During the scheduled server maintenance on the week of February 28, the “Power of the Aspects” spell will grow more powerful, reducing the health and damage dealt of all enemies in the Dragon Soul raid by 10%. This spell will grow progressively stronger over time to reduce the difficulty and make the encounters more accessible. The spell will affect both normal and Heroic difficulties, but it will not affect the Raid Finder difficulty.

Don’t need the help of the Dragon Aspects? The spell can be disabled by talking to Lord Afrasastrasz at the beginning of Dragon Soul.

We hope you continue to enjoy Dragon Soul, and that these changes encourage you to attempt a higher difficulty, or just keep pushing to down that next boss.

CeBIT is a unique exhibition of digital technology, games and much more which takes place every year in Hannover, Germany. At the 2012 show, which starts on March 6, Blizzard Entertainment will be showcasing the Diablo III beta in the free gaming area, in partnership with ESL.

Members of our Community and eSports teams are looking forward to meeting you there! So if you’re going to CeBIT make sure you drop by to see us, especially as you’ll have the chance to win some nice prizes — including Diablo III beta keys — in the various contests and activities we’ll be organizing.

CeBIT is also hosting the final of the Intel Extreme Masters Season VI, where 24 of the best StarCraft II players will fight for the title of IEM World Champion and an impressive prize pool of $75,000! The roster so far contains famous names like Greg “IdrA” Fields, Giacomo “Socke” Thüs, Moon “MMA” Sung Won and Kim “viOLet” Dong Hwan – so make sure to follow the matches live or tune in on ESL TV.

We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

DETAILS

Event: CeBIT 2012 / Intel Extreme Masters Season VI World Championship

Location: Messe Hannover / Exhibition Grounds 30521 Hannover Germany

When: March 6 to 10, 2012

Stream: ESL TV

More details: ESL news / CeBIT website

Welcome to the Community News! There is always some interesting news, fan fiction, comic, artwork, guide or machinima that is worth sharing. In this blog we will provide you with a recap of this week's latest news and community highlights!

World of Warcraft — Pulse News

In this latest Pulse episode, Lumin takes a look at the 'Love Is In The Air' world event, some Patch 4.3 Hotfixes, the mention of an upcoming Mists of Pandaria Press Event and more.

Manaflask

If you're yet to conquer Deathwing under the most challenging of circumstances, this should be useful to you: Manaflask presents its guides to the heroic Dragon Soul raids, which include class-specific tips, for 10 and 25-player groups:

World of Wracraft Artwork

Missrenew of Outland-EU has a very artistic cousin who created a magnificent art piece from World of Warcraft of their Shaman, Khaorü. You can see this fantastic image here.

World of Warcraft — Pulse News

Another Pulse episode has surfaced, and it's a doozy... Lumin takes a closer look at much of the news and updates that recently hit the World of Warcraft community.

Found something cool or want to share your own creation? Check out our Facebook and Twitter pages as well as our official fansites throughout the week, if you want to stay on top of community updates as they become available.

Submit suggestions

Creative Development once again opens the floodgates for questions pertaining to the lore of the Warcraft universe!

Our last two "Ask CDev" projects generated thousands of unique questions across all the different regions, but ultimately the Creative Development team was able to sift through the sea of inquiries to focus on the questions with the juiciest answers. You can see the results of the last two "Ask CDev" endeavors here:

Ask CDev #1:

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/900710701

Ask CDev #2:

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2283549208

The rules of engagement this year are as follows:

• No restriction on the subject of your post, but keep in mind that questions that may be answered by the release of Mists of Pandaria will likely be overlooked; we don't want to spoil surprises!
• Please only ask one question in each post. If your post has more than one question (or if your question contains multiple parts), it will be overlooked. Also, it is recommended that you check the thread to see if your question has already been asked; duplicate questions will not have a greater chance of being answered.
• Questions will only be accepted for the first seven days, and the thread will be locked at 11:59 p.m. PDT on February 22.
• While the thread is open for questions, forum members are encouraged to go through the thread and "Like" or "Dislike" posts; voting on a post will increase or decrease (respectively) the probability of that question being answered.

To get involved, check out the "Ask CDev" post on the Story Forum:

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3381098082

We understand that picking out the appropriate desktop wallpaper to fit your tastes and complement your décor can be an arduous task. To that end, we’ll be offering you help regularly by featuring a new downloadable Diablo III, StarCraft II or World of Warcraft wallpaper image on our community sites.

Here’s what we have for you this week. Enjoy!

 

Singer, songwriter, and parody artist extraordinaire, Sharm has been entertaining World of Warcraft fans with her clever lyrics and angelic voice for almost five years now. She delights us again with her latest song, "Break the Trees," a witty compilation of verses comprised solely of the names of class talents set to the beat of Britney Spear's hit, "Break the Ice."

Whether you're a tank, a healer, or a damage dealer, "Break the Trees" is sure to be a treat. Check it out below or visit Sharm's official page on YouTube.

Players across Azeroth have recently embraced a new, very personal achievement: leveling a character "Iron Man" style. What started out as only a small movement, this bare bones, no-frills style of play has now transformed into a community-wide call-to-arms known as the Iron Man WoW Challenge, inviting World of Warcraft enthusiasts to see how close they can get to level cap with only the barest of necessities.

The goal of the Iron Man WoW challenge is simple: reach level 85. The catch, however, is that you must accomplish this task without the assistance of talents, class specialization, stat-improved gear, professions, buffs, item enhancements, or other players. And if you die? Well, then it’s back to square one.

Here are some of the latest rules:

THE BIG ONE: If you die, EVER, that character is removed from the challenge.

Gear Rules:

1) No heirlooms.

2) No items equipped other than White or Gray items (except bags)

3) No item enhancements — enchants/spellthread/weapon chains/etc.



Consumable Rules:

4) No food buffs. Only white vendor-quality food & drink may be used.

5) No item buffs. No scrolls, elixirs, flasks, etc. (except Quest items).

6) No potions (except Quest items).



Spells & Abilities Rules:

7) You may train and use class abilities learned from trainers (including Rogue poisons).

8) No talent points/pet talent points.

9) No specialization. No glyphs.



Gameplay Rules:

10) No guild perks. If you are guilded, it must be a level 1 guild.

11) No questing groups. All combat must be soloed — parties to trade/portal/etc. are permitted.

12) No battlegrounds/arenas.

13) No dungeons/raids that reward experience. All leveling must be done out in the world.

14) No combat-enhancing addons (QuestHelper/Auctioneer/etc. are fine, use your own judgment).

15) No professions, primary or secondary, other than First Aid.

16) No sending gold/items from other characters*.



*You must earn your own gold/items via questing, looting, or trading/AHing.

 

Interested? Awesome! To sign-up for the Iron Man WoW Challenge and discuss your progress with fellow participants (once you get started), head on over to the official forums. Additional rules and details can also be found on the unofficial Iron Man WoW website, hosted and moderated by players like you.

 

Thanks to Cautious-Kirin Tor, Neverdied-Durotan, Sandinhiseye-Feathermoon, Haldren-Proudmoore, Selenagnomez-Kil'jaeden, and everyone else who's helped inspire and promote this challenge!

 

Updated: 9 February 2012.

Notes for all World of Warcraft patches can be found here.

Classes: General

• Vengeance is no longer triggered by receiving damage from other players.

Druids

• The Tier 13 Balance Druid 4-piece bonus now also increases the damage of Starsurge by 10%, in addition to its current effect.

Hunters

• Aspect of the Hawk now grants roughly 35% more attack power.
• Deterrence now also reduces damage taken by 30% while active.
• Black Arrow now ticks every 2 seconds for 20 seconds, as opposed to every 3 seconds for 15 seconds. The total damage dealt by the ability is unchanged.
• Lock and Load no longer benefits Arcane Shot, nor is it consumed by Arcane Shot.

Mages

• Fireball damage has been reduced by roughly 6%.
• Pyroblast initial damage has been reduced by roughly 6%. Damage over time is unchanged.

Paladins

• Holy Radiance now costs 40% of base mana, up from 35%.

Priests

• Mass Dispel should again prefer dispelling targets that have magic effects that can be dispelled.

Rogues

• Adrenaline Rush no longer triggers a global cooldown.

Dungeons & Raids

• You can now form same-faction raids with Real ID friends, allowing you to enter Raid Finder in groups larger than 5, run older normal or heroic raids, or participate in Battlegrounds. You will not yet be able to run normal or heroic Dragon Soul with cross-realm raids of Real ID friends.
• Several typo fixes and clarified descriptions have been added to the Dungeon Journal entries for Dragon Soul.
• Players no longer benefit from a role-based need bonus on the second of multiple copies of the same item on a single Raid Finder boss kill. For example, a player who chooses Need on two set piece tokens or two weapons (and wins the first) will only automatically roll 1-100 for the second from that particular boss.
• Baradin Hold
  • The roaming Eyes of Occu'thar have been replaced by hateful creatures who serve Alizabal.
• Dragon Soul
  • Yor’sahj the Unsleeping
    • The Shaman spell Unleash Life now properly only triggers Deep Corruption on its target. Previously, this affected both the caster and the target.
  • Warmaster Blackhorn
    • The visual warning for Twilight Elites' Blade Rush should be easier to see.
  • Spine of Deathwing
    • Burning Tendons health has been reduced by 15% in 10- and 25-player Heroic mode. This change eases the burst damage requirement to complete the encounter, which should allow players to make use of more varied raid compositions.
  • Madness of Deathwing
    • The Priest spell Leap of Faith is no longer usable while under the effect of Carrying Winds.

Items

• Vial of Shadows damage (Lightning Strike) has been reduced to approximately one-third of previous damage. However, it will now trigger approximately 3 times as often. This is intended to keep overall DPS the same while reducing burst damage, especially in PvP.
• Maw of the Dragonlord can now have its effect triggered by healing from Holy Word: Sanctuary.

User Interface

• Fixed a bug that caused the Mature Language Filter to reset on exit.
• A notice is now displayed 15 minutes prior to the player being disconnected by parental controls.

We’ve selected some of our favorite screenshots featuring your Transmogrified characters and created a new screenshot gallery. You can view, sort, and comment on these wonderful creations, and discuss the items that were used to create these unique looks. Send in your Transmogrification screenshots for a chance to be featured in future updates!

Welcome to the Community News! There is always some interesting news, fan fiction, comic, artwork, guide or machinima that is worth sharing. In this blog we will provide you with a recap of this week's latest news and community highlights!

Who are Mists of Pandaria end bosses?

WoWjuju has given their take on what they feel will be the end bosses for Mists of Pandaria. Could it be the Sha, the Mogu, the invading Zandalari tolls or maybe the Shado-Pan Clan? Who do you think the end bosses will be for Mists of Pandaria?

Teh Gladiators

A new storyline begins at Teh Gladiators, with a brief history of the Tauren, their lands and the battles which take place on them. Check out the start of the story arc, and be present at the beginning of the latest adventure.

World of Warcraft Lovely Charm Farming Guide

If you're searching high and low for more Lovely Charms during the Love Is in the Air event, you can pick up a few hints over at Ten Ton Hammer in their Lovely Charm Farming Guide.

'Releasing'

'Releasing' is the latest World of Warcraft comic from talented artist Lukali, featuring human paladin Kaelin and draenei priest Valdus.

The Gnome Who Knew Too Much

In this latest offering from the creators of Dark Legacy Comics, Narya lets some dangerous information slip to Miji, with devastating consequences. See The Gnome Who Knew Too Much here.

Found something cool or want to share your own creation? Check out our Facebook and Twitter pages as well as our official fansites throughout the week, if you want to stay on top of community updates as they become available.

Submit suggestions