No Item Upgrades, 5.2 LFR Item Level, PTR Class Balance, Blue Posts, Weekly Roundup

Patch 1.0.7 Preview

Patch 5.2 - No Item Upgrades
Ghostcrawler clarified his previous statement and let us know that no gear will be upgraded at all once Patch 5.2 is released, as the NPC will be removed.



Patch 5.2 - LFR Item Level Requirement
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Just wanted to share some updated info we have with you guys: At this moment our intent is to change Thunder King’s LFR ilvl requirement to 480, we also want to lower the Honor gear in patch 5.2 from 483 to 476, compensating with some bonus PvP stats, so that the gear remains as powerful for PvP but not allow players to use it as a quick shortcut into LFR.

Like always, everything is subject to change, we’re still in PTR stage folks! And we all know that even on live things can still change, while we always strike to avoid doing that (and that’s why we have a PTR), gameplay comes first, so if a change is urgently needed, we do our best to apply it as fast as possible.

PTR Class and Set Bonus Issues
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
PvP Power
  • On live, PvP Power grants 0% healing to Balance, Feral, Windwalker, Retribution, Shadow, Enhancement and Elemental. In the next 5.2 build, this number will be 25% (or half of what a healing spec gets). We agree that PvP healing feels too weak for these hybrid classes. We also don't think Shadow really needs this buff, so we will likely offset it in other ways.
  • We are working on a blog (hopefully next week) to explain some of the other changes to PvP gear in 5.2. We hear your concerns and are trying to address them.

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • The Protection 2pc is additive. It's duration is 5sec per Holy Power. We realize there are concerns about this enabling block capping, and are keeping an eye on this, and will adjust if necessary to make sure it doesn’t happen, even later in the expansion.
  • The Protection 4pc does incentivize Unbreakable Spirit. We’re considering possible revisions but want to try it like this for now. It's currently "You gain 1 Holy Power for each 20% of your health taken as damage while Divine Protection is active."
  • The Retribution 2pc is a debuff on the target, and does not stack or roll. With Glyph of Mass Exorcism, the debuff will be applied to all targets hit by the Exorcism. It affects all of your Holy damage. Yes, that includes Seal of Truth, Censure ticks, and Hand of Light. Censure ticks are affected per tick
  • whether it was up when Censure was applied doesn't matter. It functions similar to the increased magic damage taken raid debuff, except is Holy-only and self-only. Clipping some debuffs when you get back to back Art of War procs is expected, and balanced around.
  • The Retribution 4pc does grant a self-buff that is consumed by the next TV, and does not stack. Wasting some procs is expected, and balanced around. Yes it is a single-target benefit that won't increase DPS on AE fights. We don't want to be in such a limited design space (we're talking about the 15th tier here after all) that every set bonus must be super generic and work in every situation. If anything, we'd rather the Ret bonus be even higher for single-target and paladins will just be stronger at single-target and weaker at AE once they have the set bonus than they are in other tiers. Set bonuses are one of the few chances we have to change what your character does (within reason) aside from all of your numbers just getting bigger.
  • We changed the Repentance cast time to make it consistent with other cast time crowd control. A 1.5 sec cast time (reduced by haste) gives little opportunity for interruption.

Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • During Shuriken Toss, your auto attacks are replaced with throwing Shurikens, which do 80% weapon damage, but are on the 'yellow combat table', meaning they don't glance, and don't suffer the Dual Wield miss penalty. The 80% number was chosen because that approximately offsets those other benefits.
  • In our above description of Blade Flurry, 'normal' means the same as it previously did; that is to say, the damage that the ability would have done had it hit the secondary target.
  • The 2pc does encourage using Rupture as Combat.
  • Burst of Speed saying "movement-reducing" means that it no longer breaks roots, but does break snares.
  • We are experimenting with allowing Smoke Bomb to reduce the damage done to allies by 20%. We agree that rogues are lacking in the group utility department and we'd like to see less use of Smoke Bomb strictly as an offensive ability in PvP.
  • We are going to reduce the PvP set bonus from +50 energy to +30 energy.

Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Storm, Earth, and Fire does not affect Xuen's damage. The spirits benefit from your Tiger Eye Brew. We agree that a spell with "storm, earth and fire" in the name sounds like a shaman spell, but Warcraft 3 established it as a Pandaren monk ability.
  • The Mistweaver 2pc is multiplicative. The first target gets normal healing, the second gets 115% of normal, and the third gets 132.25% of normal.

Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • The 2pc and 4pc both can crit.
  • Direhorn Stampede are everything you dream them to be.

Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Please note that Restoration Mushrooms are currently incorrectly absorbing 33% of overheal each, instead of 25%.

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • The Elemental 4pc does trigger from Overloads.
  • We're still iterating on the cooldown/potency/duration of Elemental Mastery. In the next PTR build, it will likely be a 90 sec cooldown.
  • We are experimenting with removing the attenuation of Chain Lightning. This means Chain Lightning won't do less damage on subsequent targets.

Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • The Shadow 2pc does impact Shadow Word: Insanity, which we're working to resolve. It extends existing effects, preserving their same damage (not recalculating).
  • We are considering making the glyphs of Desperation and Inner Focus passive for Discipline.
  • We are considering giving Focused Will to Holy as well as Discipline.
  • We did not buff PvP Power for healer damage as we did for DPS healing. However, we believe that Discipline specifically might need more damage. One potential solution is to nerf Atonement healing but raise damage so there is no net healing change.

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • With the 2pc, an Incinerate crit has an 8% chance to generate 4/10 of an ember. Yes, this will apply to Fire and Brimstone Incinerate.
  • We are strongly considering allowing Dark Intent to provide Stamina so that warlocks don't feel like they must use their imp.

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • A Prot Warrior using 2 pieces of the DPS set will get 1.0 RPPM of the Enrage.
  • We agree with concerns that the new Arms rotation doesn't involve much rage management. We are considering a small rage cost for Overpower. Arms will likely need some additional retuning of damage because of the changes to Overpower, Taste for Blood and Slam
  • we haven't completed tuning yet.
  • We made a change to warriors to double the effect of haste for them. This is similar to the shaman Flurry benefit, but is passive and not tied to an ability. We want to make haste a better stat for warriors without it eclipsing stats like crit
  • we aren't trying to force every warrior to reforge.

Promises
We're not making any (except maybe that Direhorn Stampede bit). We're providing you some notes of changes we are currently trying in order to provide you context for some of the other class changes. Many of these may not make it to the live game -- that is the nature of a PTR. As always, we appreciate feedback on any of this.

Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Storm, Earth, and Fire: The spirits will not mirror non-damaging abilities like Leg Sweep or Charging Ox Wave. They will mirror damaging abilities like Chi Wave. In the cases of damaging abilities that also heal (Chi Wave, Zen Sphere, and Chi Burst), their healing and yours is reduced. But for other heals which aren’t mirrored (like Healing Sphere, Blackout Kick from the front, or consuming a Healthstone), it won’t reduce the healing. In the case of Zen Sphere, the spirits will cast it on themselves when you cast it on anyone. Note that many of these things aren’t working yet, but should in the next PTR build, or perhaps the one after that. Also, in the next PTR build, attempting to cast it on a target that already has one of your spirits on it will recall that spirit.

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • The Enhancement 4pc triggers each time Windfury procs, not for each attack it generates.

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • If you have the Protection 2pc, casting Word of Glory again when you already have the block buff will replace the existing buff, if the new one is longer duration. It won’t extend.
  • The Protection 4pc will not count for Holy Avenger.

Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • The Healing 2pc causes each Prayer of Mending Heal to heal for 10% more than the last; it’s multiplicative. 100%->110%->121%->133%->146%.

Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • The Restoration 4pc causes each Rejuvenation tick to heal for 6% more than the last; it’s multiplicative. 100%->106%->112%->119%->126%->134%->etc.

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Some have asked why the 2pc procs more often for Survival than Marksmanship. Marksmanship typically has more haste than Survival, such as from Steady Focus. (Remember, RealPPM proc rates scale with your haste).

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Throne of Thunder and Mounts
Finally, I think we need to be able to mount in that instance. I think travel time is just going to be way too much of a problem otherwise.
The fact that you cannot currently mount in the exterior ruins section of the zone is a bug. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

PvP Gear Changes Blog Post
Other than the blog that you have linked from October, is there anything else you can "hint" to us that is more recent that we can possibly expect in the near future?
Not just yet. Soon™. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
World
Incentive to explore has always been a weak point in WoW,Can we expect more achievements like "Lost and Found" to remedy this?
We just have to make exploring really exploring and not download a mod / visit a website. (Source)

just wanted to clarify something r u now or have you ever been completely or partially against flying mounts?
It's not that simple. It would be hard to remove them, yet we don't like how they minimize exploration, travel & sense of danger. (Source)
Isnt minimizing travel the whole point of a mount? Also, they dont minimize exploration, in my case they improve it
The journey is a big (biggest?) part of most fantasy tales. For me, exploration needs a hint of danger to be interesting. (Source)
that doesn't really answer my question
It's not a question with a simple answer. Sorry. If I could go back in time, I would argue for much stricter limits on them. (Source)
I remember reading a PvP blog that flying mounts made escaping too easy, do you think "hardened shell" is enough?
It was just an experiment to see how it felt. (Source)

Do you feel like CRZ takes away the one advantage small pop servers had of less competition for rare spawns?
We don't really want small pop servers to have advantages though. We think larger pop servers are more fun. (Source)

I know u r concerned about the role of guilds in xrealm raiding, but isn't the point of being n a guild 2 b with ppl u like?
There are still benefit in realm community. Queuing features are a necessary evil, not because we don't value community. (Source)

Misc
I have friends who've already tried the expac. They got to 90 and they've already given up, "I have to log in EVERY day....!?"
The opposite extreme is "Why am I playing this game? I log in once a week and then there is nothing else to do." (Source)

Remember, while convenience is nice, accomplishments are rewarding. Accomplishments with too much convenience may not feel rewarding. (Source)
Parapharsing someone I can't recall: "We don't play this game because it is easy, we play it because it is hard."
In China, I hear a lot: I don't play the game because it's fun. I play for prestige. (Source)

Being a casual has nothing to do with what GC is saying.
In fact casual players are probably more likely to opt out of hard content for which rewards will be quickly replaced.
Also i believe the "accomplishment envy" faction is small. And why should a game be catered to envy?
.It's not about that. It's "Why should I bother on this tough boss when the new content will just invalidate all the gear anyway?" (Source)

yes it does. I wish GC would just announce once and for all the game is tailored for the hardcores.
It's not. Not sure there are 10 million hardcore players in the world. (Source)

More and more people are heading to private vanilla servers, why not just make an official one?
We don't want to maintain two versions of the game (and we don't believe that the vanilla crowd would be happy with no support). (Source)

Nobody cares about dummy dps because there is no movement involved and such bosses dont exist in mop.
If only that were true. Players use simulated dummy dps as evidence all the time. (Source)

Diablo III Patch 1.0.7 Preview
The Patch 1.0.7 PTR is coming soon, but Blizzard released a nice preview of what to expect. For the full details, check out the entire post on Diablofans!

  • You are now able to duel other players. There is no scorekeeping system or objectives, just combat in four areas with up to four players.
  • Some minor balancing (buffs) to the Wizard and Monk classes.
  • New rare crafting recipes that are purchased, world drops, or have a chance to drop from certain bosses when you have five stacks of Nephalem Valor.
  • Another new tier of gems, Marquise gems.
  • Monster Power support in public games and increased experience bonuses for all MP levels.
  • Other small monster changes and quality of life improvements.



Curse Weekly Roundup
In this week's roundup: Blizzard announces they've raised 2.3 million dollars for Sandy victims, Curse has an exclusive with the team from God of War, Cyberpunk rocks the world with their debut trailer, and Black Ops 2 wins big this year.

This article was originally published in forum thread: No Item Upgrades, 5.2 LFR Item Level, PTR Class Balance, Blue Posts, Weekly Roundup started by chaud View original post
Published on 2013-01-12 09:01 AM
113 Comments
Comments 113 Comments
  1. Kuul's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Fummockelchen View Post
    So people who upgrade their gear with the new upgrade system get a kick to the face for doing so in 5.2 - gg blizz!
    Learn to read. If you upgraded your stuff in 5.1 your upgrades will stay there also. You just can't upgrade in 5.2 them anymore.
  1. Frolk's Avatar
    Since they remove the upgrade, we should be able to buy BoE VP gear as in cata. then we have a reason to cap again and not feel forced
  1. Self Inflicted Wounds's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Frolk View Post
    Since they remove the upgrade, we should be able to buy BoE VP gear as in cata. then we have a reason to cap again and not feel forced
    'Forced"? Seriously?
  1. F-Minus's Avatar
    Oh fuck that, why would you remove it completely.

    Now when the sha socket 2H axe drops from Sha in terrace, my Starshatters are better, because they're upgraded, and I need two of those axes. What a bunch of retarded thinking really. Leave the upgrades alive and kicking for everything but 5.2 items, and be done with it for that patch.

    For all I care you can remove the upgrade system completely and never bring it back, but leave it alive and kicking for all the items we currently have. It's just stupid to take it out in the middle of someone upgrading path and what not.
  1. Maelstrom51's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Lemonpartyfan View Post
    'Forced"? Seriously?
    Yes seriously. Valor capping is a requirement for any serious raider.
  1. Self Inflicted Wounds's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Maelstrom51 View Post
    Yes seriously. Valor capping is a requirement for any serious raider.
    So you choose to be a "serious" raider, so you choose to get valor capped. No one is forcing you to do anything.
  1. Vasz's Avatar
    Removing item upgrades really is a stupid idea. It basically means that anyone that got their gear early and upgraded early, are at an advantage over an alt, even if they have the exact same gear. I had made a Monk; 88 now, and was actually really looking forward to gearing him up. I'll never be a raider, I don't have time to. This was great for me, getting slightly better gear with leftover Justice points.

    Justice points are now totally useless, no need for them at all. Even the gear you buy with JP is worse than HC dungeon gear.

    This now hinders LFR, meaning if you don't get the drops you're hoping for, you can't progress. At least with the upgrade system you could spend a useless currency upgrading your current gear.

    Rather bummed by this, especially as people get to keep their upgraded stats, while alts after 4.2 wont. Here is me coming back after 9 months, thinking that Blizzard had changed. Boggles my mind, it really does.
  1. Arch0s's Avatar
    interesting
  1. Self Inflicted Wounds's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vasz View Post
    Removing item upgrades really is a stupid idea. It basically means that anyone that got their gear early and upgraded early, are at an advantage over an alt, even if they have the exact same gear. I had made a Monk; 88 now, and was actually really looking forward to gearing him up. I'll never be a raider, I don't have time to. This was great for me, getting slightly better gear with leftover Justice points.

    Justice points are now totally useless, no need for them at all. Even the gear you buy with JP is worse than HC dungeon gear.

    This now hinders LFR, meaning if you don't get the drops you're hoping for, you can't progress. At least with the upgrade system you could spend a useless currency upgrading your current gear.

    Rather bummed by this, especially as people get to keep their upgraded stats, while alts after 4.2 wont. Here is me coming back after 9 months, thinking that Blizzard had changed. Boggles my mind, it really does.
    JP is only useful when you can upgrade things with it? You thought Blizzard had changed to what, from what?
  1. Armourboy's Avatar
    Thinking back, this may be the first time I can remember them adding a feature like this an then yanking it once it went live. If its causing issues I don't have a problem with it, but its gotta be pretty rare for them to be completely removing something vs tweaking it.

    Can't decide whether I like it or not. It turned out to be a pretty nice feature on my alts for the heroic gear, and at least made Justice points somewhat useful for a little while longer. Hopefully they add something in to do with them other than buy old Cata mats or convert it into honor points.
  1. Nexsa's Avatar
    I found it wasn't really useful.

    A large percentage of the WoW community will not be in end game/current raid gear. The ones who are already are great at what they do and could out do normal players even if they were in blues and the normal players were in end game epics, so why would end game players need a boost to stats if they rock anyway?

    Just seemed like an out of place feature that Blizzard wasted time on.
  1. Bahska's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Strafer View Post
    da fuq? they removed it entirely?

    megaton
    It breaks gear scaling for the next tier, i bet if it comes back after 5.2 they change how it works.
    For example they dont want you to totally skip normal mode gearing, currently if you have 517 upgraded gear but normal mode tier 15 drops 510 gear most guilds will just skip that gearing step.

    Even hardcore guilds spend there extra time gearing alts in normals and giving people less to do probably isn't the best for any game.

    I liked the feature and i hope it comes back even in a different form.
  1. Ferrouswheel's Avatar
    Here we go, caving in to the whiners again. Just leave it at 486, it's insanely easy to get that ilevel. Won't be long till they start adding 496 gear to the last boss of the 5mans.
  1. Blur4stuff's Avatar
    i don't use valor or justice for purchasing items. i save all the points for upgrading.

    if there was no upgrading then i'd probably buy gear with it
  1. Elmillia's Avatar
    Really wish they'd get over this "no flying mounts adds a sense of danger and exploration.".. I do not feel either leveling 1 to 60. I do not feel either leveling 85-90.

    A more valid reason would be that they want players to see the effort the art team put in before they are allowed to fly over it. Pandaria is beautiful. It has a rich story. Great setting. But it is not dangerous.
  1. Ferrouswheel's Avatar
    I agree with removing upgrading. I'd rather them put in a Vp to Jp converter so I can buy heirlooms and transmog gear with my excess valor.
  1. Ilnezhara's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kaldreno View Post
    Um, no? Once you've purchased all the pieces you can use for your Main and offsets, what are you supposed to do with the excess valor? You should be capping anyway, if you're on the Black Prince's valor quest. If you're not, dunno what you're doing in the game.
    Most of us are already done that.

    The upgrade system was terribad and I hope it never ever returns. I play a Monk (with which it's virtually impossible to get high ratings without glad partners, only a few players in the world have done it). And the gear discrepancies between me and my friends grows by the week. Why should I be punished because my class is poorly designed and cannot achieve success?
  1. Tastyfish's Avatar
    makes sense.
    I think they understand people will burn out fast, with dailies, new VP gear to buy, and then dailies to upgrade, LFR ( which seems to have taken over normal modes on low pop servers) and reg/heroic raiding, then dailies to upgrade it all.. They prob don't have THAT many new dalies to keep it interesting either.
  1. Frozenbeef's Avatar
    I hope gear upgrades never return(at least for valour/ conquest upgrades)
  1. Madruga's Avatar
    I don't see the reason behind removing completely item upgrades. I agree 5.2 gear should not be able to be upgraded as sson as it is obtained, but I don't see why 5.0 and 5.1 gear will not be allowed as well.

    Maybe they think the system was a failure? That is the only reason I can imagine for this decision.
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