Azeroth in 5 :: January 8th, 2014 TRANSCRIPT

This is Azeroth in 5 for the seven days up to Wednesday, January 8th, 2014.

Blizzard returned to the business of blue posting on January 2nd, and since then have been active on a number of topics. Most notable has been the announcements of new connected realms for both the US and Europe (including English, French and German-speaking servers) which will roll out over this and next week.

A hotfix was applied on Monday which has seen a significant dps boost for Elemental Shaman, Hunters of all specs and Unholy and Frost Death Knights, who Blizzard felt were under-performing in relation to other classes. Holinka has announced via a tweet yesterday that there will be one more season of PvP before Mists concludes, and players can expect details on end of season rewards, timelines, & new gear to come in the near future.

Blizzard is continuing to advise players to be aware of a trojan virus which has been hidden in a fake version of the Curse Client available online, and that is capable of circumnavigating Authenticator technology.

There have been two minor hotfixes to the game client, one affecting the stats of Trade Prince Donais, the other reducing the health of certain Kor'kron mobs in the Barracks/Underhold Nexus portion of the Siege of Orgrimmar on Raid Finder difficulty.

Finally, Blizzard will be sending e-mails out this morning to anyone using parental Controls on their Battle Net accounts: a new default setting will prevent in-game purchases for accounts that have Parental Controls turned on. This includes the recently-added Warcraft in-game shop.

In Development news, having initially dismissed the possibility of introducing a cross-realm normal difficulty of the Siege for players, on the grounds it would derail the current timescale for changes, CM Zarhym has hinted via Twitter that this possibility will now be discussed with Devs on Wednesday.

There've also been more details released on the new Group Finder function that will launch with Warlords, allowing players to find or create cross-realm groups for instanced content, including raiding. Blizzard are hinting that this interface may provide raid leaders with certain options including restriction of entry using ilevel, but has stressed that this is not yet set in stone.

In other notable Twitter despatches Mumper let slip that not only will be no Epic Battle Pets introduced as of the new Expansion, but the location of your Garrison will provide a number of different decisions for the player when Warlords launches. There's also good news for players of Blood Elves and Draenei as Senior Art Director Chris Robinson confirmed in a tweet that these character models are currently on the list to be updated, but there is no current timescale available as to when this will be completed or if it will be ready in time for the Warlords launch.

In server news, the US saw rolling restarts at 5am Pacific standard. The EU Realms Trollbane/Shattered Halls/Talnivarr/Chromaggus/Daggerspine/Boulderfist (all PvP) were scheduled for their connected realms merge this morning, and as of recording this podcast all EU realms are currently up and available for play according to Blizzard's CS Twitter account.

The Darkmoon Faire rolled into Azeroth on Sunday, and will be remaining in town until Saturday 11th. Remember that by riding the Darkmoon Carousel (which will require a Darkmoon Ticket) you'll receive the one hour, time-critical 'Wheeeeee' buff which grants plus10% to both Reputation and Experience. This can be used to boost all forms of reputation gains including those on the Timeless Isle, if you are in the process of slaughtering minions of Ordos to gain favour with the Emperor. For those on the Island, a reminder that since 5.4 was launched there is a new raid boss to battle, Moonfang, who drops a variety of vanity items including a miniature Battle Pet version of itself.

There's also a reminder that the Lunar Festival begins on January 20th.

And now the regular Battleground Reminders: Call to Arms, Eye of the Storm ends January 9th, Call to Arms Twin Peaks runs from January 10th until the 13th and Call To Arms Alterac Valley begins on January 14th.

And finally, congratulations to the Pandaran Male Doubleagent, on the US Mannoroth server, who has reached L80 without ever leaving the Wandering Isle, or indeed picking a faction. This is no mean feat, as Doubleagent's only method of gaining XP has come from gathering herbs exclusively for experience. It has taken since September of 2012 for him to reach this milestone, and he has made money in this time from combining his herbalism with inscription to sell inks for cash. Doubleagent estimates it will take him six months to level from 80 to 90, and according to the player's Reddit account which documents his journey, he is intending to try for 100 as soon as Warlords is available.

Thank you for listing to this inaugural episode. We will be doing our best to report everything we believe relevant to Warcraft in the weeks that follow: if you have any comments, queries or suggestions as to how to improve the show, we'd love to hear them. Please send your mail to azerothin5 at gmail dot com.