Magic Find and the Infernal Machine, Monster Power, Keys and Bonus Item Drops, Party Organ Drop, Patch 1.0.5 Information and Support

Hallow's End 2012
Hallow's End begins today, and Icy-Veins has an in depth guide to all things Hallow's End. This year, level 89 is required to complete all parts of the event.

There are new achievements for visiting the Pandaria Candy Buckets (Alliance / Horde). This year also brings some updated epic loot!

If you are farming rep, pick up Unburdened or Grim Visage for a little bonus!


Level Type Spec Slot Name
470FingerMeleeFinger Band of the Petrified Pumpkin
470FingerPhysical DPSFinger Seal of Ghoulish Glee
470FingerSpell SpiritFinger Wicked Witch's Signet
470FingerSpell DPSFinger The Horseman's Ring
470PlateMeleeHead The Horseman's Horrific Hood
470One-handed SwordPhysical DPSOne Hand The Horseman's Sinister Slicer
20Mount The Horseman's Reins


Manaflask Interview with Method
Manaflask had the opportunity to speak with members of Method about their thoughts on the first Mists of Pandaria raid. They all seemed pleased with the quality of Mogu'shan Vaults and not so happy with Galleon's spawn timer. Read the full interview to find out more!



Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Rated Battlegrounds Feedback
But Blizz doesn't even read these forums
False.

I don't have a lot in the way of details to share at the moment regarding some of the more pressing issues expressed by the PvP community, but we're reading.

I'm currently planning to add a section to the 5.1 notes on class changes to the 5.1 Public Test Realm blog tomorrow morning. While the changes aren't complete, there's probably going to be some stuff in there that hasn't been picked up by fansites yet. There will also likely be more changes than the ones listed, for the record.

This thread again. Daxx should just sticky one of the dozen posts they addressed this in.
To be honest, I wasn't planning to address Rated Battleground issues in this thread. I was posting just to say "Hey, I read these forums."

Do appreciate you coming by Daxx, maybe you guys should do a Q&A sometime on the current issues of PvP balance yeah?
Maybe a blog? I think Ghostcrawler mentioned something to that effect via Twitter. We'll look into it!

I know most of your response will probably be vague in order to not fry your own bacon, we understand you guys have a lot on your plate, but a simple "Ya we recognize BM/Arms/Others are powerful, we'll have a fix ASAP."
It's easy to miss, but we've been making incremental hotfixes to both Warriors and Beast Mastery Hunters (as well as other classes, of course). There are likely more changes coming in 5.1 too. Some examples of stuff that's already been changed:
  • Fixed an issue that would prevent the stuns generated by Charge and Warbringer from causing diminishing returns with each other and with themselves.
  • Healing performed by Spirit Beasts summoned by the Stampede talent is now correctly reduced by 75%.
  • Rabid has been changed and now increases a pet's attack speed by 70%. Pet attack power is now unaffected by this ability.

rbg queue is a dumb idea and it will end up being the same as random bgs, so no

Just to put a stake in it, I'm unaware of any plans for a Rated Battlegrounds queue. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blizzard's Stance on Ninja Looting
I think it's important to note that our support policies match what's reasonably enforceable, and this really can't be a conversation about our support team making the right or wrong decisions, or helping or not helping. It's unreasonable for them to act as arbiters for every piece of loot that drops in every dungeon for every player. I hope that's something we can all agree with.

What can and should be discussed, and something we've been discussing a bit more internally, is the loot rules themselves to potentially prevent the issue in the first place. Clearly the current dungeon loot rules are fairly lax to allow for people to gear up in different ways. We (at least currently) want people to be able to gear up to tank by DPSing, or being able to help out others by healing when they really just want to DPS in their weekly raid. We want to allow them to run dungeons over and over to make up for bad luck in their drops. Just with those two things combined there will be people in your groups rolling on items you believe to be better for you.

One side issue that's made this all seem much worse is that with the launch of Mists a lot of items were tagged incorrectly, leading to people being able to roll on items they just have no business being able to roll on regardless of specs available to them. That makes the system just seem broken, when it's only a couple items that are essentially 'bugged'. We of course want to get to those bugs as quickly as possible.

There are clear benefits to allowing people to roll on off-spec items, or run dungeons over and over to try to get an item (or even just because they enjoy dungeons!). There are also clear issues it can cause when the factor of who 'deserves an item more' comes into it. Being matched with strangers you can never truly know someone else's intentions, and conclusions are easy to jump to. The converse though, where you can only roll on your current spec, is a system where you're locked into gearing up a specific way, and discourages (or maybe completely blocks) changing roles or even gearing up an off-spec - even if no one else wants an item.

There are many considerations to be made, but the discussion of LFD vs LFR loot systems is a larger one than even just this issue, and the devs seem intent on discussing it more and more as this expansion rolls on.

Until then, if you want to ensure you get the drop you want, I really recommend forming a group with trusted friends and guild mates if at all possible. Plus you can talk trash on them the whole time, which makes everything with friends more fun! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Loot Rolling System Feedback
In general, developers are always open to changes as long as they lead to better gameplay.

Having said that, I can tell you that there have been some recent discussions going on about the dungeon looting system.
So there’s at least a chance that they might re-evaluate its implementation and consider other options. As soon as we have more concrete information on the subject we’ll make sure to let everyone know. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Challenge Mode Cooldown Resets
Is there anyway we can have all timers reset each time a challenge is reset so we do not have to sit here waiting?
There is a way (see below).

This please, waiting 5+ minutes on just about any cd is hardly compelling gameplay.
We agree and intend to include a change with Patch 5.1 that will clear cooldowns of 5 minutes or more, upon resetting or completing a Challenge Mode dungeon.

Could it also clear the debuffs applied by Timewarp/Heroism/Lust?
Much like how the system works now for raid encounters, debuffs like those will also be cleared. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Flying While Dead in Pandaria
Since the vast majority of Pandaria's content was designed around the use of ground mounts, we didn't include flight for players who are in spirit form (dead). There are a few locations, similar to the WoW days of old, where you can die and be unable to retrieve your corpse. The reality is this shouldn't be an overwhelming inconvenience to players, unless you're very frequently dying in unfortunate ways, and in unfortunate locations. Sometimes going with the Spirit Healer might be the best (or only) way to revive yourself. But that's a big reason why they've been in the game since launch.

Why can we not fly when dead in Pandaria? It is rather annoying to die in a location, whether pvp or otherwise, and be unable to return to your body because it is a location only accessible via flight. Once you train flying, you should be able to fly when dead. Is this something that will be resolved in a future patch?

In "the WoW days of old" you were not likely to fly somewhere that you can't get your corpse from.
You're right. I just spoke to Ghostcrawler about it a bit and am going to clarify my original post. I explained why we didn't initially include flight while in ghost form on Pandaria, but it's important to note that the developers are discussing the issue and might well add ghost flying to the new continent. We do recognize that it's possible to die in some very inconvenient places, and much more frequently than in vanilla WoW due to flying mounts. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Daily Quests and Reputation
Regarding reputations and items, keep in mind that the gear there is not mandatory for progression into raiding (in fact, items from normal Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Spring, which will be available very soon, are higher item level than these: 496).

All the other items are things you can get over time and the developers feel that earning good standing with a faction should involve something more than an insignificant time investment. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
World
Why cant me and my pals do current tier cross realm raids? when we can do rbg's?
We are concerned about what happens to guilds if everything can be done cross realm.

Is it intended that we can now no longer fly while in ghost form, and we run terribly slow? Really hurts QoL in the game.
Slow is on purpose but we agree not being able to fly can be a problem in some areas.
It really is something that doesn't make any sense at all if you have access to flying mounts, I've seen pandaria.
Likely tied to wanting a more traditional quest experience. Not sure the tech exists to allow it by lvl rather than zone yet. But we create new tech to solve these types of issues virtually every patch.
It's nothing short of silly not to allow ghost flying. At every turn you peeps seem to default to most difficult. Not fun.
I'd say we err on the side of caution. It's better to release things w/ conservative rules & loosen over time than the reverse.
Why not put a res timer on world boss deaths instead of making ghosts have to run in MoP? 5 minutes should work.
Movement speed while dead wasn't related to world bosses. We expect Sha especially to be zerged. That's fine.
What is the reason than? If it's not a terrible secret.
Sha of Anger is more about the excitement of attacking a boss that large, not a coordinated raid strategy. Think Archavon. We nerfed movement speed while dead because it didn't feel like dying was actually a setback (in any content).
Spending more time running back as a ghost makes dying more of a setback? What?
Dying only has two costs: time and money. The latter isn't even much of a penalty.

Please prohibit mounting near outdoor NPCs (such as Halfhill and daily areas). Sometimes it gets frustrating talking to them.
We need a solution for obscuring NPCs for sure, but dismounting might feel really bad.

About the only complaint i could offer would be a ton of quests that don't share group object loot in Dread Wastes
Quest drops not having multi-loot in DW are mostly bugs, we're fixing them as we find 'em. Sorry! Glad you're digging the xpack!

Any plans to do anything about golden lotus? ATM it's nearly impossible to supply a raid team w/ flasks.
Yeah Golden Lotus (the herb) is too rare.

Why can't we fly back to our bodies while dead anymore?
It's just not something we put in Pandaria since very little flying is necessary to quest.

Comics - Dark Legacy Comics #359
DLC #359 has been released.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Hallow's End 2012, Method Interview, Blue Posts, Blue Tweets, Comic started by chaud View original post
Comments 49 Comments
  1. Gilian's Avatar
    Golden Lotus are indeed too rare. I farmed around 1500 herbs the last few days and only got 10 of them. That's 10 flasks, not that much when you raid 9 hours or more a week.
  1. Slackeh's Avatar
    No tanking ring even though this event is made again and again.. cmon bliz..
  1. Yig's Avatar
    Ghostcrawler also tweeted today they're open to letting people choose to keep their old player models for the player model update.
  1. teerryn's Avatar
    The sword and the helm drops from the boss AND Loot-Filled Pumpkin or it only drops from Loot-Filled Pumpkin?
  1. Pacster's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Liliannan View Post
    Major Nanners is one spot where if you die, you either need to find someone (who is able to access him due to phasing) to res you OR spirit res. I found this out the hard way

    I believe he actually is the main reason for the complaints. In combination with the 1.2million HP mobs around him, he is clearly one of the most deadly rares in MoP.
  1. mmoc64de7dc171's Avatar
    Sword 470ilvl 274agi / Weapons 463ilvl 385agi
    ???
  1. tgrhwke's Avatar
    "There are new achievements for visiting the Pandaria Candy Buckets (Alliance / Horde). This year also brings some updated epic loot!"

    When hovering over the horde link the tooltip says "Tricks and Treat of Pandaria. Visit the candy buckets of Kalimdor."
  1. Squeezus's Avatar
    Am I the only one that thinks the problem with dying has nothing to do with no flight, but the fact that it spawns you at a grave yard no where near where you died? Every time I have died and had an issue with getting back to my body, there has always been a grave yard right in the area where I died that it chose to not send me to and instead sent me several GY's away from where I died. If it sends people to the right place then there is no need for flying. Although moving quicker with flight anytime is nice.
  1. mmoc151e589d5a's Avatar
    As a plate tank with the mount, I have no reason to kill the Headless Horseman. Thanks Blizz!
  1. Siddown's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by raggoo View Post
    Why no Axe or Mace, Shaman getting screwed again!
    Great to see they have lots of time for this and not sorting PVP out "sigh"
    You don't actually believe this, do you? You're saying because the itemization on a seasonal mob isn't up to your liking that this is why they haven't balanced something as complicated as PvP at the beginning on an expansion?
  1. Codyak's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Fazo View Post
    As a plate tank with the mount, I have no reason to kill the Headless Horseman. Thanks Blizz!
    I'm one of those people who generally doesn't care much about mounts and being a plate tank I also have no reason to run this. Longer wait times for everyone else I guess!
  1. mmocc1937db0d8's Avatar
    Really wish the horseman helm and sword were bind to account, I have won the helm twice now, once on my shaman and once on my mage and it's just good for vendor trash.
  1. Freia's Avatar
    "That makes the system just seem broken, when it's only a couple items that are essentially 'bugged'. We of course want to get to those bugs as quickly as possible."

    A couple of items? My 90 paladin can roll need on every leather and mail piece that drops in LFD and my 90 monk can roll need on every armor piece that drops period. They also can roll need on range weapons and other weapons they can't even equip. The system is broken, stop trying to make it seem less so.
  1. niki's Avatar
    Come on...blizzard add a tanking ring. Whats my incentive to queue for horseman.... Guess I will gear my offspec and make a plate dps cry.
  1. mmoc355bd9c6c7's Avatar
    no tank ring AGAIN
  1. Deathwhite's Avatar
    You could say there is no Spellcaster dps ring cuz it haz so low drop chance maybe done this 50 times now. insanely frustrating
  1. niki's Avatar
    Your rng =/= no caster ring. Having no tanking ring available and your luck are not comparable.
  1. Gnomi's Avatar
    I'm a little surprised people are complaining about golden lotus. Spirits of Harmony vendor sells three per spirit. I haven't had the slightest problem with this. Without farming, just doing dailies, I'm sitting on about 30 spirits of harmony on my main. I figured the world spawns were supposed to be rare, especially given the buff you get when you farm them. Mix in the ability to farm spirits with Tillers, I figured the lotus situation was either balanced or even a little too easy.

    Ah well, different strokes.
  1. Spotnick's Avatar
    First time in ages the horseman sword can actually be used by something else than a rogue. However the drop in agility makes makes me wonder if it's even an upgrade for my monk over heroic weapons.

    Funny how people are surprised at the loot.. it's the same freaking loot for like the last 5 years, not like it's a surprise.
  1. hx9's Avatar
    I'm confused. In the interview they say Method was "World First." Didn't someone down the boss before them on 10 man? I don't think that really classifies as "World First"

Site Navigation