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Patch 5.4 - Tier 16 Druid and Paladin Sets
Keep in mind this is a preview and the final sets may be significantly different.







Patch 5.3 Hotfixes - July 3
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Classes
  • Mage
    • Talents
      • Fixed an issue where certain situations could cause Mages to not receive the Invoker's Energy buff after successfully completing an Evocation.

Quests
  • Battle for Razor Hill: Fixed an issue where players were becoming stuck because the Zulu Rock buff was not being removed when the player dies.
  • Mogu Incursions: Master Snowdrift should no longer be engaging in combat with Shan'ze Invaders, allowing players to turn-in the quest.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
  • Throne of Thunder
    • Ra-den
      • Fixed an issue where Protection Warriors are unable to receive bonus loot upon defeating Ra-den.
  • Scenarios
    • Blood in the Snow: General chat has been temporarily removed from the scenario to fix an issue affecting General chat in Dun Morogh. A proper fix for this is in the works in an upcoming patch.

Isle of Thunder
  • Made additional fixes for an issue where players may be unable summon incantation bosses.

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Character / Items
Any reason the Valor of Ancients buff isn't cross realm, The rep bonus is but alts would find this a very welcome change.
It's a difficult technical challenge having to do with e.g. raids unlocking at different times. (Source)

I realize you didnt design the tier 16s, but I was hoping warriors would look like Garrosh not a paladin with horns sewn on.
I used to weigh in more on player feedback of art sets, but it turns out art is just sooo subjective. (Source)
The best thing I can suggest is maybe just feedback on armor themes you'd like to see (e.g. Your Garrosh example). (Source)

In this blog, you said legendaries would be more exclusive than in Cata. Why make them more accessible?
With the current legendary quest, everyone can have the expectation of getting them so it's fine. (Source)
yet.... they aren't "legendary" any more. people are expecting too much for nothing.
Another reason why they aren't weapons. Our grand plan will likely make more sense closer to 5.4 ship. (Source)

it disapp. me that now there's a leg. for everyone and it's a cloak thats shaped like a towel and clips models. Why no weapon?
We feel like we've done that a lot before. We want to keep things fresh. When rewards are too predictable they get boring. (Source)
These are a pretty different design than Fangs / Wrath. The problem with those was the expectation / entitlement. (Source)
When there is too much expectation, the item goes from feeling like a bonus to a penalty. (Source)

I am thoroughly disappointed with the legendary being a cloak. All of this work throughout the xpac and we don't use it again.
What do you mean by "don't use it again?" (Source)
These cloak models are pretty much standard fare, don't stand out from normal gear. Most people will hide them
The cloaks aren't intended to compete with glaives though. Wouldn't glaives be less special if everyone was rocking them? (Source)

Please make the questline cloaks non-unique. I'd love one for my offspec, just like I could get offspec gems.
We're still discussing it, but it's on the table for sure. (Source)

Any chance of with all the changes bring brought in, cross-faction flex raids might be a possibility? Or dungeons.. anything?
We feel like cross-faction goes against the spirit of World of Warcraft. (Source)

PLZ let us do flex w/ <10. Scaling floor can still be 10. Current challenge for our small guild is just getting 10 online.
Understood, but we have to draw the line somewhere. If we say 8 then the guilds with 4 will feel excluded, yanno? (Source)

Trying to understand self-loot in Flex. If they're our FRIENDS, why would we be so distrustful? Prefer normal loot rules.
It is mostly because we don't have a system yet to scale number of drops with number of players. Maybe in the future. (Source)

is there any chance to avoid drops at 10man that doesnt fit to anybody in raid? Like: "no rogues" then "no dagger(agi)"
What if you then stacked 8 rogues to make sure your real rogue had a good chance at a dagger? (Source)
Thats not what he is saying at all what he is saying it eliminated the chance at something if there is none not visa versa.
They are the same. If I can force loot not to drop then I can force it to drop. At the end of the day it comes down to loot speed. (Source)
We have a target for how long it takes to earn loot. If we speed it up in some ways, we'd just have to slow it down in others. (Source)

Is the game balanced around raid loot priority Tank > Healer > DPS? Discussing loot system in my guild ATM.
No. We have found that guilds use wildly different methods for determining loot. (Source)
You can also make the argument that gearing DPS before healers improves success. Shrug. (Source)

Any idea how you will deal with Rune of Reorigination and UVLS? Seem irreplaceable for some, even w/o seeing new trinkets yet.
Would that be the end of the world? (Source)

Professions
Just need to work on ligistics, archaelogy failed horribly in moving from one dig to another. They don`t put you in the world
Archaeology had too much travel time at launch. I think it feels better in MoP. (Source)

Reputation / Questing
Any chance we will see a return to the daily style of 5.1? That was by far your best imo. Scenarios, story, felt progressive.
We were getting a lot of negative feedback about daily quests at the time so we wanted to try something else for 5.3 and 5.4. (Source)

Guild Wars 2 Content Release Frequency
There were a round of interviews with some of the ArenaNet developers recently, and it appears that it isn't only WoW players that want content faster. Currently GW2 gets some sort of an update every 3 weeks or so, with the Bazaar of the Four Winds update coming next.

ArenaNet is now aiming for content updates every two weeks going forward.The developers that work on these updates are split into four teams that are each working on their own update, allowing for enough time to properly test and catch many of the issues that arise from rapid development and frequent patches.

Another interesting point that came up in the interviews is the lack of planned expansions. Rather than adding expansions to the game, the current plan is to continue with the Living World concept and just keep adding new content every few weeks. This content development is funded by purchases in the in game Gem Store, which amounts to enough to keep the team of over 300 developers going strong. The game has sold 3 million copies as of January this year though, so ongoing sales likely play a role in this funding as well.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Tier 16 Druid and Paladin Sets, 5.3 Jul 3 Hotfixes, Blue Tweets, GW2 Update Frequency started by chaud View original post
Comments 55 Comments
  1. Nexsa's Avatar
    Paladin set (Blueish version) is going to go well with my Tyrael's Charger!
  1. wowaccounttom's Avatar
    tier sets continue getting ugly. dear blizz, hire a new drawing team, yours ran out of ideas several tiers ago
  1. Farora's Avatar
    Didn't we already have sets that looked like this before? >_>
  1. xaniix's Avatar
    I play a dk and i like paladin set (Red version) Alot better then dks
  1. Arbs's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Zannypants View Post
    Doesn't mean much when only 1/5th is the actual playerbase.
    I wonder how many of that 3 Million got refunds after it didn't live up to the hype.
  1. dragnipur's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by AD Arbsbear View Post
    I wonder how many of that 3 Million got refunds after it didn't live up to the hype.
    You'll keep wondering,because you will never find out.But one thing is certain.The game is still played a lot from many players
  1. GGA1759's Avatar
    The Druid Tier 16 set looks like its been using the Trojan Vibrating Twister.
  1. Primaryjane's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by snakeeyesma81 View Post
    Anyway, 'bleeding' or not, the current playerbase is still 5x of newer mmos after all this time.
    Though that may be true, WoW also has possibly up to or more than 50x the number of servers that newer MMOs have. An MMO with as much content as WoW on a server like US-Medivh that seems to have maybe 200 active Horde definitely feels like a dying (or bleeding out) game.
  1. mmoc37cfb5e035's Avatar
    The new sets don't stand out at all. They may as well be hunter or warrior sets. Generic dark armor with a few bright-coloured aspects. Blizzard should hire some new "idea guys" for their Tier designs.
  1. indirect's Avatar
    One of the few reasons I stopped playing this game... THEY'RE STILL GIVING PALADINS FUCKING DRESSES.
  1. Phaidrae's Avatar
    Oh goodness...Another atrocity placed atop a Druid's head. I really have to question why they have insisted on making Druid helms so fucking awful since LK. With the exception of T8 I don't think I have liked a Druid tier helm in this game for a very long time. Always ends up looking VERY bad. /hands head

    At least I have my Troll's eyepatch for xmog.
  1. Alayea's Avatar
    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    it disapp. me that now there's a leg. for everyone and it's a cloak thats shaped like a towel and clips models. Why no weapon?
    We feel like we've done that a lot before. We want to keep things fresh. When rewards are too predictable they get boring.
    These are a pretty different design than Fangs / Wrath. The problem with those was the expectation / entitlement.
    When there is too much expectation, the item goes from feeling like a bonus to a penalty.
    The "expectation/entitlement" is mostly Blizzard's fault - they gave us a legendary weapon in classic WoW and every expansion afterward prior to MoP. MoP was partially a welcome change from the norm in that we got a legendary gem and meta, but many still had the reasonable belief that at the end we would be rewarded for our efforts with a weapon. Sorry Blizzard, but the cloak slot isn't all that "legendary".

    R.I.P.:

  1. Dreyen's Avatar
    Druid set is ok looking... but its not really druidish!
  1. mber341's Avatar
    The "problem" with the Tier sets isn't that they necessarily look bad. It's that they look bad on the male human model. We don't really get to see how cool they look until we see them on appropriate races. The druid and shaman ones for example probably look much better on a tauren, for example. I play a troll and I hold my judgements until I can view the sets on a 3d model viewer.
  1. ChairmanKaga's Avatar
    Did MMO-Champ skip the Priest Tier 16 video?
  1. Gilthresa's Avatar
    rip gw2, seriously
  1. dragnipur's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Gilthresa View Post
    rip gw2, seriously
    Not gona happen.GW2 will go just like GW1 did.For 5 more years with a three or four enxpansions until GW3 is out
  1. Sharuko's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Merp View Post
    Try again. Most servers are are full or high population. In January the active concurrent players were more than 1 month after release. These are facts. Yours are not.

    Play what you want, like what you want, but stop telling lies about that game. GW2 is going very strong, deal with it. I'd rather question Blizzard if they can't do more while their competitors release free content patches every 2 weeks while asking for no monthly subscription. Then feel free to play and enjoy whatever you want, but this stream of "inaccurate" statements about every game which is not WoW is really dumb.
    Every single day in GW2 related forums someone pops up to say "I heard that this game was dead but it's actually very vital!". You are not doing the WoW community a great service by giving the impression that you are just sour about the possibility that other MMOs may be successful. They can, that's a fact. It's not like that takes anything away from you. It should rather be a motivation for WoW developers to do better.
    Strong? There are 6-8 servers in GW2 with healthy populations, the rest of the servers are dead. By dead I mean you won't see more than 30-40 players period. Try leveling a new character, you will see no one in low level zones, for a game that is not even a year old that is pretty terrible.

    In terms of actual data, they have lost anywhere from 80% to 90% of player activity since launch per Xfire. Website traffic to sites like Guildwars2.com and GuildWars2Guru have dropped 80% since launch. Per Raptr, GW2 is on par with SWTOR in terms of hours played (and SWTOR is supposed to be a "failure"). The traffic of /r/guildwars2 has also dropped 70% to 80% since launch. Again, all these various sources show a 70% to 90% drop in players.

    Now this is not unique to GW2, many MMOs come out have a peak during launch and fizzle. GW2 also followed the same route, it is just like every other MMO out there. It is not special it was not "more successful". Today it is on par with SWTOR. But the future isn't so bright. NCSoft is putting all their money behind WildStar, so don't expect any big expansions from GW2. At least not while WildStar is around and popular. That is the reason Mike told players not to expect an expansion, the game doesn't have NCSoft's attention.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Merp View Post
    Try again. Most servers are are full or high population. In January the active concurrent players were more than 1 month after release. These are facts. Yours are not.
    Servers being "Full" or "High" don't matter. Rift and SWTOR servers said "Full" and "High" when servers were dead. Developers can say "Full Server = 300 Concurrent" and call it a day. It means nothing.

    I would love to see a source on that January stat you posted. That is impossible, since most data said a 70% drop from Sept '12 to Jan '13. If your source is Colin, please read what he wrote again. There is nothing factual about your statement.
  1. Awe's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Sharuko View Post
    Strong? There are 6-8 servers in GW2 with healthy populations, the rest of the servers are dead. By dead I mean you won't see more than 30-40 players period. Try leveling a new character, you will see no one in low level zones, for a game that is not even a year old that is pretty terrible.

    In terms of actual data, they have lost anywhere from 80% to 90% of player activity since launch per Xfire. Website traffic to sites like Guildwars2.com and GuildWars2Guru have dropped 80% since launch. Per Raptr, GW2 is on par with SWTOR in terms of hours played (and SWTOR is supposed to be a "failure"). The traffic of /r/guildwars2 has also dropped 70% to 80% since launch. Again, all these various sources show a 70% to 90% drop in players.

    Now this is not unique to GW2, many MMOs come out have a peak during launch and fizzle. GW2 also followed the same route, it is just like every other MMO out there. It is not special it was not "more successful". Today it is on par with SWTOR. But the future isn't so bright. NCSoft is putting all their money behind WildStar, so don't expect any big expansions from GW2. At least not while WildStar is around and popular. That is the reason Mike told players not to expect an expansion, the game doesn't have NCSoft's attention.
    It is funny how you manipulate your evidence. Some proponents of GW2 (or any other game as a matter of fact) may do this but you are no better. Website data does not translate to game activity. It might indicate a trend and yes, that is a fact that GW2 lost a lot of players compared to the launch month. But so did every other major MMO with two exceptions, WoW and EVE Online (but the second one being a niche game). That does not make all those games failures or dead titles. If you would use such line of judgement, than pretty much every online game apart from WoW, LoL and CoD is a failure. Going back to your website statistics. I visit MMO Champ more often than GW2 website and I dont play WoW since quite some time while I play GW2 almost every day till now. When GW2 launched I visited their website several times each day. Now I do that much less often. So according to you I should be an example of someone who plays WoW atm. Which is not the case.

    You mention Xfire stats but only in terms of activity loss. Why not compare activity of WoW from MoP launch month to current one? You also mention Raptr stats where you indicate that GW2 and SWTOR has similar hours played stats yet you completly ignore the fact that SWTOR has been out for 19 months and GW2 for 10 months. That puts GW2 with almost double stats compared to SWTOR, not bad considering with how strong franchise brand SWTOR started out.

    You claim that all but 6-8 servers are dead. I cant refute this becouse I dont have a character on every server. In this regard I can only provide anecdotal evidence about my server and I can say that the population is quite healthy. I see around much more people than I seen in WoW before the CRZ implementation. After that I would say they were pretty much comparable. But since I mention that. Do you have a character/account on every server? Do you transfer every month? If not, where do you pull your evidence from?

    In the end, it does not matter which game is "better". It is all in the eye of the beholder. I spent my fair share of time in WoW. I will always respect this game. But right now I personally prefer GW2 and prefer to play it rather than WoW. And guess what, GW2 is not dying nor is dead. Same as SWTOR, same as Rift. The game will only be dead once the servers will shut-down as happened in cases of SWG or Tabula Rasa. Before this happens, none of those games are dead or something that "nobody cares about". And to please a bit the ego of WoW players, despite some subscriber losses in recent months, WoW is not dead nor dying as well. I hope you will all be able to enjoy your game for years to come without trying to prove to anyone who plays something else that all other games are worth sh** compared the only title that matters.
  1. Sharuko's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Awe View Post
    It is funny how you manipulate your evidence. S

    And guess what, GW2 is not dying nor is dead. Same as SWTOR, same as Rift. The game will only be dead once the servers will shut-down as happened in cases of SWG or Tabula Rasa.
    No manipulation here, it is all facts. GW2 is pretty much done for. I mean if you look at their sPvP servers there are like 300 people across all server during Primetime. Yes, just 300 people in sPvP. That is pretty terrible.

    I agree with you, GW2 is SWTOR tier. They probably have similar populations. It isn't "dead", but it is pretty much done once WildStar comes out and NCSoft treats it like the red headed step child that it is. Which is why the post by MMOChampion says there won't be big expansions, there won't be funding.

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