Update: Mage and Warrior buffs, Warlock and Priest nerfs, and Death Knight changes are here!

Upcoming Hotfix to Arcane Power on Crit, Demon Hunter Fan Art, Heart of the Swarm is Live!

Isle of Thunder US - Stage 2 Unlocked

Patch 5.2 Dev Interviews
Another day, another interview. Tonight we take a look at an interview with Dave Kosak, Lead Quest Designer by Buffed.de.

Future
  • There are no more five man dungeons planned for Mists of Pandaria. (Discussion)
  • Garrosh and Varian will show up again in Patch 5.3, with another chapter of Varian's story.
  • The rewards from the daily quest factions in patch 5.2 were intended to make daily quests feel less mandatory, with the best rewards coming from raid reputation.
  • More scenarios are coming in future patches. We may see very challenging three player scenarios with pretty good rewards.
  • Future patches won't make dramatic changes to Azeroth when the war comes back, but there will be small changes to reflect the war going global.
  • The story of the last Pandaren emperor that cloaked the continent in mists will be revealed at some point in the future.
  • An animated ebook is coming that tells more of the story of Pandaria and the last emperor, Shaohao.
  • The story of the Zandalari isn't over yet!


Patch 5.2
  • Isle of Thunder unlocking is faction based and participation based. The unlock speed is based on participation percentage, not population. Doing just one quest is enough to count as contributing for the day.
  • Most realms will fully unlock the Isle within six weeks, with some doing it slightly faster or slower.
  • The Isle of Thunder has things like the summonable bosses, rare spawns, chests, Lorewalker objects, and other things to make it more than just a place to go and do daily quests. More things like these will be experimented with in Patch 5.3.
  • The Tiller's farm worked out well, and we may see more places to interact with every day in the future.
  • The Troves of the Thunder King scenario is intended to be easy to find a key for at least once a week, with a small chance to find another.
  • Outdoor bosses, rare spawns, and the Isle of Giants are all ways to encourage players to group up, and we will see more in the future.
  • The solo scenarios added in Patch 5.2 allow players to experience the Isle of Thunder unlock events even if they were unable to play for a few weeks, but we won't see a lot of these in the future. They are better for special events or skill challenges, such as the final part of the Patch 5.2 legendary quest chain.


Isle of Thunder Participation
Dave Kosak shared what the percentage of participation for your faction actually means. Some time towards the end of last week US realms stopped unlocking at the same exact rate, so be sure to encourage your faction to do daily quests if you want to keep up!



Oondasta and Nalak Hotfixes
Groups of 80 to 200 players have been forming cross realm raids to kill Oondasta, which occasionally caused some realm stability problems.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We’re in the process of implementing a hotfix that will remove players’ eligibility to receive loot from Oondasta and Nalak, The Storm Lord if they’re not on their home realm.

We think it’s great that encounters like Oondasta have been able to bring back some of the excitement of massive spontaneous outdoor raids. However, with cross-realm groups giving the ability to play with friends on each other’s realms, the amount of people concentrating on a single realm to try to zerg these bosses down can unfortunately cause a number of stability issues, impacting the availability of the game for everyone.

While Nalak isn’t available yet, we want to preemptively address this so that the first realm to unlock it doesn’t then become the single focus for the rest of the region.

Here’s the hotfix note that’ll be added to the blog shortly:

  • Players visiting a different realm are no longer eligible to receive loot from Oondasta or Nalak, The Storm Lord.

Patch 5.2 Hotfixes: March 11
Tonight's hotfixes address several issues, such as the 5% drop rate of the Zandalari dino pets, Throne of Thunder tuning adjustments, AQ exploits, and Blacksmiths making Lightning Steel Ingots too early.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
Classes

Quests

Creatures
  • Players visiting a different realm are no longer eligible to receive loot from Oondasta or Nalak, The Storm Lord. A forum thread discussing the reasoning for this change have been created.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause Oondasta to not award loot to some players.
  • Fetid Meat Pile now properly lets players that are sufficiently far away to drop out of combat.
  • Zandalari Dinomancer now have a much lower chance to drop the Zandalari Anklerender, Footslasher, Kneebiter, and Toenibbler.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
  • All raid bosses now drop the appropriate number of tier tokens for Raid Finder, 10/25-player normal and heroic modes.
  • Fixed an issue where Luck of the Draw would sometimes be incorrectly applied to Challenge Mode groups.
  • Throne of Thunder
    • Combustion now deals 100% of the player’s damage to Primordius while the player is under the effects of Fully Mutated.
    • Reduced the health of The Council of Elders for 10-player normal and heroic mode.
    • Fixed an issue with Durumu the Forgotten where Life Drain's stun was not transferring correctly.
    • Reduced the health of the Gurubashi, Amani, Drakkari, and Farraki adds on the Horridon encounter.
    • Iron Qon for 25-player normal and heroic modes had the following change: The amount of damage dealt by Unleashed Flame and number of people needed to trigger Unleashed Flame had been reduced.
    • Iron Qon for 10/25-player normal modes had the following changes: Shatter damage have been reduced by 20%, damage from Arching Lightning have been reduced by 10%, and Rising Anger stacks more slowly.
  • Scholomance
    • Fixed an issue where Lilian Voss' Dark Blaze was invisible.
  • Temple of Ahn’Qiraj
    • The Prophet Skeram and any illusions created during the encounter no longer drop loot or provide reputation when killed. This is a temporary change to address an issue with the encounter.

Battlegrounds
  • Fixed an issue with latency near the beginning of a Battleground.

Professions
  • Blacksmithing
    • Creation of Lightning Steel Ingots now requires at least one of the factions to have unlocked the Thunder Forge.

Items

Bug Fixes
  • The Skin of the Saurok disguise in Ihgaluk Crag will no longer cancel Druid Moonkin and Tree of Life forms.
  • Fixed an issue where Worgen were unable to use Two Forms after crossing into a coalesced zone while in combat.

Blue Tweets
Be sure to read these carefully, as they make note of upcoming class changes.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Classes
Also considering buffs to warrior and DK tank DPS. Possible nerfs to dot classes. Nothing extreme. DPS looks good overall (but only 1 week). (Source)
DK tank DPS Really? If that's the case please look at Prot Pally.
Prot paladin DPS looks good overall. Is there a specific fight you're referencing? (Source)

How do you feel about absorbs always being chosen over other heals in battle and making Paladin and Priest always on top?
It's just a trait of absorbs. Hots also tend to "heal snipe." It's one reason meters aren't a great indicator of healing power. (Source)

Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Sims aren't end all be all, then are you seeing in practice unholy being much higher than frost? Why more frost specific buffs
Yeah Unholy ended up on top and the goal isn't to make every Frost DK swap. Should be personal preference for 95% of players. (Source)

Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Can we get the LOS requirement dropped from Dismiss Pet? Would help out when terrain in boss rooms traps them
That seems like a reasonable request. We'll discuss it. Counters a PvP strat, but that strat is mostly annoying. (Source)

But the Silencing Shot nerf IS noticed in PVE, especially with any rares/elites that cast heals. How to interrupt now?
There is no encounter in PvE balanced around every player needing to interrupt that often. (Source)

Confused by Diziet interview and hunter class review. Hunters needed a nerf a la spriests but were in a good place in pvp?
Fixing the Stampede bug after launch and nerfing Silencing Shot a little in 5.2 are the only nerfs IIRC. (Source)

Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
To clear up some confusion, Critical Mass is a 1.3 modifier on live. There is a tooltip bug that makes it appear to be 1.2. Our apologies. (Source)

After a few more days, we now think mage DPS is low. We want to keep parity among mage specs so the buffs will likely be fairly passive. (Source)
When will these changes happen? I love arcane, raid leader has me going frost for tomorrows raid. Thank you again for all u do
The intent is before the raid reset / heroics unlock. (Source)

You overdid it destroying Fire & redid it in 5.2 to Arcane. It's galling to see Blizzard surprised Frost is over-represented.
That's not what I said. We like Frost vs. Fire vs. Arcane. We think all 3 are low compared to say lock and hunter. (Source)

I seem to be spamming scorch because of movement issues with the new bosses on ptr, anything new on the way? ;/. Sry to bother
Quickly moving then stopping to cast is generally higher performance than moving all the time and spamming Scorch. (Source)

Speccing Flameglow is boring, there's no visual (and its called flameglow, huh..) It could atleast have a little visual..
It's a passive. The visual would be up 100% of the time. (Source)
Can we get an aura to flameglow pls?
It's on always. Do you just want an icon to remind you or do you want to see a visual 100% of the time? (Source)

5.0 fire, 5.1 arcane, 5.2 frost. I feel that when i am comfortable with one spec i have to change every patch since mop releas
My advice overall is to play that you enjoy and not swap constantly based on what some website says. (Source)

Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Whats the reasoning behind monk fierce tiger hotfix nerf? I understood the 5.2 nerfs but isn't this too many at once?
We found a last minute bug with our testing related to the lvl 30 talents. It as our mistake unrelated to any performance on live. (Source)
Does this mean the 10% damage reduction on stance will be reverted? *Puppy Eyes*
No, we had to add that nerf because their damage was 10% higher than we wanted. My apologies. (Source)
Any chance of fixing the bug and reverting to 20%? Could cause problems layer. Balancing around bugs = bad.
The bug was in our testing, not the WW. We caught it too late. You were doing +10% DPS than we intended. Sadface. (Source)
The excuse doesn't make sentence, dude. How does lv 30 talents affect dps?? Chi wave?
Try measuring your DPS with and without Chi Wave. What is the difference? (Source)
How do want to make WW viable? their dmg is lower than in 5.2! srsly people are massabandoning their monks
Mass abandonment after 2 days also seems like a bit of an extreme reaction. (Source)
Maybe, although I'm sure it's crossed the mind of several after your such amusing understanding of balance in 5.2.
Are you saying you have a crystal clear picture of balance after 3 days? Hmm. (Source)
I just find the explanations for this "10%" reduction a bit reduntant. But im a fighter and so is my monk!
It's not this simple, but imagine Fierce Tiger had a bug that made it do 10% more DPS than intended. The hotfix was to fix that. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Why the change to the paladin 4pc pvp set to not work with eternal flame?
We wanted to cut down on Holy instants, so we changed the bonus to work with WoG/EG to Flash. (Source)

Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Disc feels functionally much better. Coming back with the DA change is tough but adaptable. Overall, great work.
Glad to hear it. Let's see how it feels in a week or two once everyone has wrapped their head around all the PvP changes. (Source)

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Using totems while silenced is annoying ok but to be blanket silenced every 15 seconds isn´t?
The point of silences is to counter things, especially heals and defenses. We don't like uncounterable things. (Source)

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
As an Affy Warlock, having Haunt tied into the Soul Shard system feels clunky. It felt better as a cooldown.
We like Haunt. Concerned that Soul Swap consumes all available shards though which means less for other things. (Source)

Just curious, how's the reaction to the Warlock quest been? I've spent about 20 hours wiping on Kan, feels overwhelming atm
Overall, I'd say it was this. Players who can't beat him: Please nerf. Players who managed to beat him: Please don't! (Source)

Any worse on whether Kanrethad might receive some kind of nerf? I've given all I've got, and I just can't do it as-is
Maybe someday. For now, the fight is more about execution and using all your tools than DPS. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Why did warriors get such a nerf in 5.2? Why is deadly calm gone? Why such a hate for dps warriors?
Did you really find Deadly Calm fun? I felt we added it in a weak moment. (Source)

Did you guys just not care to put a prot war explanation in the class reviews?
We made almost no changes. We adjusted their scaling a little to avoid high Vengeance craziness. (Source)

The Daily Blink - Donate, and Buff a Mage in Need
The Daily Blink came up with a new way to help out mages after the devastation brought by Patch 5.2. Let's just say it has a quick effect...

If the whole puppy commercial torture thing doesn't pan out, we'll pool all the money and buy pre-made Hunter characters on eBay.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Dev Interviews, Isle Participation, Oondasta Hotfixed, Blue Tweets, Comic, Comic started by chaud View original post
Comments 70 Comments
  1. Revannn's Avatar
    Wow that's fucking funny. I lol'd quite hard. But I'm already topping charts as fire so okay? Buff me the freak up blizz I'm ready!
  1. Papamidnyte's Avatar
    Boo Hoo, a lil nerf and you get a comic strip and yet mages is still on top the DPS simulation and rankings. there Many REAL ISSUES regarding other classes that has gotten more nerfed than you lot. So Toughen the hell up and make more food and port me home.
  1. SmokeNicotine's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Papamidnyte View Post
    Boo Hoo, a lil nerf and you get a comic strip and yet mages is still on top the DPS simulation and rankings. there Many REAL ISSUES regarding other classes that has gotten more nerfed than you lot. So Toughen the hell up and make more food and port me home.
    Show me any WOL's where a mage is top and I'll believe you.
  1. mmoc31ca91b23a's Avatar
    Only 2 pages and it's already obvious that Daily Blink flew right over some people's heads.
  1. ZeroEdgeir's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Narshe View Post
    So it's ok for crz people to take resources and rare spawns, but not to actually help with world bosses and be rewarded for it. Makes a lot of sense.
    Because when it's in intended CRZ enabled zones, the resources and questing is designed with that player volume in mind.

    Pandaria is NOT actually CRZ-enabled, in that you see people from other realms openly. You only see them if someone invites them to their group and they hop to your server.

    Don't confuse Cross-Realm Zoning and Cross-Realm Partying.
  1. Janysa's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Gillbian View Post
    Glad I did Oondasta the other day. Probably the only time it will be killed on our tiny dead server.
    same -.-
    extrem stupid change.
  1. Wishblade's Avatar
    Some nice info in the interview, good stuff to look forward to! =)
  1. mmocf0a8756358's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by eldritchforeshadow View Post
    I have one toon on a low pop and one on high pop and only the toon on the high pop will get to kill a world boss on a weekly basis.
    not everything has to be funny, i liked the daily blink, i will donate to save a mage
  1. mmoc5352742bc3's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Eliot123 View Post
    Good thing I wasn't drinking anything when I read this.
    i chuckled too
    was that sarcasm from blizzard or just actually full retarded?
  1. mmoc59b5827c7e's Avatar
    No new dailies in stage 2... wtf.
  1. Xaxxor's Avatar
    No more CRZ to kill Oondasta?... good one Blizz.
    Luckily I already got my 1st kill cuz there is no way I'll be killing that dino again in my dead realm.
  1. ej33t's Avatar
    Another rogue nerf? rabble rabble rabble
  1. mmoc1dde548293's Avatar
    The story of the Zandalari isn't over yet!
    He'd better be joking. I'm getting so sick of running into trolls every expansion, if Blizz just ended it now I am sure the community would thank him for it.
  1. mmoce1187a0503's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Omnink View Post
    Though mages needs some buffs not crazy but to a point where we are on par with the locks.
    I hope you're joking. There are a few classes who are balanced at the moment and then there are classes like warlocks who are still destroying meters.
    Nerf warlocks/spriests/boomkins multidotting power and all is fixed.
  1. grexly75's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by UcanDoSht View Post
    No new dailies in stage 2... wtf.
    As Far as I can tell new dailies should be coming once the big gate is open, not sure why no new dailies but spose since in the same area as stage 1 just from another point on the map then who knows.. But a minimum of six weeks to unlock it all wow that is a long time..
  1. Farora's Avatar
    No more new 5 mans? Great, bring on more dailies...
  1. Pacster's Avatar
    And there goes the last chance for dead servers to ever see an Oondasta kill. On my server he ist still standing after 2 days...
  1. Anjerith's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Pacster View Post
    And there goes the last chance for dead servers to ever see an Oondasta kill. On my server he ist still standing after 2 days...
    Killing optional bosses is not something that is set-in-stone requirement. Whats more, it has never been the case that Blizzard will just kill a boss for you, SOME effort on the part of the players has always been required, even for stuff like Archavon. I would wager that, if you can drum up the interest, you can get Oondasta down on your server, maybe not this week or next - maybe a year down the road - but he will eventually go down.
  1. Pacster's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Anjerith View Post
    Killing optional bosses is not something that is set-in-stone requirement. Whats more, it has never been the case that Blizzard will just kill a boss for you, SOME effort on the part of the players has always been required, even for stuff like Archavon. I would wager that, if you can drum up the interest, you can get Oondasta down on your server, maybe not this week or next - maybe a year down the road - but he will eventually go down.
    Oh really? Thank you for imforming me that we just need to try hard for a year. We got 2 10man raids...and another 2 on alliance side. That's it. You have NO idea what dead server means...;-)
  1. hiragana's Avatar
    Well thats me probably never resubbing. 5mans used to be my favourite part of the game and now blizzards made them so pointless that they dont feel the need to add more. I think the importance of 5mans was the reason i enjoyed WOTLK so much, but blizzard has slowly phased them out, it wouldnt surprise me if the next xpac didnt have any at all.

Site Navigation