the huge scourge invasion that accompanied the roll-out of patch 1.11? After a few weeks of undead-slaughtering fun, the scourge invasion points across Azeroth vanished - whether your server had finished the invasion event or not. The "end" of this event was somewhat disappointing, as it occurred without any fanfare, and left me with a heck of a lot of now useless necrotic runes in the bank. However, there's now some suggestion from Blizzard that this invasion won't be a one-time event - though as to how often the scourge may become restless and attempt to invade Azeroth, no one yet knows. 
When I first flew into Stormwind yesterday, I thought there was something wrong with my monitor. A thick, choking haze filled the air, and a group of mysterious soldiers had set up camp in town and were spreading disturbing news. The Scourge has invaded Azeroth, and all able-bodies have been called to her defense.
Today's release of patch 1.11 was the first chance we had to see how the new background downloader application would help us on patch day. The full patch file ended up being about 150MB, but for me, the background downloader had previously snagged 127MB of that, making the patch download fairly quick and painless. Of course patch day itself wasn't completely painless - the servers came up a few hours later than anticipated and the login server was sluggish when things first started coming online, but over-all the patching process seemed to go fairly smoothly. Did anyone have any negative experiences with the patch downloading process today?
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