Patch 5.4 PTR: No Stromgarde scenario

Brand new Blizzard Community Manager Lore has posted to clarify the datamined information on the Stromgarde scenario. Unfortunately it seems like our enthusiasm may have been a little misplaced, as Lore explains:
LoreJust to avoid any further confusion, there is no Stromgarde scenario in patch 5.4, and what you've seen datamined is little more than a developer experiment with a stand-in name.

This happens quite often; developers will put something quick together to test out some new tech or functionality, and the remnants occasionally slip through to the PTR files where dataminers can get ahold of them.

So, just to be clear, there is currently nothing related to Stromgarde in production. That's not to say it's a location we'll never revisit, but should that happen, it will not be in 5.4, and the recently datamined files will not be part of it.

Yet again, it's a good reason to take datamined information with a pinch of salt. Don't assume that, just because something is in the files, that it's in the patch. Even something being on the PTR doesn't mean it's going to make it into the patch. So, while it's fine to be excited about new content, it's best not to take datamining as gospel.

Nonetheless, this leads to some interesting speculation. Just exactly what was this experiment? What else might the scenario technology be used for? And are there other scenarios you'd like to see? We'd love to see some more of the old world turned into scenarios.

Tags: breaking, patch-5.4, patch-5.4-ptr, scenario, stromgarde

Filed under: News items

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Heroic Scenario reward system updated

A couple of weeks back, WoW Insider posted an important public service announcement, warning players of a rather counter-intuitive system whereby only the first scenario of the day would award a loot cache, regardless of whether that scenario was normal or heroic. We warned players to avoid them being locked out of a chance at 516 loot, and the palpable frustration that came with it.

Now, though, Blizzard Community Manager Taepsilum has posted about a very recent change. It should be noted that this is not in the most recent batch of hotfixes, and that Taepsilum is an EU Community Manager, posting the day after EU servers restart. Therefore, it is possible that this change is currently only live in the EU. Proceed with caution.
TaepsilumQuote:
Remember that you only get the Heroic Cache of Treasures from the first scenario you do in a day (and only if it's a HC scenario. so if you do a normal scenario first you won't get one at all). The rest of the time you just get Greater Cache of Treasures.
This has actually been changed today and the hotfix should already be live.

You should be able to get both of these rewards now, as long as you complete one heroic and at least one normal scenario once per day.
You shouldn't have to worry about doing a heroic scenario before you do a normal one, the order doesn't matter anymore.

This is a great change to what was a rather counter-intuitive system, but please do be very careful about trying it, especially on US servers.

I have tested it on EU servers and can confirm that it does work, I did a normal scenario first, followed by a heroic one, and received the Greater Cache, then the Heroic Cache.

Tags: breaking, cache, heroic-scenarios, random-scenarios, scenario-rewards, scenarios

Filed under: News items

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Don't lock yourself out of epic Scenario rewards

Blizzard Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street has taken to Twitter to share some important information concerning the epic cache of treasures that drops from your first heroic Scenario of the day

@trimbleirl Yes, you only get one first of the day from scenarios. We want heroics as a replacement option not something else to have to do.

- Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) May 24, 2013

So, to restate what Ghostcrawler is saying, if you run a normal scenario and receive the chest, then run a heroic scenario, you will not receive a second chest. You only receive the chest from your first scenario of the day, regardless of whether that scenario is normal or heroic.

If you're after the superior chest, therfore, along with the superior rewards, you should ensure that your first scenario of the day is one of the new heroic ones. For clarity, these require a pre-made group of three, as well as an item level of 480 or above. The chest has a chance to contain ilvl 516 loot, so definitely bear this advice in mind when you're making your decisions on what you're doing today. The system seems a little counter-intuitive, so spread the word. Tags: breaking, heroic-scenario-loot, heroic-scenarios, patch-5.3, patch-5.3-heroic-scenarios

Filed under: Mists of Pandaria

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