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. Novarius's Avatar
    I made an smal picture to the fired npc i hope my english is okay

    "http: //carbonitegilde.funpic.de/ Edgeworld/ Voidbinder_Shadzor.png" (cant send links so delete the spacers in this link)
  1. Etherius's Avatar
    The item upgrade system was neat, but I'd be okay with it removed until the back half of a major patch. Other than upgrading your weapon, which I saw was worth the valor, 750 VP on items that give you 40-50 int/str/agil and maybe 20 haste/crit/mastery seems hardly worth being forced to upgrade, especially with how much equipment there is. If you had the intention on making your set fully upgraded, that's 750 x 2 x 16. That's 24,000 VP - 24 weeks... about 5 1/2 months. Meditate on that for a moment =p

    Also, it's obviously still up for debate, and I'm a firm believer that what the community says does make a difference, so everyone certainly should give an opinion.. constructively. To me, so long as they deliver potential craftables, VP gear to purchase and the obvious raid/LFR per raid patch, then there's a way to upgrade at the start, always. Some will just get higher up faster. However, if they do fully remove it, then we're all still on the same playing field =) no VIP upgrade tickets for anyone!
  1. tangers58's Avatar
    I just wish Blizzard would stop waffling all the time. Either have item upgrades, or don't have them; don't switch constantly.
  1. Vantro's Avatar
    I'm glad the valor capping is gone for now. While many of you complain because you need the item upgrades, I feel it forces busy work onto raiders just for the sake of something to do. And yes it is forced, while I choose to be a raider I didn't choose to valor cap every single week after all content is down just for the sake of something to do. It wasn't like this in the past, I got all my gear from VP, got offspec gear from VP and could stop caring. Contrary to popular belief I and many other raiders) enjoy when the game gets a little boring for us, so we don't have to play everyday until that next patch hits.
  1. Novarius's Avatar
    i like the upgrade option because if you have no time for raiding you can upgrade your old stuff to get a bit clother to new content. the new patch brings new gear okay but thats no reason to disable his npc a better way would be that the new gear becomes no upgrade option until it is possible in relation with the new content. an other point is what the hell we will do with the damn valor points...

    i think its fail to completely kill this nice feature block for new stuff would be enough but ghostcrawler has the last word.
  1. Revak's Avatar
    Terrible that you will not be able to upgrade the current gear when the new patch comes out. If you don't want upgrades to the new gear, don't allow it to happen. But don't take it away from gear that is already upgradeable. I thought they wanted us to use current Raids/LFR to gear up for 5.2 Raids/LFR. So anyone who isn't already 90 and upgrading their gear is at a disadvantage.

    I already have 3 90's and they are all above or at 480 so it doesn't affect them. But I like playing alts so this makes the already terrible expansion for alts (d/t dailies/gating) even worse.

    IMO
  1. Berri's Avatar
    Thank god, I really didn't like item upgrades,
  1. mmoc940b0cf7f8's Avatar
    Thank you for removing item upgrades. Felt as a necessity. And endless grind.

    -Heroic raider-
  1. Ferocity's Avatar
    This expansion feels very unstable. "Let's introduce VP item upgrades, now hey let's remove VP item upgrades but reintroduce later". Meanwhile the main problems are still ignored.
  1. Eleveneleven's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by HentaiHero View Post
    Good. Item upgrades ACTUALLY made it feel like I had to play every day, unlike dailies.
    What are you talking about? Dailies = new items.
  1. Self Inflicted Wounds's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Sensa View Post
    Well that's because what NOW constitutes hardcore and casuals (as those terms are used in forums such as this) is much different than what it used to be. The casuals have become more casual as blizz gave more and more things to them. As such, anytime anything new requires any effort at all they consider it to be catering to the "hardcore" crowd not realizing that most of the stuff they consider hardcore really isn't by Vanilla WoW standards (the "hardcores" aren't as hardcore as they used to be either).

    It doesn't help that blizzard keeps changing their minds and implementing and removing features like JP gear upgrades and more and than slightly less dailies. The new "hardcore" features really aren't hardcore but rather attempts by Blizzard to slow progression solely for the purpose of trying to stop players from blowing thru content way faster then they can develop it and un-subbing while waiting for the next patch. But constantly trying to put the genie back in the bottle (to extend game play and not to appeal to hardcores) and then caving to the whiners feeds perceptions about the state of the game that allow for the simultaneous conclusion that they are catering to either the hardcores or the casuals.

    In reality what they have done is to destroy the suspension of disbelief and immersion required to make WoW the epic adventure it once was. To be very honest they would probably be better off just going the farmville route completely because the game really isn't hardcore, by any objective standard, and the casuals would complain less. While it might not be better it would be a more consistent and honest approach.
    I agree with almost everything here. I just hope they don't decide on the farmville idea. They have sold out enough.
  1. Volendrung's Avatar
    "We don't have to do your new dailies... the valor gear is just as good as my upgraded 5.1 gear."

    I like how that was revoked pretty quick. Too bad they didn't think it through to begin with... I like the idea of upgrading and what not.
  1. mmocf091b86e91's Avatar
    For me personally, upgrade items option was another nightmare which actually made me stop playing because it blew my mind! So, I've gathered that little amount of VP I can and I was presented with an option of buying one new better item from some faction quartermaster or upgrade a couple of items from the existing gear knowing very well that the latter was subject to the rng 'oh you have just spent all your vp on upgrades and after weeks of no drops, let me now shower you with many drops in LFR, so all your upgrade are null'.

    In a way it is a great idea but for me it didn't work out, not in the current system as it is.

    But I also feel the frustration of people for whom this was a viable option, simply removing it is another Blizzard's teeter board moment.
  1. F-Minus's Avatar
    People believe to be forced into way too many things with this game. I think it's better they just stop playing completely.

    - forced to do dailys
    - forced to collect charms of good fortune
    - forced to cap valor
    - forced to do LFR
    - forced to plant "stuff" on their in-game farm
    - forced to ...

    Why do you insist on playing this game, you seem to be a slave.

    The reality is, you don't have to do any of those things, but then again, all those things are an incentive to actually play the game as opposed to stand in a major city waiting for a raid to happen like it happened 4 month into every previous expansion. I feel like I'm getting my monthly subscriptions worth for the first time in many years. That said, I'm not doing dailys, LFR or cap valor every week, I take breaks and I do it only when I'm up to it, but as said at least when I log into the game I have a reason to play the game outside of guild raids.

    Removing item-upgrading completely will just make raids prior to 5.2 non-interesting, and we're back to only one viable raid instead of having still options to go to HoF, Terrace and upgrading an item from there that might help you in 5.2.
  1. Venant's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Paisti View Post
    Thank you for removing item upgrades. Felt as a necessity. And endless grind.

    -Heroic raider-
    Hey, while their at it how about we just remove heroic modes too, its such a pain having to learn fights twice and wiping so much. And lets remove cooking, enchanting and anything else that you 'need' for raiding. It is ridiculous to remove upgrades altogether, it would be one thing to just turn it off for new gear, but now you are essentially taking a ton of gear out of the game.

    Upgrading is really useful when trying to get the required ilvl for things like LFR, which is quite annoying when you have a geared main character and you are leveling alts.
  1. mmocf3525a6d0c's Avatar
    Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

    The 2pc and 4pc both can crit.
    Direhorn Stampede are everything you dream them to be.
    meaning?
    ok, its some sort of triceratops, and i can build my own jurassic park.
    with rexie, raffie and now brunhilda...
    but.. yeah..stampede?
  1. xenogear3's Avatar
    VP gear is and will be gated by daily.
    If upgrade is there, lazy people will upgrade, not doing daily.

    In 4.1, too many people upgrade weapon, Sha's tier gloves and pants.
    NOT doing daily.

    You MUST do daily. No other option. There.
    If you don't do daily, Blizzard doesn't want you $15.
  1. Granyala's Avatar
    The fact -you- don't see a reason is irrelevant. The people who develop the game see a reason. And there is nothing in his statements that should lead you to believe it won't return. They already explained the shift to off-raid patches well enough for any adult to understand.
    Wouldn't be too sure about that. GC also stated that currently you have way too much to do with an item in order to get it to it's max potential.

    Gem, enchant, reforge AND upgrade. It's all a bit much and they want to reduce on the burdens.

    I think they will reiterate on the upgrade system. We'll see if they find a solution they are pleased with.
  1. JIMM-'s Avatar
    item upgrades are fine actually, for justice , valor and honor really, but it is absolutely horrible for conquest gear due to obvious reasons.

    If they dont want raiders to be forced to cap max valor everyweek .. why not just give more valor for each boss kill or
    they need to come out with something like a scenario within a raid, like what we had in ICC (e.g. lady deathwhisper a random add dude spawn that needs to stay alive throughout the fight or u fail the objective or the stone giant thing( the stone giant one sucks though it didnt happen during boss fight )) in order to get some reward. That was kinda challenging and new back then, didnt know why the idea got scrapped later on in cata.

    They could grant some special item / currency that allows u to upgrade ur item if u manage to complete the objective while killing raid boss , makes the encounter more interesting and less dull. (for 10 / 25 raids only , not for LFR)

    still waiting blizz to remove 10 and 25 and make all raids 15 man ..
  1. Donald Hellscream's Avatar
    atleast i wont feel like i need to be valor capped each week ( im usually capped by thursday just by doing lfr,mogu'shan vaults normal and usually 3/6 HoF, after those raids all i need is a daily heroic and maybe a daily scenario ) so in reality i can log on wednesday and thursday and then not log on until monday evening if i so desire.
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