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. kduv889's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Miku View Post
    No, but now they can live through it. When before they would just die for being stupid =P. Oh joy, we're back to Wotlk. Hmm before it was Wrath of the Lich Kids, so now it can be the CATAKIDS.
    there is NOT RAID WIDE BUFF IN RAIDS WHY ARE YOU STILL TYPING?
    God, you of all the other little droolers, are the WORST of the sperm pool
  1. Coar's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ikeewa View Post
    So wait you like the feeling of you sucking? than finally one day like you said after 2 months of wipes which kind of boggles my mind why you would want such a thing, it clicks in everyone's brain "oh thats right stand over here and i wont die and can still dps" that you downed a boss and feel accomplished? sounds to me that your group is kind of slow. I think your mindset should change to " why am i so bad that i can only down a boss after 2 months of spending time on him...."
    So lets say my guild pulls heroic lich king for the first time and wipe, that means we suck?
  1. Charagon's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by kduv889 View Post
    No no, sorry you've got it wrong. What's pointless is you posting on these changes when you've obviously experienced all of these heroics in the first month when they were actually a challenge.
    If they're so faceroll now then what does that matter to you, are you so bad at getting gear that you can't run heroics with your guild and in that case, are you all too incompetent to down a boss in Raids?
    Because they still give daily valor points and if I'm going to run something every day I'd like to be able to stay awake through it.

    Yeah, there are hard Heroics, but none of them are anything a pug group can't handle. Most of my heroic runs are pugs and once you weed out the crappy players it's a cakewalk.
  1. Maginai's Avatar
    I welcome this change because dungeons barely matter. People who are raiding 10 and 25 man raids (normal or heroic) are the ones who are hardcore. Personally, I like this change because this means I can gear my alts without waiting 40-50 minutes for a dps queue and then get a group that wastes 4 hours trying to down a boss. I once spent 4 hours in Grim Batol in a random group. By the time I finished the dungeon, we had gone through something like 6 tanks, 5 healers, and probably 10 dps. =-/
  1. Gorehowl's Avatar
    just give all characters that hit 85 a full set of 349 gear already...
  1. Fedexkilla's Avatar
    I think this is a useful thing indeed and the Cata douches will cry in unison "Not needed". The world we live in.
  1. Warhunt's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Miku View Post
    No, but now they can live through it. When before they would just die for being stupid =P. Oh joy, we're back to Wotlk. Hmm before it was Wrath of the Lich Kids, so now it can be the CATAKIDS.
    Making up phrases like that.....not even real children would be so childish surely?

    OT: Again fail to see the problem. You don't pug, it doesn't effect you. You do pug, it helps, but it's hardly game breaking.
  1. shadowboxer123's Avatar
    From Ghostcrawler:

    "...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."

    I really don't see the big deal here. If you run in a guild group, or with friends then you already have an advantage over PUGs because you have the coordination, communication, and familiarity that GC was talking about, and that is more of an advantage than a 15% buff.

    I think it is more a "leveling" the playing field than anything else. I have run heroics with friends, and I have run heroics in PUGs, and the difference is night and day.

    Not to mention that it is for three or more random people. People who don't know each other, and don't have the advantage that a premade group has.

    If you don't PUG, this will NOT affect you. If you do PUG, then this helps to offset the disadvantage of grouping with random strangers who may not be able to communicate or coordinate as efficiently as in a premade group. But this will never take the place of proper communication and coordination.

    I think it is a good idea.
  1. mmoc704a8b6868's Avatar
    Pfffh, Its gone like two months and they have already nerfed the HCs by around 25%, counting encounter nerfs, man QQers always win.
  1. neobahamut20's Avatar
    And here i was sitting, yesterday, while achieving in a pug (only missing headed south now), thinking, "well after all, the difficulty was everyone dropping from full epics to greens & blues".
    I guess I'll have to get my drake this week if I don't want people to say I waited till it was easy.
  1. fews's Avatar
    hmm at this rate im right ahead of the nerfbat, so any nerfs just make farm content farmier (which im 100% okay with)

    you can do normal raids now, blizz. just give me another couple of months with HC content
  1. NomadicGod's Avatar
    I am wondering why the "hardcore" group is angry at blizzard for making entry level gear easier to obtain. Shouldn't they be in raids getting 359+ while all the heroic "wrath babies" stay at 346 until the next tier? I just don't understand why the two groups care about each other at all.
  1. kduv889's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Charagon View Post
    Because they still give daily valor points and if I'm going to run something every day I'd like to be able to stay awake through it.

    Yeah, there are hard Heroics, but none of them are anything a pug group can't handle. Most of my heroic runs are pugs and once you weed out the crappy players it's a cakewalk.
    Cata has been out how long now? and the 70 valor points you get from the daily heroic makes THAT much of a difference for you? if you're downing 11/12 normal raid bosses every week you're getting so many valor points that you're probably capped for the next raid tier.

    This goes back to the ideal, if you don't have the credentials to talk like your opinion truly is applicable then why are you still typing?
  1. Miku's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Katana Angel View Post
    No it's not! It's really not! This is seriously making my blood pressure rise, ugh.

    There are still several bosses that have straight-up wipe mechanics if you're not doing your job properly. It will give you an edge on some of the medium-range bosses, and easy bosses will still remain straightforward. Even with a 30% buff I can't heal a tank through Ozruk's stuff, nor can I prevent someone from dying on Slabhide if they sit their arse in a fire bubble, or get a stalagtite on their head.

    Wrath in general had a lot less "wipe mechanics". That PLUS the 30% buff is what got folks so far.
    There were tons of wipe mechanics is ICC, Standing in fire +1, Standing in Death and Decay +2, Getting to many marks of the champion or whatever +3, Not stacking for spores +4, Being fail with slimes +5, All of the Professor Putricide fight +6, The shiny orbs and fire orbs on princes +7, The fire on the floor and the blood bolt storm on Blood Queen+8, Most of the Sindragosa fight +9, the only really thing you ever had to watch out for was Defile because yes, if you stood in it you would actually die.
  1. Drakoes's Avatar
    But the queue times still sux0r!
  1. Charagon's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by NomadicGod View Post
    I am wondering why the "hardcore" group is angry at blizzard for making entry level gear easier to obtain. Shouldn't they be in raids getting 359+ while all the heroic "wrath babies" stay at 346 until the next tier? I just don't understand why the two groups care about each other at all.
    What exactly do you think raiders do when they aren't raiding?
  1. Miku's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by kduv889 View Post
    there is NOT RAID WIDE BUFF IN RAIDS WHY ARE YOU STILL TYPING?
    God, you of all the other little droolers, are the WORST of the sperm pool
    Not everyone raids all day and night =3, I still do heroics sometimes when playing alts/bored/valor points. Stfu please, =3
  1. lolipopp's Avatar
    looooooooooooooooooooool 15%
  1. r4ndsen's Avatar
    15% ? so everyone does like 2k dps more... oh my
  1. Xenryusho's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Typhron View Post
    And this won't change the problem with heroic dungeons in the slightest, but people still need to bitch anyway methinks.

    Now to have this comment ignored while people's personal shitstorms continue to kick up, while missing the point that Cata is still filled with pointless arbitration.



    While a great analysis, nevermind it's the same kind of idiots and not the same 4 idiots exactly, you can just quit and do something else in reality (which you can't seem to in this situation). But in the case that you can't quit? What would it take to make the four idiots learn, since you seem to have an eternity.

    I'm just saying, if someone is having trouble killing the first boss of anything in a heroic it may not necessarily be their fault. I've seen some truly awful pugs that made me want to rip my hair out since the release of cata (when I was gearing up my guild had a set heroic group so they could craft everyones orb gear) and had to pug a lot... And I don't think my blood pressure had ever been higher. Every HoO group I had could never pass the first boss, in fact the first time I cleared it was when I got into a group that already downed him.

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