Build of the Month
Recent Blue Posts
The Cataclysm Classic Pre-Expansion Patch Arrives April 30
Season of Discovery Hotfixes - 23 April
Recent Forum Posts
Do you consider the Horde to be "the bad guys" or is it more complex?
Bashiok announced the Season 10 ending date change of November 29 on Twitter today, with the tag "#indirectpatchreleasedateannouncements".
Curse $15,000 Skyrim Mod Challenge
With the launch of Skryim we wanted to let everyone know that Curse now supports Skyrim Mods which are available for download on Curse.com! In addition we are running the "Curse $15,000 Skyrim Mod Challenge" and rewarding authors of high-quality mods who upload their Skyrim Mods on CurseForge.com!
We're giving away $12,000 in prizes to the 140 winning mods and a $3,000 grand prize!
Be sure to read the contest rules before taking part.
A Day in the Life of a QA Analyst
BlizzCon Media Gallery Updated: New Photos
We’ve added 110 new photos to our BlizzCon media gallery. Head to the gallery now to click through some fantastic fan- and professionally-captured shots of all the revelry and fun that BlizzCon 2011 had to offer!
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Mastery raid buff
C'mon now. The pointed sarcasm isn't necessary, and I think you may be missing what was actually said. This will not stand, y'know, this aggression will not stand, man.
Still, it's probably best that I convey a clarification:
What we said was that with the various changes we have made in 4.3 that tank balance is pretty close, and to be fair, it was also close in 4.2. Death knights in 4.2 may have arguably been harder to play well relative to other tanks, but they still tanked all of the content successfully, and some of our 4.3 changes are intended to ease the difficulty of tanking in that spec. The problems with block capping don’t at all mean “warriors and paladins are the best tanks.” That might be the case if we didn’t adjust things like DK armor, but we did. It might have meant that we would have to buff DK armor (or something) through all of the remaining 4.x raid tiers to keep up, but there are no more 4.x raid tiers.
There are a more problems when one stat is too good aside from players with that stat simply becoming too powerful. When any one secondary stat is too good, then players understandably view any gear without that stat as “garbage.” DPS specs can stack hit / expertise to the cap and then focus on say haste, crit or mastery. Right now, plate tanks don’t have a lot of attractive stats after they have capped mastery, except for dodge and parry which also affect pushing hits off the table the same as mastery does. Dodge and parry aren’t even meaningfully different from each other, except for the (somewhat sophisticated) games you can play with trying to avoid diminishing returns.
In 5.0, tanks will care about hit and expertise, because those will become survival stats: if your hits don’t connect, you won’t have the resources needed for some of your defensive abilities (the less critical ones like Shield Block, but not Shield Wall). That alone will make tank gearing a little more interesting. If we decrease the amount of block, or the value of a point of mastery, or add diminishing returns to block, then we can still make mastery a useful stat without it being the god stat. Heck, we’re probably in a place with tank balance today where we could reconsider having bonus Stamina or armor, which we stopped doing a couple of years ago because they were the previous god stats.
But it should be evident from that wall of text, that we’re not talking about simple changes here. They are fairly extensive changes with a lot of risk. There is a risk players won’t get the memo and not understand that block capping either isn’t as good as it once was or isn’t viable at all. There is a risk that paladins and warriors go from being relatively balanced to too weak. There is a risk that in our noble attempts to fix them from being too weak (such as buffing their armor, health or cooldowns) that the might become too powerful. We’re signing up to take that risk in 5.0 when we have more time to iterate and collect feedback and massive class changes are more expected.
We'd also like to make these really big changes in a context where more players are likely to become aware of them - that's much easier to accomplish at the beginning of an expansion because most everyone is looking around to find out what's changed. Why would we do that? It might surprise you (since you guys are, by definition, the posting community) to know how few players actually participate in these forums or can even be reached by blue posts. Many players simply stumble upon changes, or worse, get yelled at by other players for not being up-to-date on the latest class changes, and get frustrated -- which isn't great for anyone's experience. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Battle.net Mobile Authenticator – Java Version Support Update
In the weeks ahead, we will be discontinuing the Java-based (J2ME) versions of the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator currently available for download at http://mobile.blizzard.com. This includes versions of the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator for mobile devices like the Motorola RAZR, Nokia's Series 40, and other "non-smartphones."
The iPhone®, Android™, and Windows® Phone 7 versions of the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator are not affected by this, and will continue to be supported and available at https://us.battle.net/account/suppor...-download.html.
Any Battle.net Mobile Authenticators previously downloaded from http://mobile.blizzard.com will still continue to function, as will the version available through BlackBerry® AppWorld™. However, we will not be providing further updates after December 13, 2011, and that will also be the last day these versions will be available for download from http://mobile.blizzard.com. The downloadable ringtones and wallpapers available at this site will also be discontinued, but we’re looking into ways to offer them as free downloads from our community websites in the future.
For more information on the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator, please refer to the FAQ. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Hunter (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Stampede
I just reviewed yesterday's Q&A, and came away with a follow-up question that I then posted to the devs privately. The question submitted yesterday was ""Have you considered having a pet stampede spell where our 5 pet stable rushes our enemy for a 5min cooldown? Or is that too epic?"
The response was "yes", but there were two questions there, and we didn't make it clear that we were responding to the first question. Here is a Ghostcrawler quote for you --
"One of the potential ideas we're considering for a new hunter ability is one where they send all 5 of their current pets to attack, for a short period of time, on a long cooldown. No guarantees that we'll go with it, but we're at least considering something like that."
With Aspect of the Cheetah on you won't get dazed when attacked, but the speed bonus will be turned off when you get hit.
It isn't a certainty, but it is very likely that this will be implemented with 5.0. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Warlock (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Improved Soul Fire
As part of the buff consolidation plan, Improved Soul Fire is no longer a part of the 5.0 Destruction Warlock. The damage gained from the buff has been rolled into the Infernal Ember mechanic.
We’re trying to improve the quality of life for this spec, and removing Improved Soul Fire seemed like a good place to start.(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Mage (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Spellsteal as a Dispel
Spellsteal will likely count as a dispel in this model and will have a cooldown. However, it's likely to be the longest cooldown of the dispels, to offset its spell stealing mechanic. And, it's likely to dispel all applicable effects from the target, but only give the mage one of them. That's definitely not set in stone, by any stretch, and we'd love feedback on that.
What's that, GC? But I didn't... I was only trying to... OH GOD. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
C'mon now. The pointed sarcasm isn't necessary, and I think you may be missing what was actually said. This will not stand, y'know, this aggression will not stand, man.
Still, it's probably best that I convey a clarification:
What we said was that with the various changes we have made in 4.3 that tank balance is pretty close, and to be fair, it was also close in 4.2. Death knights in 4.2 may have arguably been harder to play well relative to other tanks, but they still tanked all of the content successfully, and some of our 4.3 changes are intended to ease the difficulty of tanking in that spec. The problems with block capping don’t at all mean “warriors and paladins are the best tanks.” That might be the case if we didn’t adjust things like DK armor, but we did. It might have meant that we would have to buff DK armor (or something) through all of the remaining 4.x raid tiers to keep up, but there are no more 4.x raid tiers.
There are a more problems when one stat is too good aside from players with that stat simply becoming too powerful. When any one secondary stat is too good, then players understandably view any gear without that stat as “garbage.” DPS specs can stack hit / expertise to the cap and then focus on say haste, crit or mastery. Right now, plate tanks don’t have a lot of attractive stats after they have capped mastery, except for dodge and parry which also affect pushing hits off the table the same as mastery does. Dodge and parry aren’t even meaningfully different from each other, except for the (somewhat sophisticated) games you can play with trying to avoid diminishing returns.
In 5.0, tanks will care about hit and expertise, because those will become survival stats: if your hits don’t connect, you won’t have the resources needed for some of your defensive abilities (the less critical ones like Shield Block, but not Shield Wall). That alone will make tank gearing a little more interesting. If we decrease the amount of block, or the value of a point of mastery, or add diminishing returns to block, then we can still make mastery a useful stat without it being the god stat. Heck, we’re probably in a place with tank balance today where we could reconsider having bonus Stamina or armor, which we stopped doing a couple of years ago because they were the previous god stats.
But it should be evident from that wall of text, that we’re not talking about simple changes here. They are fairly extensive changes with a lot of risk. There is a risk players won’t get the memo and not understand that block capping either isn’t as good as it once was or isn’t viable at all. There is a risk that paladins and warriors go from being relatively balanced to too weak. There is a risk that in our noble attempts to fix them from being too weak (such as buffing their armor, health or cooldowns) that the might become too powerful. We’re signing up to take that risk in 5.0 when we have more time to iterate and collect feedback and massive class changes are more expected.
We'd also like to make these really big changes in a context where more players are likely to become aware of them - that's much easier to accomplish at the beginning of an expansion because most everyone is looking around to find out what's changed. Why would we do that? It might surprise you (since you guys are, by definition, the posting community) to know how few players actually participate in these forums or can even be reached by blue posts. Many players simply stumble upon changes, or worse, get yelled at by other players for not being up-to-date on the latest class changes, and get frustrated -- which isn't great for anyone's experience. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Battle.net Mobile Authenticator – Java Version Support Update
In the weeks ahead, we will be discontinuing the Java-based (J2ME) versions of the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator currently available for download at http://mobile.blizzard.com. This includes versions of the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator for mobile devices like the Motorola RAZR, Nokia's Series 40, and other "non-smartphones."
The iPhone®, Android™, and Windows® Phone 7 versions of the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator are not affected by this, and will continue to be supported and available at https://us.battle.net/account/suppor...-download.html.
Any Battle.net Mobile Authenticators previously downloaded from http://mobile.blizzard.com will still continue to function, as will the version available through BlackBerry® AppWorld™. However, we will not be providing further updates after December 13, 2011, and that will also be the last day these versions will be available for download from http://mobile.blizzard.com. The downloadable ringtones and wallpapers available at this site will also be discontinued, but we’re looking into ways to offer them as free downloads from our community websites in the future.
For more information on the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator, please refer to the FAQ. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Hunter (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)Stampede
I just reviewed yesterday's Q&A, and came away with a follow-up question that I then posted to the devs privately. The question submitted yesterday was ""Have you considered having a pet stampede spell where our 5 pet stable rushes our enemy for a 5min cooldown? Or is that too epic?"
The response was "yes", but there were two questions there, and we didn't make it clear that we were responding to the first question. Here is a Ghostcrawler quote for you --
"One of the potential ideas we're considering for a new hunter ability is one where they send all 5 of their current pets to attack, for a short period of time, on a long cooldown. No guarantees that we'll go with it, but we're at least considering something like that."
With Aspect of the Cheetah on you won't get dazed when attacked, but the speed bonus will be turned off when you get hit.
It isn't a certainty, but it is very likely that this will be implemented with 5.0. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Warlock (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)Improved Soul Fire
As part of the buff consolidation plan, Improved Soul Fire is no longer a part of the 5.0 Destruction Warlock. The damage gained from the buff has been rolled into the Infernal Ember mechanic.
We’re trying to improve the quality of life for this spec, and removing Improved Soul Fire seemed like a good place to start.(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Mage (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)Spellsteal as a Dispel
Spellsteal will likely count as a dispel in this model and will have a cooldown. However, it's likely to be the longest cooldown of the dispels, to offset its spell stealing mechanic. And, it's likely to dispel all applicable effects from the target, but only give the mage one of them. That's definitely not set in stone, by any stretch, and we'd love feedback on that.
What's that, GC? But I didn't... I was only trying to... OH GOD. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Blizzard Art Gallery Update
The World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Art gallery has been updated with four pieces representing the Warcraft universe.
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