It's been known for a while that spirit gear isn't on the list for the most part right now for players leveling in Mists. DPS cloth abounds, and the idea the designers have is that you can just reforge the DPS gear into healer gear easily enough (or at least reforge it so that it's passable as healer gear).

In part, this concept comes from the new rewards system, where you don't see all the gear rewards the quest giver offers but rather only the ones that are specific to you. As a solution to this, Blizzard provides green gear vendors that distribute off-spec gear.

However, Ghostcrawler announced today that Blizzard's going to offer more spirit gear again via quest rewards. This is in part due to the constructive (read: non-trolling) feedback it's received on the issue.

Ghostcrawler

After reading more of this feedback and looking at the zones, we're concerned that there aren't enough quest rewards with Spirit on them. We are leaning towards offering more, as choices, so that players who feel like their Spirit is low can choose to have more.

source

So rejoice, healers! Getting geared up will be a bit easier for you now.

---

It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

---

Filed under: News items, Mists of Pandaria

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky (@adamholisky) will be your host today.

I'm going to be raiding tonight, but during the rest of the day (after my work is done, of course), I'll finally be enjoying Diablo 3.

Pretty much AFK, evil.

And if you're looking for something not evil, go check out WoW Insider Editor-in-Chief Alex Ziebart's AMAA (Ask Me Almost Anything) on /r/wow today.

Kikiswingset asked:

My raid leader demands that if you want to raid, you must have played a healer up to lvl 60 and show him that you understand how tirage priority works, but also to foster an appreciation forthe difficulty of healing "fire squatters". If you had to pick, which role/class/spec should everyone play before they start raiding?

Welp, "fire squatter" is now my favorite term, ever.

Read more →

Filed under: The Queue

GAME Australia (a large video game retailer) is entering voluntary administration, which is the same as going into bankruptcy in the United States. Included in this fact is that GAME will not be giving Diablo III to all those who preordered it. To add salt to the wound, GAME will also not be offering refunds for Diablo III preorders -- or rather, it will, but only after practically every other person under the sun is paid back, and only then if people specifically file as an unsecured creditor, of sorts.

Essentially, if you live in Australia and you bought Diablo III from GAME, you're screwed. But wait -- Blizzard to the rescue.

In what has to be one of the classiest moves I've seen from a gaming company, Blizzard is offering a solution for those who have gotten the short end of the stick. Those who preordered from GAME can buy the Diablo III digital edition tonight, submit their GAME Australia receipt to Blizzard, and get refunded from Blizzard whatever money they paid for their preorder.

It's rare that anyone gets to report news of a company going out of its way to do something like this, let alone a multinational as huge as Blizzard. Huge kudos to Blizzard. Check out the full post announcing this, along with key dates, after the break.

Read more →

Filed under: News items, Diablo 3

As Diablo 3 installers start running today (even though you can install the game, you can't play until midnight PST), a host of issues have cropped up. Most of these can be solved by commonsense troubleshooting techniques, but some others are a bit more evil.

We'll keep this post updated throughout the next couple of days with the latest problems and info on how to fix them. We'll also include non-Blizzard sources when appropriate (but in general, Blizzard is pretty on top of all these).

• ATI 1.24 Catalyst graphics issue
• Compatibility mode
• Digital download yet "Disc Ejected" error
• Error 108
• New downloaders required for EU English and German
• Nothing happens when running the installer
• Overlay programs crash Diablo 3
• Removing beta files
• Tome error
• Unexpected decryption error

For more information on basic troubleshooting of the installation, check out Blizzard's thread with tips on what you can do with your computer to fix most issues.

Read more →

Filed under: Diablo 3

Evil is returning in just a few days, and if you want to be ready for all the death and destruction that's out there, you'll want to be sure to read up on what the blues are saying. We've collected some of the more important posts over the last week to share with you.

Keep in mind that when Diablo 3 does finally release this Tuesday, all WoW Annual Pass subscribers will get instant access. You can upgrade your account later to the Collector's Edition if you've ordered that. Also remember that you can download the client files now so you won't have to wait around much on release night.

We're also planning on having some Diablo 3 lore material for you to enjoy on Monday, so stay tuned for that.

Hit the jump to learn about special beta titles, known issues in the D3 release, and why feeling like a total overpowered badass is a good thing.

Read more →

Filed under: Diablo 3

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky (@adamholisky) will be your host today.

I found this video on Friday night, and the first thing that went through my mind was not, "Oh my God, I need to go watch me some Pee Wee Playhouse with Morpheus." It was "How can this not be used as the intro to The Queue today?"

Bloodhoof asked:

Since my main spec is resto(druid), but I hate the low dps output for quests, is it possible to do the quests as a dps, but switch to resto before I get the reward? Is it better to just put up with the low dps? Should I buy the gear from the vendors?

Read more →

Filed under: The Queue

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky (@adamholisky) will be your host today.

We'll jump right into the Q&A today. No need to talk about other games, '90s cartoons, '80s hairstyles, the best music from our childhood (Boyz II Men), or any number of other arcane and inconsequential subjects.

Caylynn asked:

If you could put any pet you wanted to into WoW, what would you choose?

Read more →

Filed under: The Queue

Every week, join us as we present you with The WoW Insider Show podcast -- an hour's worth of WoW community discussion covering everything from the week's top stories here on WoW Insider to emails from our readers and what's been going on with our particular characters in Azeroth.

Want to have your question answered on the air? Email theshow@wowinsider.com!

Get the podcast:

[iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes.
[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.
[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.

Listen here on the page:

---

Filed under: Podcasts, WoW Insider Show

Blizzard announced today in the investors call that the World of Warcraft population remains stable at 10.2 million subscribers. This is after the announced dip to 10.2 million in February 2012.

Activision-Blizzard

Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft® Remains #1 Subscription-Based MMORPG with Approximately 10.2 Million Subscribers as of 3/31/12

source

In other WoW news from the call, Blizzard has renewed its license with NetEase for China distribution: "On March 20, 2012, Blizzard Entertainment announced that they renewed their license with NetEase for the distribution of World of Warcraft in mainland China. The new license will continue for an additional three years following the expiration of the current license agreement."

There is no indication of specific North American / European numbers, nor is there any specific indication of when Mists will release.

---

It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

---

Filed under: Blizzard, News items

Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street has just released a new post on account-wide achievements. He makes a strong point that Blizzard's overall design goal is that it doesn't want us playing one character over another only because of achievement concerns. This is quite good news for raiders with multiple alts and others who need to use achievements as a sort of progress check on their moving-out-of-the-fire skill and game knowledge.

Some key notes from Ghostcrawler's blog post:

• While you only earn achievement points once, you will still see the achievement pop-up notification if you earn it again on a second character.
• Most achievement criteria are not account-wide. That is, if you explore Thousand Needles, you'll need to explore it all on one character to get the associated exploration achievement.
• Meta achievements like What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been are account-wide, meaning you can finish Flame Warden on one character and Noble Gardener on another.
• Faction-specific pets, mounts, and titles will not work across faction -- that is, no Alliance mounts for Horde characters.
• The goal is to share rewards across the entire account that are granted from achievements.

In particular regard to that last point, Ghostcrawler says: "I'm not going to promise this yet, because a lot of magic has to happen for that to work, but it's our intent." So that looks to be very much work in progress still, but it's great to know where Blizzard is headed.

Ghostcrawler's full post after the break.

Read more →

Filed under: News items