Welcome to All Things Warcraft - the new name for the previous WoW Factor column. The name change is to more accurately reflect what this column will be about going forward, Warcraft. This week we discover a source to find wild BlizzCon tickets, we check out the new female Night Elf model and see what’s going on in the world of Hearthstone.
LF BlizzCon
To no surprise of anyone BlizzCon tickets are completely sold out. If you weren’t able to secure tickets and/or looking for someone to share a hotel room with you should check out this great resource, LFblizzcon.com.
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The site is to help players connect with one another to sell and purchase BlizzCon tickets at face value and not one cent more. If you’re looking for tickets this may be one of the best options at this point that won’t cost you a month of rent. I personally haven’t used it but it seems like a promising tool.
The New Female Night Elf
Work continues on updating the player models for the Warlords of Draenor expansion release this fall. As we’ve seen with past previews of this process the increase in fidelity, including animation, is very significant. In the latest Artcraft post on the official site the WoW art team showed off the current progress of the female Night Elf model revamp.
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In the following images you can see the current model on the left and the new model on the right. Soon after these images were posted many fans complained about the lack of fangs which is one of the key features of the race. Don’t worry - through various social media outlets we were assured that the fangs will make it into the final model.
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One of the biggest advantages to these updated models is the staggering increase in animation controls. Take a look at the range of expressions in the previous image and check out this post (featuring the new Tauren and female Draenei) to see some animation in action.
New Mount
Blizzard teased a new mount on their twitter account last week and it looks pretty rad. It’s still not quite clear how the mount will be acquired whether it’s in-game, a refer-a-friend perk or to be sold for real money in the in-game store. Here is the image that accompanied the tweet and you’ll see it’s similar to the Qiraji Battle Tank mount that drops in Ahn’Qiraj.
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Upcoming Gear Changes
Good news for those of you still working through Siege of Orgrimmar and other high level PvE content - in upcoming Patch 5.4.8 all epic level items introduced in Patch 5.4 that were upgradable will now be able to receive two more item level upgrades. This covers most of the items that are found on the Timeless Isle and in the Siege of Orgrimmar raid. With these additional upgrade options you’ll be able to raise upgradable gear by 16 item levels - this also includes the legendary cloaks!
Additionally, Deed of Valor are being added to the game. These new tokens can be purchased for 3,000 Timeless Coins which will give your character 100 Valor Points. These can be acquired on the Timeless Isle near the Celestial Court,
What if you have one of the Garrosh Heirloom items which are not upgradable? No sweat, all Garrosh Heirloom items will be given an immediate +8 item level boost when the patch hits.
Curse of Naxxramas Cards
As development continues on the first Adventure for Hearthstone, the developers continue to offer glimpses of upcoming cards. Here are two recent sneaks, a rogue (left) and paladin card:
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There is still no official release date other than the summer time frame and no pricing information either. As more and more cards are revealed it will be very interesting to see what kinds of theoretical decks players come up with.
Hearthstone Card Changes
In the latest Heartstone patch, Blizzard is increasing the mana cost of the Hunter’s Unleash the Hounds card by one. From the patch notes:
“After much consideration, we have decided to increase the mana cost of Unleash the Hounds to 3. Unleash the Hounds has been dominating all levels of play for quite some time. This change should make the card more fun to play against while still allowing for some big plays when combined with other Hunter cards.”
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In my time playing since this patch went live I have seen a substantial decrease in Hunter opponents. I usually sit somewhere around rank 10 so my view is limited and could be considered coincidental. If you often play this card how do you feel about the changes? Let me know in the comments below!
Follow me on Twitter @rezalackey
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Reza Lackey / Reza is a giant nerd who loves video games, board games, film and way too many other things. Works in the film industry, on some startups and thinks science is cool. Also launches rockets.
