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Wowhead's Patch 5.0.4 Guide
5.0.4 is live today and we have an extensive guide to everything new! While there's no new raids or gear in this patch, many things will keep you busy. Class abilities, talent trees, and glyphs have been drastically changed, so it's good there's a month before Mists of Pandaria to familiarize yourself with the changes! If achievement-hunting is more your thing, all achievements are account-wide in 5.0.4, as well as many mounts, pets, and titles.
Below, you'll find consolidated versions of our 5.0.4 feature coverage, as well as patch notes, videos, class guides, and links to blue posts.
Patch Notes and Overview
The talent system received an extensive overhaul
: players get one talent every 15 levels now, for 6 maximum in MoP. Specialization and core class abilities have changed as well.
Prime glyphs are removed
and many new minor vanity glyphs are added.
Achievements are now account-wide
and some can even be completed across characters. In addition, many mounts, pets, and titles are account-wide as well.
It is not possible to earn
Valor Points
and [c
Live
Battle of Theramore Arrives Three Weeks From Today
Just an important reminder as today's huge patch day descends upon us that the Battle of Theramore will not be in this patch--Blizzard instead has confirmed it will be available on the 18th of September which is three weeks from today.
While the
Theramore's Fall
scenario will be available to level 90 players in Mists of Pandaria, it will only be open to level 85s for this one week.
There will be faction-specific Feats of Strength for participating in this event at level 85:
Theramore's Fall
and
Theramore's Fall
.
Event rewards have been added:
Theramore Tabard
for Alliance and
Mini Mana Bomb
for Horde.
The Battle of Theramore, the first of many Scenarios coming to World of Warcraft, is a story-changing event that will be available to level-85 characters for one week only -- the week leading up to the launch of Mists of Pandaria on September 25.
For the duration of the week of September 18-24, level-85 characters will be able to queue up for and participate in the Alliance and Horde versions of this new Scenario with two friends. (Please note: if friends are not available to you at the time, two will be
Live
Mists of Pandaria: Death Knight Class Preview
Today's class preview covers
Death Knight
. Tier armor was changed slightly since we last previewed it, and there are several mechanics changes and additions, such as a 1 sec base GCD and
. There are also some fun cosmetic glyphs and Corpse Explosion is back.
Armor Sets
LFR
Normal
Heroic
Challenge Mode
Plate
:
Chestguard of the Lost Catacomb
Faceguard of the Lost Catacomb
Handguards of the Lost Catacomb
Legguards of the Lost Catacomb
Shoulderguards of the Lost Catacomb
Battlegear
:
Breastplate of the Lost Catacomb
Gauntlets of the Lost Catacomb
Greaves of the Lost Catacomb
Helmet of the Lost Catacomb
[l
Live
Mists of Pandaria: Battlegrounds and Bestiary Preview
Blizzard released several more Mists of Pandaria previews this weekend: two batttleground previews and additional information on the
bestiary preview page
.
The Mists of Pandaria previews just keep coming! We’ve just posted lots of info on
two new Battlegrounds
and
five new types of foes (and friends)
you’ll encounter in the new expansion.
First up, we have the
Temple of Kotmogu
, where the Alliance and the Horde clash over ancient artifacts that date back to the dawn of recorded history… and it’s up to you to secure the secret power of the mogu for your faction.When you’re done bashing orc or human heads in Pandaria, head on down to the newly opened
Silvershard Mines
in Str
Live
Mists of Pandaria: Warlock Class Preview
We continue our Mists of Pandaria class previews with a look at
Warlock
s today. Warlocks were not the most popular class in Cataclysm and Blizzard has made a ton of changes--from abilities to awesome new spell graphics--to entice players back. We have armor previews of PvE and PvP gear, summarizes of the new ability resources for each spec, a look at the new warlock pets, and screenshots of new spell effects. And be sure to check out our updated
talent calculator
which displays all specialization abilities and glyph choices!
New Armor
LFR
Normal
Heroic
Challenge Mode
[
Live
5.0.4 Survival Guide
With the release of Patch 5.0.4, a number of features and changes that aren’t strictly in the continent of Pandaria will be added to the game. I’ve drummed up this guide (with the help of a lot of other people) to ensure you’re prepared for the patch, aware of how it will impact your characters and experience, and ultimately get you into and enjoying the improvements the patch brings as quickly as possible.
You Are Prepared!
With any large patch, you’ll want to ensure you have it pre-downloaded, and ready to start up the game for the first time when it goes live. The 5.0.4 patch has been available on our
background downloader
for a couple weeks now, and if you haven’t yet, you’ll want to ensure you have the majority of the patch data downloaded before its release on August 28. The
Background Downloader FAQ
can help answer just about any question for how to get this done. To verify you have the patch fully downloaded already, just run the BackgroundDownloa
Live
Mists of Pandaria: Shaman Class Preview
With Mists of Pandaria a month a way, we'll be previewing each class: their armor sets, changed abilities, cool spell graphics, and new talents. Today we'll take a look at
Shaman
. Most notably, there's been many changes to totems, level 90 talents are
,
Primal Elementalist
,
Elemental Blast
, and the new level 87 ability is
Ascendance
.
Armor Sets
LFR
Normal
Heroic
Challenge Mode
Battlegear:
Firebird's Cuirass
Firebird's Grips
Firebird's Helmet
Firebird's Legguards
Firebird's Spaulders
Vestments:
Firebird's Faceguard
Firebird's Handwraps
Firebird's Legwraps
[item=866
Live
Mists of Pandaria: LFR Changes
There's been a lengthy thread on the official forums about LFR, and Blizzard shared some of their upcoming changes for Mists of Pandaria:
They are hoping gear designed for LFR in future tiers is a small step up from last tier's normal mode gear, not a replacement for last tier's heroic gear.
If harder bosses on normal/heroic difficulty have an ilvl boost to reflect that difficulty, that ilvl boost will not apply to end-boss loot in LFR.
Terrace of Endless Spring
and
Heart of Fear
LFR were initially three queues to be released on the same date, a month after MoP's release. Instead these three LFR queues will have a staggered release, one week after the other.
Hello my fellow non-murloc creatures of Azeroth,
Please allow me to chip in with a few updated bits of information about LFR, I hope that you view this as an improvement and a step in the right direction over the current version of LFR. We do hear you and your feedback is seriously taken into consideration each time we decide to apply any change to the game.
We know that competitive players seem to dislike the idea of having to go through LFR to
Live
Wowhead's Exclusive Interview with John Lagrave and Ion Hazzikostas
Today we have a special interview from Gamescom to share with everyone! Gazimoff from
ZAM
was kind enough to conduct an interview in our stead. He spoke with both John Lagrave (lead game producer) and Ion Hazzikostas (lead encounter designer) about Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's future, and more.
Read on to find out what feature has been the most challenging for these developers, where they're drawing their inspiration from, and other exciting tidbits to tide you over until Mists of Pandaria's launch!
In your opinion, what was the hardest part of developing Mists of Pandaria as an expansion?
Ion Hazzikostas
: I think overall, just meeting the challenge that we set for ourselves when we set out to create this, we set out to offer more content than ever before, in terms of breadth and depth. We have eighteen raid bosses this patch. We have well over a thousand new qu
Live
Mists of Pandaria Faction Guide: The Lorewalkers
Gaining reputation with
The Lorewalkers
is an unusual process. Instead of completing dailies or zone quests like most other Pandaren factions, players gain reputation by visiting monuments, completing achievements, and hearing folktales. If you have an organized path in mind, hitting Exalted should only take a few hours with a flying mount!
As the keepers of Pandaren culture,The Lorewalkers go hand-in-hand with the spirit of Archaeology. The unusual reputation grind fits the nature of these cultural librarians, and reputation rewards enhance this profession. Check out our beta article on archaeology changes
here
!
Patch Changes
In Patch 5.2, players can complete an additional three scrolls on the
Isle of Thunder
.
Video Overview
Lore made a video showing the reputation process--hunting down monuments in the world and then watching the unlocked story!
Rewards
Unlike other factions,
The Lorewalkers
do not sell
Justice Points
Live
Currency Conversion Timeline for Mists of Pandaria
<p>The currency conversion coming with Mists of Pandaria is going to happen in three stages, and this is how we plan for it to progress:</p><br>
<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><b>With Patch 5.0.4 on August 28</b></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Valor points will be converted to Justice points, and Conquest points will be converted to Honor points.
<ul>
<li>Neither of the resultant currencies (Justice and Honor) will have an enforced hard-cap at this time.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The current Arena season will end.</li>
<li>Players will no longer be able to earn Valor or Conquest points (bosses will drop Justice, Arenas will be closed).</li>
<li>Items formerly purchasable for Valor/Conquest will be available for Justice/Honor.</li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><b>With Mists of Pandaria on September 25</b></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Valor can be earned again.
<ul>
<li>Characters can earn up to 1000 Valor per week, and carry a maximum of 3000 Valor.</li>
<li>Daily quests, random Scenarios, random Heroic dungeons, and all levels of raiding will reward Valor.</li>
<li>Valor will be used
Live
Mists of Pandaria: New Archaeology Solves, News Round Up
Archaeology in Mists of Pandaria just keeps on getting more and more changes to ensure it will be more engaging than in Cataclysm. Today we're previewing a new type of solve,
Pristine Artifacts
, as well as the four new rare solves. Mists archaeology also has some neat ways to ensure you won't be bored solving common artifacts twice!
Check out our
archaeology preview
for a list of all the new artifacts in Pandaria!
Rare Solves
There are four rare archaeology solves added in Mists of Pandaria--2 Pandaren and 2 Mogu. All of these rares take 180 fragments and can have 3 keystones.
Quilen Statuette
: Summon the artifact-bound Quilen. (10 Min Cooldown)
Anatomical Dummy
: Use: Summon an Anatomical Dummy at target location for 5 min. The punching bag acts as a target dummy while it persists. Only usable outdoors in Pandaria. (1 Hour Cooldown)
Umbrella of Chi-Ji
: Transmoggable offhand resembling an umbrella. BoA and ilvl 463 heroic-quality.
Spear of Xuen
: BoA heroic-quality ilvl 463 staff.
[/
Live
Mists of Pandaria: Quest and Dungeon Weapons Preview
We're continuing our visual previews of Mists of Pandaria weapons today with a look at 3D models of quest and dungeon weapons! Check out our PvP post for a look at all the
PvP weapon models
and click on the images to view them in our Flash 3D Modelviewer.
Models are still being assigned to beta weapons and some color variations may not make it to live, but you can use the View 3D option on all
Mists of Pandaria weapon pages
to see what a particular weapon looks like in the latest beta build. Right now, there aren't any parallels between weapon stats and model colors, like there are with some armor sets.
Quest and Dungeon Weapons
Dagger
[model item=116965 slot=13 img=
http://zamimg.cuckhead.com/upl
Live
Mists of Pandaria - Build 15983: Spell Changes and More
On top of the big announcements earlier today--the
Mists of Pandaria Opening Cinematic
and
all races available across expansions in 5.0.4
--Blizzard pushed a new beta build. There's been a lot recently, but the blues have stated to expect a bunch of patches in quick succession before 5.0.4.
Click here to see the latest additions!
Patch Highlights
A few items were added to fix itemization holes:
Band of Bursting Novas
,
Galaxyfire Girdle
,
Crown of Keening Stars
Several Tier 14 set bonuses were changed:
Item - Druid T14 Balance 4P Bonus
: Increases the duration of your Moonfire and Sunfire spells by 2 sec.
Item - Monk T14 Mistweaver 4P Bonus
: Increases the healing done by Enveloping Mist by 5%.
Rogues have spell modifications for a change--pretty rare!
The guild achievement
Scenario Roundup
now unlocks Guild Shirts, like
Artisan Member's Shirt
.
Click the cut to see all of the spell changes!
Live
All Races Available in 5.0.4
Blizzard
With the release of patch 5.0.4, we’re making all the races of Azeroth playable by anyone, no matter which version or expansion of World of Warcraft they own. This includes the enigmatic pandaren, who will become available for play when Mists of Pandaria is released on Tuesday, September 25. We want the entire World of Warcraft community to be able to embrace their inner goblin, blood elf, worgen, draenei, or pandaren from the moment they step foot into the world of Azeroth.
Now, the only hard part will be choosing a name. Who will you be next?
I've seen some confusion about when pandaren character creation will be accessible.
Just to be clear on the announcement, we're making it possible for people to create a character of any race, regardless of what expansions you've purchased. So if you only have the original game (which now has The Burning Crusade included), when patch 5.0.4 hits you'll be able to create goblin and worgen characters as well. And, once Mists of Pandaria is released, you'll be able to create pandaren characters, regardless of wh
Live
Mists of Pandaria Opening Cinematic
You've ended Deathwing's destructive rampage and saved the dragonflights from extinction. Now you must unlock the mysteries of the lost continent and discover the dark secrets of Pandaria's past. Explore ancient kingdoms hidden since before the Sundering, plunder vast treasures from the depths of the forgotten vaults, and rise to defend Pandaria from the shadow of a long buried evil - before it's too late.
We are pleased to present the opening cinematic for Mists of Pandaria as presented at gamescom 2012. Whether you’re Horde or Alliance, there is one question we all must consider: “Why do we fight?”
Live
Mists of Pandaria: Legendary Weapons Preview
The updated version of the guide for 5.1 can be found
here
Mists of Pandaria introduced a legendary that all classes can complete, a drastic change from the rogue-only weapon of Tier 13. Players acquire one of nine "Sha-Touched" weapons from Tier 14 raids, completing a series of quests with
Wrathion
to acquire special +500 stat gems. We don't know the whole quest chain yet, but the first part will let you put a legendary gem in an epic weapon, which isn't a bad start. Datamined icons with legendary names and
Breath of the Black Prince
imply that the final result will be a legendary weapon.
Right now, all of these base weapons have versions and unique colors from LFR, Normal, and Heroic difficulty. You can complete this
initial quest series on any difficulty including LFR
and put the legendary gem (can be purchased from Wrathion multiple times) into Sha-Touched weapons on any tier.
The goal is for players to be rewarded with something really special that stick with the legendary questline through multiple content patches.
Video Preview
Live
Professions: Living in Perfect Harmony
As with any new expansion, we often find that we have an opportunity to take a closer look at a variety of game systems within World of Warcraft and explore new ideas or improvements to the game. One system in particular is held near and dear to the hearts of the community: professions. With Mists of Pandaria, the designers were able to seize upon an opportunity to look at the role of materials and refine their purpose and their usefulness. In the end, they came up with Spirit of Harmony as the new resource du jour.
Harmonious Prospects
In Mists of Pandaria, we’re introducing a new material known as the Spirit of Harmony. It slices— it dices— well, ok, it doesn’t, but crafters of any stripe will find it has many uses. By now, any experienced crafter is used to filling bags with a variety of materials such as Primal Life, Primal Fire, Primal Earth, etc. but in Mists of Pandaria, it’s all about Spirit of Harmony (in combination with the usual materials, like ore, leather, and gems). Spirit of Harmony is the result of the designers simplifying an already complex system while still keeping a wide variety of possibilities open to players.
Live
Dev Watercooler: Scenarios
We recently began revealing the Scenarios you’ll experience at level 90 in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria on our preview site. As the final tweaks are being made, we thought it would be a good time to sit down with Senior Game Designer Dave Maldonado and Game Designer Jonathan LeCraft for a little behind-the-scenes perspective on this unique new system.
What do Scenarios bring to World of Warcraft that we haven't seen before?
Dave Maldonado
: From a technological standpoint, almost everything in the system is new. Players are obviously going to see the World of Warcraft they know and love when they're running Scenarios, but all of the technology driving what we can do with Scenarios is new, and we took that as an opportunity to really indulge in new ways of interacting with the players, the NPCs, and the environment. It was a lot of work to design the technology, with a whole new UI, and new tracking systems and so forth, and while that programming was going on, we got to dream up and implement a lot of randomization and many new things for monsters to do and for the environment to do.
Live
Mists of Pandaria - Build 15972 - Spell Changes, Items, Icons, and More
Another new patch is hitting the beta today.
Blizzard changed the file structure yet again, so some of these changes are probably from the last couple of patches--some of them appear to be new.
We'll keep you guys updated.
Latest Additions
Check out the latest additions here
.
A
Straw Hat
was added in every armor type as a Tiller reward that's transmoggable!
I Can't Hear You Over the Sound of How Awesome I Am
is now a Feat of Strength.
The
Fox Kit
is now tied to the Baradin Hold reputation rather than an extremely rare droprate from the zone's foxes. Yeah--it didn't really make sense you killed foxes to receive their offspring, anyway.
There may be a mage portal for some MoP areas:
Portal: Vale of Eternal Blossoms
There were a lot of new items added that are all ilevel 496.
Many Dragon Soul and Firelands boss abilities were nerfed--check it out under the NPC Abilities toggle. This is most likely compensating for mana and other talent changes in Mists.
Icons
[icon name=inv_pet_achievement_catchrarepet_50 s
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