Patch 4.2 Hotfixes - August 16
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Classes
  • Threat
    • Threat generation for all tanks has been increased to 500%, up from 300%. This applies to warriors in Defensive Stance, death knights in Blood Presence, druids in Bear Form, and paladins with Righteous Fury.
    • Vengeance should no longer be generated when damage is fully absorbed by damage shields. When the shield breaks from damage or damage is partially absorbed, the amount of Vengeance generated is equal to the full amount of damage taken (including the damage absorbed.)
    • More information can be found in our latest Dev Watercooler.

Dungeons & Raids
Baradin Hold
  • Occu’thar has come into a larger supply of PvE gear than he previously possessed.

Firelands
  • Hell Hounds should now be nigh impossible for a single player to kill.
  • The Grab Bag dropped by all Firelands bosses should now occasionally contain Crystallized Firestones in Heroic difficulty.

Baleroc
  • Baleroc should now always choose Inferno Blade the first time he casts Blades of Baleroc.

Beth’tilac
  • Beth'tilac now does slightly less damage on normal difficulty.

Lord Rhyolith
  • The explosion damage radius of each Magma Meteor just before Lord Rhyolith should now more closely match their spell effect visuals.
  • Volcanoes should no longer emit plumes of smoke while they are dormant.
  • Concussive Stomp should no longer knock nearby players back.
  • Magma Flow lines are now 30 yards long, down from 40 yards.
  • Rhyolith now activates volcanoes less often on normal difficulty.
  • Stepping on an active volcano now removes 16 stacks of armor, up from 10.

Majordomo Fandral Staghelm
  • All threat generated in this encounter has been reduced in Heroic difficulty.

Ragnaros
  • Ragnaros’s Sons of Flame should now be immune to silence effects.

Shannox
  • Shannox, Riplimb and Rageface have all had their damage reduced slightly on normal difficulty.

Quests
  • Players should now be able to keep the Quest Giver buff from the quest Welcome to the Machine in Hillsbrad Foothills.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
GC's latest blog: Active Mitigation Playstyle
Right now it's tough for DK tanks because they're the only ones on anything resembling an active mitigation model. The one active mitigation guy is going to look like he's working harder than the passive mitigation guys because, in a lot of ways, he is. If all tanks had worked this way from the start, it would be the norm, and nobody would be worried about jumping onto that model.

We've already established that threat isn't making for very compelling encounter design, and removing it offers us the ability to get creative with some of the mechanics that we're using; both in encounter and class design. In a world with no threat management, and no active mitigation, that doesn't leave a lot for tanks to do though. We think that making tanking more active, and focusing that activity around mitigation (which feels immediately useful) will generate some very rewarding gameplay. We want the act of tanking to be engaging, interesting and fun. We think the path forward will offer more of that for all the tanking classes.

Also, I've seen a number of references to making tanking easier in this thread and elsewhere. "Easier" isn't really the goal. The goal is to discard a mechanic which we don't think is working particularly well anymore, and replace it with something more focused and interesting. Doing so should also have the effect of allowing tanks who aren't as geared still do their job when grouped with players who outgear (or even outlevel them a bit). They'll still be responsible for doing a good job, but their absolute ability to hold the attention of the boss won't be a factor; their ability to play well and mitigate damage will be.

We're aware of player concerns about Blood tanking, and we'll work to ensure that Blood tanking will continue to be viable and effective into the future. On that note, we're interested in addressing some of the concerns that have been expressed about the spec (potentially as soon as the next major patch), though we want to accomplish that goal without sacrificing what sets the spec apart and makes it interesting. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Cross-Realm Raid Finder
We have some plans. They're good plans. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

US Battle.net Invitational VoDs
The results are in! The North American Battle.net Invitational World of Warcraft Arena competition, held last week at Blizzard Entertainment headquarters, has come to its thrilling conclusion. The first nine qualifier matches are now available on the official BlizzCon community site. Want to see who advances toward glory, riches, and the chance to compete live at BlizzCon 2011? You can check out the matches from the first day of competition now. Be sure to get caught up on all the action, as we’ll be posting the remaining matchups in the near future, revealing which two teams duke it out in the Grand Finals, and ultimately who will be competing at BlizzCon this October. Don’t fall victim to spoilers. Watch the matches. Enjoy the spectacle. Profit!

If you’re curious about the order in which the matches are being released, we’ve made sure to align them according to how they played out last week. You’ll be able to see the tournament brackets update in the correct order as you watch each of the matches. We thank you for your patience as we prepared these brutal bouts for public consumption. (Blue Tracker / Official Blog)

Discounted Shipping From FigurePrints Until 15 September
Take advantage of this hot summer deal by getting discounted rates on shipping to Europe for all World of Warcraft FigurePrints ordered from now until 15 September. If you've been considering a custom World of Warcraft character statue of your own, now is the perfect time to save some cash.

If you’ve never seen a FigurePrint, check out their gallery of characters and the “FigurePrints - How They Are Made” movie. FigurePrints are one-of-a-kind, custom statues of your World of Warcraft characters that present a three-dimensional snapshot of your in-game history. FigurePrints statues are equipped with the actual weapons and armor your character wears, and you sentimental types can choose from any of the items you’ve got stashed away. You can even choose from a variety of poses for your character to be immortalized in.

Visit FigurePrints.com for more information or to place an order. (Blue Tracker / Official Blog)

WoW TCG: Twilight of the Dragons Now In Stores
Deathwing the Destroyer has arrived in the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game and he’s brought both the Twilight and Black dragonflights with him. Tainted by corrupt magic before they were hatched, the Twilight dragons threaten to bring an age of darkness to the land. Unleash their fiery fury as you crack open packs of Twilight of the Dragons, in stores now.

Embrace the chaos and ally with Nefarian, Cho’gall, and Sinestra, or defend Azeroth against their assault by joining Thrall, Caelestrasz, Merithra, Arygos, Anachronos, and the elemental ascendants.In this time of great peril, will you join Deathwing’s forces or defend against it? Choose your side and prepare for war!

Please note, these cards are only available in English. (Blue Tracker / Official Blog)

API: Completed quests available
I'm happy to announce that completed quests have been added to the character profile API resource. By using the 'fields' query string parameter to include the 'quests' value, the character profile returned will include a list of quest ids that the character has completed.

Example: http://us.battle.net/api/wow/charact...?fields=quests (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Comics
NerfNow #561 is especially relevant today!

This article was originally published in forum thread: August 16 Hotfixes, Blue Posts, Comics started by chaud View original post
Comments 96 Comments
  1. orderschvank's Avatar
    old news man
  1. iamthedevil's Avatar
    Will this vengeance change affect how Prot specs fair in pvp in any way?
  1. Resentful's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by slappy102 View Post
    Is the 16 stack removal on Rhyolith on heroic too?
    Think it's all out normal mode I believe
  1. Feuergeist's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Resentful View Post
    Think it's all out normal mode I believe
    I don't think so, otherwise why would they specify normal on some of the points but not others.
  1. Bareno's Avatar
    PTR has two new build pushes out today... 14333 -> 14492 than an hour later 14492 -> 14505. I'm sure boub will post about that once he wakes up...
  1. Evilution's Avatar
    Sweet stuff! Like the change to how fast vengeance will build up.
  1. epec's Avatar
    It's ironic they're changing threat for tanks because it's not the issue behind the lack of tanks at all. Decent tanks never had an issue holding aggro, even in early cata. The problem comes when tanks want to progress. You could be the best possible class for a tank (paladin) with decent gear and a good rep while trying to app to a decent guild, you'd have a very very hard time finding a guild that would take you. The problem is tanks just don't scale compared to dps. 1 for 5 mans, 2 for 10 mans, maybe 3 for 25 mans. Now, if this actually scaled correctly, 25 man content would need 5 tanks to maintain a good ratio (5 tanks, 15 dps, and 5 healers but it doesn't work that way) Most guilds are doing 25 man content because it's easier and gives more loot. They already have their 3 tanks setup. Tanks have no place in pvp as well, only pve. So, once a tank finishes his 5 man grind, where does he go? On the shelf.
  1. Simca's Avatar
    The threat change right now is dumb by itself (since threat is an absolute joke if you know what the taunt button is and how to use it quickly before the attack even hits the player when they pull threat).It'll be nice in heroic randoms I guess but I'd rather not see tanks with an absolutely awful rotation or ones only hitting buttons every 3 seconds due to terrible reflexes do okay on threat.After the active migitation change I'll be totally happy with it, but right now it's pretty dumb by itself. If you're struggling with threat atm, learn to taunt (seriously, I can keep threat off the best DPS with taunts as a fresh 85 - maybe not as a bear druid but every other class).
  1. SuperN's Avatar
    I wanna be in a group with that Dippy Bird!
  1. Worgoblin's Avatar
    Bravo to these tank changes! More tanks = lower queue times. Plus I reckon tanks needed some PvP love.
  1. Alayea's Avatar
    The nerf to Rhyolith normal was needed. With your average raiding guild (that has no heroic T11 gear, some MF items, and/or T1/T2 heroics stuff), Rhyolith was a lot harder than he ought to have been, particularly on 10-man.
  1. Powerogue's Avatar
    Threat generation for all tanks has been increased to 500%, up from 300%. This applies to warriors in Defensive Stance, death knights in Blood Presence, druids in Bear Form, and paladins with Righteous Fury.is this real!? a 200% increase on threat?! I thought they were doing a joke one like rouges getting super-stealth last april fools. I haven't seen exactly how much this will be noticeable ingame, but the comic SOUNDS like what would happen.
  1. TheEaterofSouls's Avatar
    Basically it would be easier to tank at 1st but from what I heard as new content comes out migration and other important tanking factors will play a larger role. This isnt really a bad thing if you look at it like that.
  1. Chaosbubba's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Feuergeist View Post
    I don't think so, otherwise why would they specify normal on some of the points but not others.
    Doing heroic rhyo now and its still only going by 10's... anyone doing normal rhyo and can confirm 16?
  1. Fallenjack's Avatar
    I literally just tanked a heroic HOR , with nothing but devastate and auto attacks for the most part except on bosses I opened with a shield bash. My TPS was around 30k within a sec and topped out around 60k ... This just ruined my fun as a war.
  1. Buu's Avatar
    I say and repeat always, the problem with tanking isn't a design one. Either way is fine by me. The problem is that the majority of the players are lazy-asses, that associate being DPS to get it easy. I have 3 Tanks, and I'm struggling to play ONE, because I see bad Damage dealers not CCing, breaking CC, using full PvP gear on Zandalari, doing less damage than myself, even with that Vengeance nerf. General Knowledge that DPS is the easy path to go must be eliminated, because it's not anymore. Damage Dealers responsibilities are increasing with each change. This change in Threat isn't eliminating the responsibilities, it's shifting to damage dealers, and they must acknowledge they have to know they classes, and look for references and news outside the game to improve themselves.
  1. aggixx's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Chaosbubba View Post
    Doing heroic rhyo now and its still only going by 10's... anyone doing normal rhyo and can confirm 16?
    There is a typo in the MMO-C post: That change is specific to normal mode only. All of the other changes are both normal and heroic modes unless otherwise specified.
  1. edw's Avatar
    That comic made my day )
  1. Arcano's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Worgoblin View Post
    Bravo to these tank changes! More tanks = lower queue times. Plus I reckon tanks needed some PvP love.
    while the tanking changes are nice to shorter queue times, you other of the comment is stupid, tanks does not need any pvp love this is why pvp sucks so much in wow, blizz should just add another talent tree for pvp only, and balance around that talent instead of all 30 current talents.
  1. Duntix's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Alayea View Post
    The nerf to Rhyolith normal was needed. With your average raiding guild (that has no heroic T11 gear, some MF items, and/or T1/T2 heroics stuff), Rhyolith was a lot harder than he ought to have been, particularly on 10-man.
    I call bollocks on this. He was already extremely easy it took my guild all of around 8 wipes to down him. And none of us had any heroic gear and we are by no means amazing(40+ wipes on alysrazor to kill her). This is going to make our progression nights go faster now I guess.

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