There are enough undocumented changes in that new ptr build for a new post. (Patch Notes updated)

New PTR build: Undocumented changes

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A new build has been deployed on PTRs, changes will be listed here and post will be updated regularly during the next few hours. This probably means that we'll be back to "normal" news posts soon. ^^

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Blizzard announced today that they will be hosting a 3v3 Tourney beginning in April with international qualifiers and some pretty hefty cash prizes at the end. After paying an entrance fee, teams will compete in qualifying tournaments with other teams from their region for cash prizes totaling $27,000 before proceeding to the global championship, where the grand prize will be $75,000. The twist is that this tournament will take place on dedicated servers in which participants will play with pre-made level 70 characters. You can read the FAQ here.

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Quote from Blizzard staffYou should see it updated in the patch notes soon, but there is an improvement set for patch 2.4 which will result in lower queue times across the board for arena matches.
Tears of joy of course.

All right, let's put this issue to rest once and for all. Seems like every time Blizzard releases a new patch, we get someone saying "you're killing the lore!" on the forums, and complaining that Blizzard is killing off all the figures we know and love around the Warcraft universe. And apparently patch 2.4 is going to be no different.

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Josh had his leadership role in WoW pop into his mind during a job interview, and he channeled that into an interesting little article about how to convert WoW roles into the roles people play around the office. I think he's really got something here-- stay tuned for how you can buy a ticket to his "Management, Azeroth-style" seminar, which will teach you and your staff how to tackle even the hardest raid bosses projects.

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The second phase of quest and NPC progression on the Isle of Quel'danas began a couple days ago on the US PvE PTR. Yesterday I covered the retaking of Sun's Reach Sanctum and the second phase is all about the building just across the road, the Sun's Reach Armory. The Armory is infested with demons, as you can see in the screenshot, and the new daily quests are all about driving them away.

First of all, let me state that the daily quests from phase one were still available on the PTR even after the Sanctum was taken from the Wretched. The names and quest text are a little different to reflect the changed state of the Isle, but the quest objectives and rewards remain exactly the same. It should be safe to assume that this trend will continue throughout every stage of the Shattered Sun Offensive.

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WoW-Europe.com offers up some Valentines Day fun today, showing off the winners of their Valentine's Day art contest, as well as offering a free Valentine's Day e-card to send to your sweetie.

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We have some awesome WoTLK news for you today, as Blizzard has just updated their site with a preview of the Grizzly Hills, a Northrend zone that will adjoin the Howling Fjord. Not only are there some really beautiful screen shots, but there's a video with a fly-through tour of parts of the zone, show casing what look to be Human, Orcish, and Furbolg settlements.

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So here's the question: Do PTR world first kills count? MMO Champion has done a great job of following along with world firsts in the Sunwell on the PTR, and Vis Maior, an Alliance guild on Bonechewer has done most, if not all, of them-- they were the documented first to topple Kalecgos, Brutallus, and Felmyst (Forgotten Heroes and our old friends in Death and Taxes are also among the first boss downers on the PTR). But do kills on the PTR count as world firsts, or do the kills need to happen on live realms before they're considered world firsts?

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In a previous article, we reported that new recipes which use bear meat were going to be introduced in Blizzard's World of Warcraft Patch 2.4.

Well, it looks like the developers feel that they need to increase the hunting grounds of the players who will undoubtedly start killing bears left and right to pump up their cooking skills. Thus, the inclusion of the Grizzly Hills in Wrath of the Lich King.

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World of Warcraft players who are interested in trying out all the new goodies featured in the latest 2.4 patch will be happy to know that Blizzard Poster Bornakk has released a set of convenient instructions on how to get your character copied onto the Public Test Realm featuring the latest build of the game.

He explained the details of the schedule for players to send in their requests to have their characters copied into the PTR. A related link was also given out leading to the WoW website's PTR character copy section.

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Every week, Brian Karasek and David Bowers bring you help, tips and advice for the leveling Hunter in Scattered Shots. For those veterans looking for high end Hunter goodness, BRK will be returning to active duty next week.

Hunters have it easy. They get a pet to hang around with and keep them company. They don't get hit that often (or at least for very long, one way or the other), and they have one of the best ways to shake off foes in the game. Furthermore, and most tellingly, Hunters can pretty much get to the level cap without ever working in a group or running a dungeon. It's our blessing and our curse, our boon and our bane. We have a built in tank that we can heal, and we're our own DPS support. What this means is that we can reach the heights of leveling in a multiplayer game, without once needing to play with multiple players.

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Just the other day, Adam suggested that more bag space was always a good thing, but now Drysc tells us that's not exactly true-- even though 20-slotters are more common than ever, Blizzard has no plans to let us replace the normal 16-slot backpack anytime soon. And the reason he cites is interesting: it has nothing to do necessarily with ingame limits, but more to do with out-of-game limits. WoW has 10 million players, and if each one of those players has easily 10 alts average and each alt has a bunch of 20-slot bags and even more items in the bank, then pretty soon you're starting to talk real amounts of physical computer memory.

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Gamers on the Street logs into U.S. servers to get the word from the front on what's going on in and around the World of Warcraft.

When we logged onto Aerie Peak to visit with players for this week's installment of Gamers on the Street, we thought we'd be in for a nice chat about patch 2.4, The Sunwell Isle. But that's not exactly what we got. It's not as if there weren't players to talk to. At prime time on this heavy-load server, there was plenty of hustle and bustle in the major cities. In fact, there was more activity than usual. But it wasn't an infusion of energy from reading about the new content now being tested on the PTRs that inspired all this activity: love was in the air.

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Totem Talk is the column for Shamans. Matthew Rossi not only plays a shaman, he's come to appreciate their presence even when he's playing one of his other characters. That's his ridiculously mustached human warrior (who is still wearing a green belt to tank in SSC) next to one of the raid-saving shamans.

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Every Thursday, Well Fed Buff will be serving up the tastiest dishes to boost your HP and stats, just in time for your weekend gaming.

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The good news just keeps on coming as Patch 2.4 is shaping up to be one incredibly sweet patch. Following the news of what might just be the coolest non-combat pet -- aside from the Pet Bombling, imho -- the Phoenix Hatchling, it appears that Kael'thas drops even more amazing stuff like the new Swift White Chocobo Hawkstrider. The model for the Swift White Hawkstrider has been in the files for quite some time now, and former speculation was that it was the PvP reward mount similar to Red Skeletal Warhorses or Black War Kodos. However, according to MMO Champion -- which has been on a massive roll uncovering the sweet loot hidden in Patch 2.4 -- the mount drops off Kael'thas in Heroic Magister's Terrace.

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Or

"We can dance/ We can dance/ Wearin' the Safety Pants!"

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Thanks to tipster Panagiotis of <Horde Hit Squad> (EU-Mazrigos-A), and to valiant PTR testers, we now know where patch 2.4's new non-combat Phoenix Hatchling pet can be found: it drops from Kael'thas, in Magister's Terrace. This is kind of cute if you think about it, since the version of Kael'thas in the Eye drops the Ashes of Al'ar. Big Kael'thas, big phoenix; little Kael'thas, little phoenix. According to MMO-Champion, it drops it normal mode, but not in Heroic. If you need any help with your normal-mode Kael'thas strategy, check out this video. Still unknown is what the drop rate is. I'd guess pretty low, as these "frill" items tend to be that way (Baron's mount, anyone?).

(On this special day dedicated to love, I've chosen not one, but two videos! Both are NSFW, but sum up Valentine's Day perfectly. They contain pixel nudity and adult content. You've been warned.)

The first video was recommended by #machinima on Quakenet (IRC). "First of May" centers around what to do with your special friends when Spring arrives. The machinimator, Mike "Spiff" Booth, recreates Jonathan Coulton songs set in World of Warcraft, with the most popular being Code Monkey, another love song.

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Player Gruelon of the Shadows & Dust guild on the Garona server saw something amiss with this holiday wreath. While traveling through Silvermoon City he came across the scene above outside the entrance to the Royal Exchange Auction House. He suspects some hooligan gnomes were up to no good in Silvermoon City. No love for Blood Elves, it seems.

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I'm probably the wrong person to be writing about this (I've never been one for romance or the woo-ing game, and this year is no exception), but the fact remains that love is in the air in Azeroth-- the game is full of people aiming to get Kwee Q. Peddlefeet (and getting lovely black dresses and romantic picnic baskets instead).

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If you think that the current backpacks being used in World of Warcraft is simply lacking, you're not the only one concerned with it. Dunk from the Uther realm posted his concern and wondered if there's a possibility that the backpacks currently being used could be replaced with a bag with a higher capacity.

Thankfully Blizzard CM Drysc was able to reply to this certain concern. He said that storage space is one thing that Blizzard is very conscious about and that they're currently looking for options and upgrades in the future. Some of these changes actually made it into the game, such as the key rings, profession and class specific bags, bank size increases, and guild banks.

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Bornakk revealed a welcome bit of future patch info on the general forums recently, announcing that there is an incoming improvement on a future 2.4 update that should lower arena queuing times across the board. This is definitely welcome news for many of us, although those who counted on getting chores done during the queue might get a little disappointed!

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Happy Valentine's Day! Even in WoW, love is in the air. The heart of this unexplained in-game phenomenon is a popularity contest between the faction leaders. Players can vote for their choice by turning in a Horde or Alliance Gift Collection near their favorite leader. The winner of the contest gets the pleasure of having Kwee Q. Peddlefeet around for a week of hit point buffs for anyone audacious enough to /kiss him.

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