In case you missed it, Blizzard has unveiled the new and improved Darkmoon Faire that will be coming to Azeroth in patch 4.3. The Darkmoon Faire will occupy an entire island and be filled to the brim with new quests, rewards, fun novelty items, and even a brand new, free-for-all PVP arena in the same vein as the Gurubashi Arena. The changes are massive, turning the Darkmoon Faire into a whole new experience for players.

There are so many features coming with the new Faire that it’s hard to choose the coolest one. So that’s what we should talk about this morning. What is your favorite feature coming with the new Darkmoon Faire? Is it the ability to purchase old vanity armor sets that are difficult to obtain or just don’t exist anymore? What about the ability to gain five skill points in all of your professions per week while the Faire is in town? Are you a questaholic, excited to complete all of the new quests and storylines that the Faire will provide? How about collecting Darkmoon Artifacts, found all over the world, in order to earn prizes, rewards, and more?

Breakfast Topic: The new Darkmoon Faire originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 26 Aug 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlizzCon 2011 attendees and live stream purchasers will receive a gift this year of Murkablo, an in-game companion pet resembling the fearsome Diablo, main antagonist in the third game bearing his name. From the included screenshot, Murkablo appears to burn characters with fearsome, fiery breath.

Along with Murkablo, players will receive an as-of-yet unrevealed StarCraft 2 in-game gift. You can still purchase the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket at the site for $39.99, which gives you four channels, panels, game tournaments, the contests, and more, without actually having to run from panel to panel like we will be doing.

Ever since Murkablo was datamined, players had been wondering if Murkablo was going to be this year’s BlizzCon exclusive pet or a pack-in companion for Diablo 3′s inevitable collector’s edition. Since BlizzCon pets are usually of the murloc variety, it was a safe bet that Murkablo would be our new best friend come BlizzCon 2011.

Official announcement and screenshot of fire-breathing action after the jump.

Continue reading Meet Murkablo, the BlizzCon 2011 exclusive pet

Meet Murkablo, the BlizzCon 2011 exclusive pet originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Darkmoon Faire is getting a full-on revamp in the upcoming patch 4.3 update to Cataclysm, giving the Faire its own island secretly hidden away within the mists. The old ticket system from the Faire of yesteryear is being replaced with new quests, new games to play for tickets, and more. From the preview, we can expect a fez-wearing monkey companion pet, new toys and balloons, more heirlooms, fun souvenirs, and replica sets of long-lost armor that have been removed from the game or are extremely hard to get. New achievements and titles are also coming.

This is a huge content update to the Darkmoon Faire. From the preview, this appears to be the Molten Front of the Darkmoon Faire, a huge, fun questing and game experience that involves fun toys, games, and more. Games include Whack-a-Gnoll, Tonk Battle Royale, the ominious-sounding Cannon, a ring toss game, a shooting gallery, and more to be announced. A new Gurubashi Arena-style free-for-all PVP arena called the Darkmoon Deathmatch will be introduced, as well.

One of the most interesting parts of the new Darkmoon Faire is that you will be able to gain experience, prize tickets, and skill points for your professions — up to five skills points per profession per Faire week. If you’ve been struggling with those last few points in a profession or want to level up alts’ professions without spending too much on the Auction House, the first week of each month at the Faire opens up some new options.

Continue reading Patch 4.3 preview: The all-new Darkmoon Faire

Patch 4.3 preview: The all-new Darkmoon Faire originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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in fact one may slow one’s progression by doing that due to the missed hits.

however the benefit of going to other areas is the reduction of boredom through the attainment of secondary goals that either pay $$ or boost your other toons.

This article was originally posted on and is © 2004-2009 WoWGrrl.com – visit WoWGrrl’s World of Warcraft blog for more tips and tricks, videos and writings about World of Warcraft

Blizzard has just released its official preview of the new Void Storage feature coming in patch 4.3. Void Storage is a new long-term bank storage option that will let you save old sets of gear and items that have sentimental value. It is not meant to be a replacement or auxiliary bank; instead, it’s meant to complement the use of transmogrification (see Blizzard’s official preview for more information on that).

In the UI example above, it shows three items being deposited into the Void Bank, costing a total of 300g, or 100g/item. Blizzard notes that the final cost of depositing items is not final.

The big points of Void Storage:

• Up to 80 slots
• Access by talking to a Vaultkeeper in Stormwind or Orgrimmar
• Costs gold each time you deposit or withdraw an item from Void Storage
• Deposited items will be stripped of gems, enchants, and reforging
• Item restrictions exist (not specified yet)
• A new bag, bank, and void storage search field will appear in all inventory windows

Blizzard’s full blue post on Void Storage, after the break.

Continue reading Official Void Storage preview

Official Void Storage preview originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 18 Aug 2011 12:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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More details are emerging from Blizzard’s recent talk at Gamescom. Kotaku sat down with Blizzard’s Chris Metzen and Tom Chilton to talk about it all, and one of the things they covered was the upcoming void storage, slated to be released in patch 4.3.

The details on the new void storage are as follows:

• 80 slots to store items
• All items put in void storage will have the following removed from them:
  • Enchants
  • Gems
  • Name of player who crafted the item

Kotaku’s article doesn’t list what exactly are the item restrictions in the void storage. It does say “extra items,” which could lead one to believe there are no restrictions. However, in the past Blizzard has said it wants to do a gear-only storage for older gear sets, so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise if there are some item restrictions in place. We’ll be finding out about that as patch 4.3 is released on the PTR (eventually).

The full bit from Kotaku’s interview with Chris Metzen and Tom Chilton is as follows:

Another addition coming with the patch is “Void Storage”, a new 100 to 150 [See Editor's Note] items slots. Like transmogrification, void storage comes from the Ethereals. Void storage is a pocket dimension created for a player that allows them to store extra items, but there is a downside.

Anything stored in the void is stripped of its enchantments and gems and the name of the person who crafted it, Chilton said. The stripping isn’t tied to the lore of the game, either, but is the byproduct of a technical issue that makes this new storage system possible. (Read: Silly databases!)

Editor’s Note: Blizzard has sent word that it’s actually 80 slots in the Void Storage, not 100 to 150 as originally reported at Kotaku.

More details emerge on Void Storage — 80 slots of space originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It seems like only yesterday the blues were giving hints at a beefed-up raid finder coming in a future patch or expansion.

According to an interview with Kotaku:

Finally, Chilton and Chris Metzen, vice president of creative development at Blizzard, explained a new feature coming with the patch called “Raid Finder”. The Raid Finder essentially operates like a dungeon finder, automating the search for fellow players on the hunt for a good raiding party. It will be built into the game’s updated user interface when the patch hits, they said.

The Kotaku article doesn’t call it a “cross-realm” raid finder, but I think it’s safe to assume that it will be — otherwise, it’ll just be like the one that’s in game now (you remember that one, right?). There’s no more details on the interface or accompanying restrictions on the new raid finding, but expect that information to be discovered or announced soon.

Raid finder coming in patch 4.3 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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European gaming convention Gamescom is in full swing this week in Cologne, Germany. German entertainment site Gamona.de sat down with both Tom Chilton and Chris Robinson to discuss the details of the upcoming patch 4.3, the patch where your dreams come true. It was revealed that the patch will include:

• Deathwing’s raid and three new 5-man dungeons
• Cosmetic armor skins (!)
• An armor closet to store old gear, freeing up bank space

As patch 4.3 will include Deathwing’s raid, that probably means it will be the final patch in the expansion’s overall narrative. If you doubted for a moment that Blizzard will announce the next expansion at this year’s BlizzCon, doubt no more. We expect that these new 5-man dungeons will provide a new tier of heroics as well, pushing difficulty about Zul’Aman and Zul’Gurub.

Follow us past the cut below for details on cosmetic armor skins and more!

Continue reading Patch 4.3: Deathwing, cosmetic armor skins, and armor storage

Patch 4.3: Deathwing, cosmetic armor skins, and armor storage originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Dev Watercooler returns with a long, meaty, and controversial post from Lead Systems Designer Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street all about threat stats and the ever-changing role threat plays in World of Warcraft encounter design. In this newest blog, Ghostcrawler muses about last December, when he and his team were preparing to revisit and rework threat stats to make them more compelling for tanks. Since then, the developers have changed their minds about the role of threat completely, almost eliminating threat altogether.

Ghostcrawler addresses the biggest point with the most passion — threat isn’t fun. It never has been, and threat stats aren’t fun to balance. Personally, as a tank, the most contempt and frustration I have for World of Warcraft comes from my inability to control DPSers who can’t stop pressing their buttons for a second. It’s just not fun to get mad at unskilled players. Ghostcrawler wants interaction between new and experienced players to be positive, and when DPSers blame undergeared or new tanks for threat issues when they have successfully beaten Ragnaros to a pulp and taken his gear, it doesn’t make for a positive experience.

With patch 4.3, threat is going to become largely a non-issue. Threat is being increased to five times damage, up from three times damage. Each tank will be given new active defense cooldowns, much like death knight’s Death Strike. Warriors, it seems, will be getting the biggest redesign of the bunch, with rage causing a big problem with how warriors need to spend resources to maximize survivability. DPSers will largely be unaffected and will, in fact, have less time when they have to stop attacking or stop their rotations, because threat will be less of an issue.

Check out the full blog post for more information on the huge changes coming to threat in patch 4.3. There is a lot coming in the future, and we will be testing this stuff heavily on the PTR and have more information when it becomes available.

Continue reading Dev Watercooler: Ghostcrawler discusses massive changes to threat

Dev Watercooler: Ghostcrawler discusses massive changes to threat originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Real ID party grouping feature, which allows players across realms to group up and run dungeons through the dungeon finder with their same-faction Real ID friends, is officially out of beta and remaining a free service.

When the service was first announced, a premium price was going to be attached to the service, but since launching, Real ID grouping is not part of the premium package — it’s free for everyone. Blizzard reserved the right to add features to the premium suite of WoW services, but this one is here to stay for free.

I was skeptical about the costs associated with the service in the beginning, but after trying out the service with fellow WoW Insider editors I was hooked. Paying for the service, however, was not something I would have done. Players have a certain expectation about what they get with their monthly subscription, and in a world where free-to-play MMOs and games charge small amounts all over the place for items and boosts, a subscription game in the vein of World of Warcraft has a harder time justifying the extra costs because of the nature of the monthly subscription beast. It is nice to see that Blizzard is adding this feature for all players, no cost attached. Hit the jump for the full announcement and FAQ.

Continue reading Real ID grouping feature out of beta, remains free

Real ID grouping feature out of beta, remains free originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 16 Aug 2011 10:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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