Update #2 - Yes, Patch 4.0.6 is next week, stop asking.




Luck of the Draw Buff
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
In case you aren't already aware, Luck of the Draw is the name of the buff you get for grouping with random people using Dungeon Finder. It currently provides a 5% buff to damage, healing, and health if you have at least one random player in your group. With patch 4.0.6, we are increasing this buff to 5% damage, healing, and health per random player, up to a maximum of 15%.

In the process of working on this change we actually discovered that the Luck of the Draw buff has not been working in Cataclysm at all, save for a few specific dungeons. This means that the difficulty in almost all normal and Heroic dungeons for those using the Dungeon Finder tool was higher than expected. Still, with that issue corrected in 4.0.6, we feel the bump up to 15% for three or more random players found through the Dungeon Finder is a necessary change.

The intent of Luck of the Draw is to help make up for the lack of coordination, communication, and familiarity that pick up groups suffer relative to organized groups of guild members and friends. Cataclysm dungeons, especially on Heroic mode, are quite challenging and ask for more group organization than the Wrath of the Lich King dungeons did. Therefore, Luck of the Draw became relatively weaker in Cataclysm. I'm painting the picture with unfairly large brush strokes here, but in general, Heroic dungeons are of appropriate difficulty for organized groups, but just brutal on Dungeon Finder groups. Players wonder, and rightly so, why Dungeon Finder supports Cataclysm Heroic dungeons at all when the chance of success is so low.

We think buffing Luck of the Draw is a good way to go about correcting the difficulty differences because it makes things slightly easier on PUGs without depriving the organized groups of a fun challenge. We also think the bonus is modest enough that it won't encourage organized groups to split up and just PUG instead - - the success rate for PUGs relative to organized groups is just that far behind. We still think you'll have more fun and a greater chance of success running dungeons with friends, but when that isn’t possible, we hope this change will make Dungeon Finder a more pleasant experience. Also remember that patch 4.0.6 is adjusting the difficulty of some bosses that are particularly unforgiving, such as Ozruk in Heroic Stonecore, though to be fair, we are buffing some underperforming encounters as well. In addition, we are offering larger Justice Point rewards for players who just prefer the faster pace and greater success rate of normal dungeons, and by the time 4.1 comes out everyone will have access to more powerful gear, making the older content even easier. But then there'll be new challenges to face!

We'd like to thank everyone who has provided us with feedback. We do listen, even if we don't immediately deploy every design change suggested by the player community. Our intent is to make the game fun for a wide variety of players, which can be quite a challenge when you have a community this large and this varied. We hope you continue to enjoy the game, and look forward to sharing more changes (and a few surprises) in the months ahead.

-Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street is the lead systems designer for World of Warcraft and was attacked by a coati as a child. (True story.)

All Rated Battleground Weeks Now 10v10
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
We’re in the process of developing a hotfix to push before next Tuesday that will change all 15vs15 rated battleground weeks into 10vs10 weeks.

Looking at participation, the 10vs10 rated battleground weeks have been far and away more popular than the 15vs15 weeks. The difference in organizational requirements as well as battleground map popularity have been a couple big factors that have led to the 10vs10 weeks seeing a great deal more action. By making this change and supporting the popular option we hope to encourage even more players and teams to participate, as they won’t have to wait out every other week, or struggle to beef up to 15 players to match the requirement.

We also have plans to adapt additional battleground maps in the future to work in the 10 player bracket to increase the variety of maps available.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Luck of the Draw Buff started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 559 Comments
  1. Simca's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Hrothgrar View Post
    Wow, more nerfs. I am disappoint.
    It's only a nerf if you pug. In a guild group, you won't get the buff.

    It's an amazing solution, in my opinion.

    I sure wouldn't have thought of it.
  1. mmoc6513cc48dc's Avatar
    No wonder 10 man is more wanted, BECAUSE SOTA SUCKS
  1. dandenoth's Avatar
    I don't mind the nerf to difficulty, if anything to save some time on doing dungeons. I haven't tried any on heroics yet, I'm trying to learn all the fights so I can insta-Q as tank on heroics, right now I'm doing dungeons on normal as DPS. I'd be curious to know however, since 99% of groups I'm in are PUG's, which dungeons actually had the buff working in them, and which ones didn't.
  1. runeb1980@hotmail.com's Avatar
    I don't get why people want heroics to be so difficult. Can't you 4 or 3 man it, if you find it too easy? Don't all paying customers deserve to enjoy end level content even if they are 12 year olds or 50 year old housewives?
  1. againstme's Avatar
    Changing LotD to 15% still won't help the people that stand in fire
  1. Asrialol's Avatar
    Cool, now we can AoE through the dungeons 15% faster.
  1. kasuturo's Avatar
    Don't care. Raids are the places where tough guys stand out and newbie babies are destroyed.
  1. greyghost's Avatar
    I find this very acceptable. A very smart change, really, seeing how that the majority of the people complaining that "dungeons are too hard" are persons who rely on getting their whole group from LFG random and are quick to point out "well I want them nerfed not because I'm unskilled but because it's the other people who are bad and I just want a fast dungeon run!!"

    I rarely get more than 1-2 more PUGs via the LFG tool whenever I run with my guildmates. Most of the time never, though. But TBH +5/10% damage normally does not make up for the 5k DPS I see out of other level 85 players. :P

    But of course, +15% more damage/health will still not save you from insta-kill mechanics in a lot of the fights. People will still die horribly irregardless of the buff. They now just can't use the excuse of "Well I can't DPS and move out of fire at the saem tiem. (((("

    And I feel with this buff they won't do any more heavy-handed dungeon nerfs anymore.

    Again, a very simple, elegant solution. Good job, Greg.
  1. Talio's Avatar
    ... Really? Anyone who is even half decently geared now (read ilvl 333ish) will faceroll with the 15% buff, also long as the people are smart enough to move out of the fire.
  1. runeb1980@hotmail.com's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by kasuturo View Post
    Don't care. Raids are the places where tough guys stand out and newbie babies are destroyed.
    Exactly. And then there are heroic raids. There are any number of ways to make the game MORE difficult. I'm reminded of palatanks soloing instances etc.
  1. hery's Avatar
    Rated BG change makes me sad, WS and Gilneas are my least favourite BGs
  1. mmoc71361eebcd's Avatar
    I don't get why people want heroics to be so difficult. Can't you 4 or 3 man it, if you find it too easy? Don't all paying customers deserve to enjoy end level content even if they are 12 year olds or 50 year old housewives?
    You can have in normal dungeon.
    With this buff and with better stuff, heroic is no more.
  1. Skoomapipe's Avatar
    I never PuG more than one player anyway. This won't affect me personally. If failure rates of PuGs really was as high as suggested, maybe it's not such a bad thing. I guess we'll see.
  1. Kev111's Avatar
    Really Blizz? Cater to the casuals again and ruin Cataclysm. Thanks bros.
  1. diemor's Avatar
    I approve of this change. Bring people back to the LFD system, make it easier to deal with 4 idiots in your group. Might even break out my tank again.
  1. Cleir's Avatar
    pug groups were fine as they were aslong as the tank didn't have 110k hp. sigh. what next 30% buff in BWD?
  1. Asrialol's Avatar
    Don't all paying customers deserve to enjoy end level content even if they are 12 year olds or 50 year old housewives?
    A 12 year old player can still learn how to play properly, unless he's mentally challenged. Takes 5-10 min to read about your class and how to maximize it, and it takes about the same amount of time to read tactics on dungeons on Wowhead for instance.
  1. runeb1980@hotmail.com's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kev111 View Post
    Really Blizz? Cater to the casuals again and ruin Cataclysm. Thanks bros.
    The "casuals" make up like 95% of the players. They pay 95% of the subscriptions. Should they not be allowed to play endgame?

    Like I've said time and again... if you're so hardcore, go heroic raid, or 3 man heroics etc.
  1. Bluenose's Avatar
    After this change there should be absolutely no excuse for anyone to be under 10k dps in a heroic now.
  1. nalle's Avatar
    Have only done 15 or so heroic pugs in cata, but most of them took 1 hour tops, and this was about 1 month after release.

    I just don't see the need for this since it doesn't really take that long in the first place (queues yes, the dungeons themselves no).

    15% is alot.

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