Thanks to the amazing support of our community of players, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has sold more than 4.7 million copies as of its first month of release, setting a new record for monthly PC-game sales. Don't all stand in the fire at once! Check out the press release for all the details, and thanks again for playing!
Welcome, travelers, to the seventh edition of the Explorers’ League Journal, and the first edition of the new year. Here's just a handful of the happenings you might have missed over the holidays.
We've recently implemented a number of hotfixes directly related to guild achievements, flasks, and cauldrons. When first designing the guild achievements, we overestimated the number of flasks that guilds would be able to make by the time they reached guild level 10, and set the number of Cataclysm flasks required for the two related guild achievements to 10,000 (Mix Master) and 25,000 (Better Leveling Through Chemistry). In reality, most guilds have made fewer flasks than we had originally anticipated they would at this point in guild progression, and many players will soon be unlocking a guild perk (Chug-A-Lug) directly related to cauldrons and flasks.
Okay, so that's not entirely true. We are curious, however, about all the fun things you did this Winter Veil. Maybe you became an Assistant Professor in Archaeology, earned your first stone drake, or even struck it rich on the Auction House. Whether you were naughty or nice, we'd like to know what activities you chose to focus on during the holidays. Head on over to our forum poll to submit your vote.
Welcome back to New Player Tips, our recurring feature in which we ask World of Warcraft veterans to share their thoughts and advice for new adventurers on a variety of in-game topics. This week's topic is: the Auction House.
We've just released a free update for the World of Warcraft Mobile Armory.
Merry New Year! The celebration begins at 6:00 p.m. realm time tonight (December 31) with fireworks in the skies above the cities, and repeats every hour on the hour.
Azeroth is a large world and it's recently become much larger. There are hills to climb, deserts to explore, fjords to ford, and a vast sea separating the continents. And let’s not forget that beyond Azeroth proper there lies a whole other shattered world -- Outland. Traveling has never been more interesting, and for some, confusing. To help you with getting around, we’ve compiled a list of some of the more common ways you can see the world, meet new creatures, and (likely) be killed by them.
Fortified citadels lie in ruins. Once-verdant forests burn brightly in the twilight of the setting sun. And arid stretches of desert, known to have claimed even the hardiest of travelers, now house fertile oases. The breaking of Azeroth changed a great many things. While the altered landscapes of the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor may be the most noticeable evidence of Deathwing's violent return, many of Azeroth's heroes have also undergone drastic physical and mental transformations of their own.
We have a lot of players at 85 now doing everything from Heroic dungeons to rated Battlegrounds, and the class design team is starting to prepare our list of items to investigate for our next patch.
Presents! There's now a presence of presents under the tree near Greatfather Winter in Orgrimmar for Horde, and in Ironforge for Alliance. Be sure to stop by and pick up this year's exclusive gift.
Season's greetings, adventurers! It's that time of week again, so grab your shovels and let's take a look at what's happening in-game and around the community.
The forces of the Alliance return from Northrend, victorious in their battle against the Lich King, but not without casualties. The loss of Highlord Bolvar Fordragon has taken its toll on the forces of the Alliance, most notably on King Varian Wrynn. Unfortunately the sands of time flow without pause, and there is little time for mourning. Deathwing has erupted back into the world, and he has left a trail of destruction in his wake. Just as Stormwind lies shattered beneath the Dragon Aspect’s might, Deathwing's return may have caused some unforeseen results. The nation of Gilneas, isolated since the end of the Second War behind Greymane’s Wall, will return to rejoin the Alliance and bring with them a feral rage like no other.
The Feast of Winter Veil is upon us! In celebration of this festive holiday and the arrival of Greatfather Winter, we've selected three more inspiring stories to share with the community. These are personal accounts from your fellow World of Warcraft enthusiasts that are sure to fill your heart with mirth and good cheer and remind us that, sometimes, the greatest gifts are those that require no wrappings at all.
You did it! The combined efforts of the Alliance and the Horde have paid off, the final reward on the Your Fortune Awaits page has been unlocked, and the Cataclysm Print Ad and YouTube Commercial Contests have both come to a glorious end! Thanks to all of the talented artists and members of the community for seizing this opportunity and making these contests such a shattering success! It was tough to choose winners from such an amazing batch of entries, but you can read on to see which Cataclysm-inspired ads, commercials, and PSAs proved to be the most creative and persuasive.
The second issue of Curse of the Worgen, the newest miniseries in the bestselling World of Warcraft comic line, is now available online and in stores nationwide.
From everyone at Blizzard to you and yours, have a safe and happy holiday season!
BlizzCon presents an opportunity for real-life tailors and engineers to take up their needle and thread, their cardboard and spray paint, to create amazingly realistic recreations of their favorite Blizzard Entertainment characters. We invited the winners of this year’s costume contest to write guest articles on the art of costume-craft for us to share with the community. Here’s the last of three, written by Armando, who won second place for his towering and fearsome reproduction off Illidan Stormrage.
Show off your epic crafting skills in the latest image submission contest for a chance at prizes including your very own Frostmourne replica! Participants will create a full-sized, player-made weapon replica of their choice based on an in-game item from World of Warcraft. Winners will be selected based on their accuracy and creativity.
With the release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, new adventurers are joining the ranks of the Horde and the Alliance almost every day. Though these players are able to find a lot of helpful information through our in-game tutorials and community guides, when you're learning the ropes, nothing really beats the wisdom of an experienced player. That's why each week we'll be reaching out to all of our veterans for tips, tricks, and trade secrets about a variety of different topics to help put new recruits on the path to success. To kick things off, this week's inaugural topic is: questing.
The return of Deathwing has forever changed the face of Azeroth in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, and the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game is ready to match these world-altering events with its upcoming set Worldbreaker. Featuring the addition of two brand-new races -- goblin and worgen -- Worldbreaker will also begin to introduce the great Dragon Aspects from World of Warcraft.
‘Tis the season once again when good little orcs and humans all over Azeroth hope that Greatfather Winter will bring them that shiny new axe or special non-combat pet (to love and pet and call Spot) for Winter Veil.
We've updated our Media section with a new wallpaper, new fan art, and classic Blizzard art.
BlizzCon presents an opportunity for real-life tailors and engineers to take up their needle and thread, their cardboard and spray paint, to create amazingly realistic recreations of their favorite Blizzard characters and creatures. After this year’s costume contest, we invited the winners to write an article on the art of costume-craft for us to share with the community. Here’s the second of three, written by Brenna, who won third place.
