SoO Stormwind Harbor, 5.4 Notes Update, RPPM and Haste Changes, Blue Posts, TCG Art

Penny Arcade and Scott Kurtz Invade New Tristram, Activision Blizzard Earnings Call Q2, Blue Posts

Blue Post Recap - Arena & Card Clarifications

Patch 5.4 - Siege of Orgrimmar Stormwind Harbor
A damaged version of the Stormwind Harbor area exists in the Patch 5.4 PTR files. This is not located in the regular world, just in the Siege of Orgrimmar encounter.

During the Garrosh encounter in Siege of Orgrimmar, players are teleported to a modified section of Temple of Jade Serpent, Terrace of Endless Spring, and Temple of the Red Crane. Each area has a sha spell surrounding part, preventing you from leaving it. This version of the Stormwind Harbor has a similar spell, along with the Fire Unstable Iron Star and Bombardment spells. These point to the area being used at some point during the Garrosh encounter.

Keep in mind that this is just speculation and nothing is confirmed, a point which Zarhym stressed in the blue post below!




Originally Posted by Zarhym (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Hello, Alliance.

Howdy, Horde.

Understandably, there's a lot of rampant speculation about a version of Stormwind Harbor that has been found in the 5.4 PTR files with virtually no context behind what's going on in that environment, or where, how, and why it could be in the game. That should be relative to the time you spend drawing conclusions about what you know so far of this alternate Stormwind Harbor environment.

Food for thought! Happy Friday.

That sure was a lot of words that didn't mean anything. If you actually think that a contentless blue post is going to decrease the rampant speculation instead of increasing it, you're completely wrong.
My goal wasn't to stop people from speculating. I'm just saying that drawing a conclusion from what you know about this alternate version of Stormwind Harbor -- hidden somewhere in the 5.4 PTR files -- and using that to fuel the narrative that we don't care about the Alliance isn't very productive.

Patch 5.4 PTR Notes Update - August 2
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
General
New Area: Timeless Isle
  • Players seeking to explore the Timeless Isle should visit their faction's shrine in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. check their mailboxes, where a Curious Ticking Parcel awaits. Unwrapping it will set you on the first step of your new adventure.

Classes
  • Vengeance has received several changes.
    • Vengeance now grants Attack Power equal to 1.5% of the damage taken, down from 1.8% (The tooltip said 2% but it was actually 1.8%).
    • Tanks no longer receive Vengeance from many persistent area damage effects (standing in the fire) or from missed attacks (dodging and parrying an attack will continue to work as it has before).
    • There are now diminishing returns on Vengeance gains while tanking multiple targets. Each additional target grants progressively less Vengeance.

Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • General
    • Wild Mushroom for Restoration Druids now summons a single mushroom at the friendly target’s location. If the mushroom is recast, the mushroom moves to the new location and retains its accumulated bonus healing. A single mushroom now heals for as much as what 3 mushrooms combined healed for previously.

Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • General
    • The following Hunter pet abilities no longer cost Focus to use: Dash, Dive, and Charge.

Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Mistweaver
    • Revival healing has been reduced by 30%.
  • Windwalker
    • Storm, Earth and Fire now deals 75% damage (up from 60%) with one Spirit summoned and 60% (up from 45%) with two Spirits summoned.
  • Glyphs
    • Major Glyphs
      • Glyph of Targeted Expulsion now causes Expel Harm to heal for 50% as much when used on other targets.

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • General
    • Shadow Word: Death damage is now increased by 80% when used on enemies that have less than 20% health, but the cooldown is no longer reset if the target does not die.

Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • General
    • Evasion now increases dodge chance by 100% (was 50%), cooldown has been reduced to 2 minutes (down from 3 minutes), and duration has been reduced to 10 seconds (down from 15 seconds).

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • General
    • Battle, Berserker and Defensive Stance [alternative: Warrior Stances] now have a 1.5-second cooldown (down from 3 seconds).
    • Intervene now also breaks roots and snares when used.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
Raids
  • All enemies in Throne of Thunder now have a debuff called Shado-Pan Onslaught, which reduces their health and damage by 20%.

Scenarios
  • Heroic Scenarios no longer have a minimum item level requirement to enter.

Items
  • Trinket, enchant, set bonus, and legendary meta-gem effects whose triggered effect benefits from haste no longer also have their chance to trigger the benefit from haste. Activation chances for those effects have been adjusted to compensate.

Patch 5.4 Change to RPPM Mechanics
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
There are some further changes to the RPPM system in development that we'd like to share with you. As you know, RPPM is something we've been doing a lot of iteration on, and we have another iteration that should be hitting the PTR soon:

As you may know, RPPM proc rates typically scale with haste. This was done because historically, attacking faster meant you had more chances to proc something, so got more procs, and we wanted to preserve that effect. However, most procs before RPPM were such that either their effect didn't also scale with haste, or their proc rate was predominantly limited by an ICD. Many of our RPPM effects thus far have had neither of these limitations, such that they effectively 'double-dipped' on haste, benefiting twice from it. In some extreme cases, the proc was designed such that they actually triple-dipped.

As RPPM effects have become more wide-spread and more impactful, this has caused a variety of problems. Primarily, it has skewed stat balances toward haste rather significantly. It's also a compounding problem where many of these procs stack multiplicatively with each other, causing insane burst when all of these procs go off together. That can be fun, but also raises the skill cap on your performance, and makes gearing choices more restricted to ones which stack together optimally.

For 5.4 we're going to change both new and existing RPPM procs to not double-dip on haste. Benefiting once from haste is fine and expected, but not twice. For example, suppose you have two hypothetical procs, Flamekissed and Villainy:
  • Flamekissed's proc rate scales with haste, and its effect says "Chance on hit: Deal 500 additional fire damage". This is fine, because only the proc rate scales with haste; the effect doesn't.
  • Villainy's proc rate also scales with haste, and its effect says "Chance on hit: +5000 Agility for 20sec." This is not fine, because both the proc rate and the proc effect scale with haste. The more haste you have, the more attacks you do in that 20sec period which benefit from the increased Agility.

If both the rate and effect of a proc scale with haste, we're going to remove the haste scaling from its proc rate. In these cases, we'll compensate for an expected amount of haste by increasing the base proc rate. For any procs whose effect does not scale with haste, their proc rate will continue to scale with haste as before. However, we're also revisiting the proc rate tuning on all existing procs that were made overbudget due to the addition of Unlucky Streak Prevention (which ends up increasing effective proc rate by 9%). These changes should bring RPPM procs back to being on-budget and tied with traditional ICD procs in value.

This will obviously have a noticeable effect on most players performance; don't panic. We're going to be adjusting damage/healing/tanking performance with these changes in mind.

These RPPM changes should make it to PTR soon, and you'll be able to find the exact changes to each such effect there. We now show RPPM proc rates in the tooltip of the effect, which should make it easy to find.

Lore is the change in post #256 happening concurrently with the change to essentially prevent procs on boss pulls? While I'm glad to see haste being so ridiculous, I still hate the idea that 2 minute CDs could have to be held for 90 seconds to match up with procs.
We're still planning on making that change as well, yes.

However, we recognize that not everyone likes the RPPM gameplay, and are going to greater lengths to provide alternative options in Siege of Orgrimmar. In addition to RPPM-based trinkets, there will be trinkets that use the older internal cooldown (ICD) method, as well as a few on-use trinkets if you'd prefer to have an even greater degree of control over when your trinkets are active. There's even a couple trinkets with completely passive effects.

RPPM Haste Change Table
"Budget" in the below table is defined as- accounting for the item budget difference between a standard ilvl and the ilvl of the item in question. The standard ilvl for Throne of Thunder trinkets is 528. The standard ilvl for the legendary cloak is 600. Note: This table has been updated with new values from the tooltips since the original post.

ItemOld PPMModsNew PPMMods
Breath of the Hydra0.53Haste1.1 
Bad Juju0.55Haste11 
Wushoolay's Final Choice0.59Haste0.61 
Renataki's Soul Charm0.62Haste0.7 
Fabled Feather of Ji-Kun0.62Haste0.7 
Cha-Ye's Essence of Brilliance0.81Haste+Crit0.85Crit
Gaze of the Twins0.83Haste+Crit0.72Crit
Primordius' Talisman of Rage3.3Haste3.5 
Talisman of Bloodlust3.3Haste3.5 
Spark of Zandalar5.5Haste5.5 
Rune of Re-Origination1Haste+Budget1.1Budget
Unerring Vision of Lei Shen0.53Haste+Budget0.58Budget
Horridon's Last Gasp1.05Haste0.96Haste
Inscribed Bag of Hydra-Spawn1.79Haste1.64Haste
Stolen Relic of Zuldazar3.15Haste2.89Haste
Lightning-Imbued Chalice6.3Haste5.78Haste
Haromm's Talisman0.5Haste0.92 
Kardris' Toxic Totem0.5Haste0.92 
Nazgrim's Burnished Insignia0.5Haste0.92 
Black Blood of Y'Shaarj0.61Haste0.92 
Skeer's Bloodsoaked Talisman0.61Haste0.92 
Ticking Ebon Detonator0.61Haste1.0 
Dysmorphic Samophlange of Discontinuity0.92Haste0.51Haste
DPS Warrior 2T151Haste1.1 
DPS Death Knight 2T151Haste1.15 
Hunter 2T151Haste1Haste
Hunter 4T153Haste3Haste
Enchant Weapon - Colossus6Haste5.5Haste
Enchant Weapon - Elemental Force10Haste9.17Haste
Enchant Weapon - Windsong2Haste2.2 
Enchant Weapon - Jade Spirit2Haste2.2 
Enchant Weapon - Spirit of Conquest2Haste2.2 
Enchant Weapon - Dancing Steel2.3Haste2.53 
Enchant Weapon - Bloody Dancing Steel2.3Haste2.53 
Enchant Weapon - River's Song4Haste3.67Haste
Capacitive Primal Diamond21Haste19.27Haste
Sinister Primal Diamond1.18Haste1.35 
Courageous Primal Diamond1.4Haste1.61 
Indomitable Primal Diamond1.4Haste2.57 
Xing-Ho, Breath of Yu'lon3Haste+Budget2.611Haste+Budget
Fen-Yu, Fury of Xuen & Gong-Lu, Strength of Xuen1.5Haste+Budget1.74Haste+Budget
Jina-Kang, Kindness of Chi-Ji1Budget.581Budget

Personal Loot in Dungeons
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We are looking to bring the personal loot system that's currently used in LFR to dungeons as well, which will of course solve that problem. Randomly matching players together just doesn't match well with coordination and universal agreements over loot distribution. No announcements yet on when that will be coming, but it won't make it for 5.4.

Also, low level gear does not matter too much because there is no ilvl requirement for dungeons until you reach Cata content.
It wouldn't just be for low level dungeons.

Please do not add an extra element of RNG to what is already there.
It'd actually be less RNG because you're not competing against an unknown element of rolls by the other players you're randomly matched with.

I dislike the LFR loot system because when I kill a boss, I like seeing loot drop regardless of whether it's for me or not. I am not a fan of "personal" rolls and it honestly feels like a huge nerf when you put it in low level dungeons.
I kind of agree with that, personally, I'd like for loot drops to still be shown for everyone but I know it's not necessarily as simple as that.

Clearly the OP of this thread, as well as thousands before it, are based on the fact that a random group of strangers being matched to take on content will tend not to come to universal agreements on how loot should be distributed. Those situations do not make most people happy. This would be a change for high level progression dungeons as well, the ones where your rolls on loot can determine how quickly you progress.

I'll stop here and say there aren't any specific details available to share, where it would apply, or when, but it is something we are looking at implementing and we'd appreciate any feedback on how this might impact how you want to play the game.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Legendary Cloak Upgrades and Multiple Cloaks
I know this is slightly off-topic, but can we turn in our cape for a new one or have the ability to choose which cape we want to make Legendary?
I'm not completely sure how things are set up in the build that's going up today, but our intent is actually that you'll be able to acquire multiple Legendary cloaks, if you like. So, if you wanted, you could actually get one for both your Protection and Retribution spec.

As an update, there's been a very slight change of plans. Our current thinking is to either start the Legendary cloak off at 2/2 upgraded (regardless of whether you upgraded the Epic cloak or not), or just have it set to 608 item level and disable upgrades for it. If we do decide to make one of those changes, the cloak will not be upgradable further than item level 608.

Apologies for the misinformation earlier. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Epicness of Epic Items
That little green tag which says "Heroic" is the new epic. Purple is just the new blue.
I kind of agree. I’m wondering… do you guys feel that if the green “heroic” or maybe even the thunderforged tag could be transformed into something else instead? Let’s say for example… something more like Hearthstone’s golden border around the cards. Would that make those items feel more appealing and rewarding to you? Personally I imagine it would, since that gear would be much more noticeable whenever you would inspect someone.

I suppose it should really work like this, the top 5-10% of iLevel gear of any single expansion should be Epic. This should be dynamic and change gear from Epic to Rare when the next tier comes out.
Same goal, but a different and very interesting approach. I wonder what most would prefer…

Let us hear about all your crazy ideas. Nothing is too crazy!
I’m all for brainstorming on the forums, sometimes really good ideas can come up from these discussions, and devs do pay quite a lot of attention to feedback and suggestions, so you never know…

You did see the items I linked, right? Same level Blue is much more powerful? When I mentioned them in the last thread about this I got shot down with people saying I was an idiot as they aren't the same as they drop in different areas.
I did and you have a good point, but I think that's the exception to the rule. You could say the same thing about comparing last expansion’s epic items to MoP’s greens and blues.

In general, dungeon/raid items from the same expansion have a linear association between ilvl and colour. The issue is that above a certain ilvl, everything will be purple, which ends up making purple more “common” than blues later into an expansion since it will be much harder to find someone wearing blues than purples at that stage.

*Keep in mind that there are currently no plans that I know of to change the way these tags are displayed, this is intended as merely a gathering of suggestions and feedback. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Play With the Blues – Timeless Isle
You can see the new Timeless Isle quests added on the WoWDB PTR site.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
This coming Tuesday, August 6, 2013, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. PDT, select members of the World of Warcraft Development and Community teams will be hosting a “Play With the Blues” event on the PTR! Anasterian and Broxigar will be the two realms you can choose from where you can play alongside Ghostcrawler, Bashiok, Zarhym, Nethaera, Daxxarri, Rygarius, Lore, and Crithto. The Blues will be divided among the realms, participating as both Alliance and Horde and we’re hoping you will join us as we explore the mysteries of the Timeless Isle.

One of our goals is to have a lot of fun! And at the same time, we’re also hoping to receive your feedback about the island. Hidden chests, spooky caves, ghostly ships, angry rare mobs, helpful power-ups, and birds that will pluck you from your boots and take to the sky; this will be a wild event where you’re sure to walk away with some cuts and bruises. And maybe even some epic lewtz!

To copy a character to the Public Test Realm, log into your Battle.net account, select World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria PTR listed in Your Game Accounts, and then click on the link that says, “PTR Character Copy”. You may also create a pre-made level 90 character of your choice. Either way, we truly hope you’ll join us and share your feedback about the new content.

Many of you have already experienced some of the adventures on the Timeless Isle and there are a few updates we’d like to share with you. Listed here are some adjustments that will be implemented in time for the Play With the Blues event:

  • Based on initial feedback, we’ve lowered the health and damage of many of the creatures on the Timeless Isle.
  • Several avoidable mob abilities have had their damage reduced, or have been given a more obvious visual warning.
  • Celestial abilities will no longer hit players outside of the Celestial Arena.
  • Using the Censer of Eternal Agony will no longer make you hostile to friendly NPCs.
  • Many new quests have been added to the Isle which are designed to tell more of its story.

Come Monday, we hope we can all have a great time testing these new adjustments and many of the other features on the Timeless Isle together. And of course, your feedback is important, so please feel free to post it in the PTR Discussion forum.

TCG Art Update
Blizzard has updated the Trading Card Game art gallery to feature ten new pieces.

This article was originally published in forum thread: SoO Stormwind Harbor, 5.4 Notes Update, RPPM and Haste Changes, Blue Posts, TCG Art started by chaud View original post
Published on 2013-08-03 01:27 PM
68 Comments
Comments 68 Comments
  1. Keristrasza's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Deathknight1700 View Post
    Does anyone else think that the 100% dodge chance for rogues is a little op...? I mean I think it should be maybe 70-80% because having 100% chance to dodge on only a 2 min cd just seems like it would make them almost invunerable for what could be the entire duel against someone.
    I'm sorry but it's people like you who really annoy me. "Hey lets just get this class changed too how I want them so I don't have to think when dueling them like ever!" Seriously, it's not that hard to beat a rogue, and it's not like they can heal properly. The fight might take a little longer than most but any good and decent player will know how to actually BEAT a rogue in dueling even with that 100% dodge chance. Stop whining for nerfs and get better at "pvp" -_-;
  1. mcbubble's Avatar
    haha, the new loot system fan boys are out in full force.
    I prefer the old system. I hate joining LFR week after week and having all LFR loot depend on chance.
    I preferred bringing a guild, and having everyone roll for loot for you....compared to the alternative (get 2 pieces off of 12 bosses, and its usually pieces you dont want/need)
  1. jazzyy's Avatar
    solution: just completely remove the loot system, first person to loot boss gets all loot
  1. mmocb2358cdeee's Avatar
    I would guess the Stormwind harbor is part of heroic Garrosh (considering it wasn't a place you would visit during the normal mode testing)
  1. Blur4stuff's Avatar
    the old loot system had more to do with chance than this one

    not sure how that's even a valid complaint
  1. Dreyen's Avatar
    Maybe the stormwind harbor part could be another phase of garrosh on heroic mode they want to keep secret? : P
  1. Mascotte's Avatar
    Prolly just a dream/vision stage during the Garrosh (HC) encounter like with C'thun.
  1. Shudder's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by BMJaeger View Post
    I'm guessing the Stormwind thing is a "vision" as a warning of what will happen if we don't take down Garrosh.
    Is there a way to opt out of this whole killing Garrosh thing? If this is what happens when he lives I'd like to get on that train.
  1. Trassk's Avatar
    Stormwind harbour will be nothing more then a vision trip when you enter the 'heart world' you get summoned to, as a vision it wants to show Garrosh if he wins the war.
  1. Aeula's Avatar
    Zarhym said howdy to horde and only a 'hello' to alliance ?! It's pretty clear blizz favors the horde now...

    But seriously, why couldn't we hordies let garry have a bit of fun with his new sha-infused power before stopping him ? He seems to be giving the allies a good run for their money.
    And speaking of money i wonder if the economical aspects of this war will be shown in a future expansion...more poor crouding the streets of the capital cities...the occasional riot... y'know typical peasent/peon stuff.
  1. Omega10's Avatar
    "haha, the new loot system fan boys are out in full force."

    Well YEAH... and there are a lot of us. Which is why this loot system was deployed in the first place. You are correct, it makes it a bit harder for you to be carried. The upside, and this is a HUGE upside, is that it completely defeats ninja looters. I am really looking forward to this change.
  1. Soeroah's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ryanp0405 View Post
    I hate to be the guy that says this but... they always favor the horde. We've been getting facerolled every expansion, first with stormwind getting completely domilished by Deathwing and the loss of the park, and now this? Losing SW Harbor? How come horde can't lose a big chunk of org? The city's big enough as it is.
    They did. Orgrimmar was completely rebuilt in Cataclysm because between the Scourge and Elemental invasions, most of it was razed, burned to the ground. The only difference is they didn't show the repairing, apart from the gates, but then Stormwind's harbour just magically appeared one day, so...
  1. Jackdemenzes's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by TheSweetness View Post
    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    We are looking to bring the personal loot system that's currently used in LFR to dungeons as well, which will of course solve that problem. Randomly matching players together just doesn't match well with coordination and universal agreements over loot distribution. No announcements yet on when that will be coming, but it won't make it for 5.4.
    I hope we are able to go back and farm for a nice looking cloth robe or cool leather helm to run around in if we want. Hopefully this only applies while being in a random dungeon group. Otherwise it's an eff you to RPers.
    I imagine it would only work on groups formed via the LFD tool, not if you zoned in via the portal, just like LFR and Normal.
  1. Repefe's Avatar
    The mushroom change for resto ... really happy with it. Also

    I kind of agree. I’m wondering… do you guys feel that if the green “heroic” or maybe even the thunderforged tag could be transformed into something else instead? Let’s say for example… something more like Hearthstone’s golden border around the cards. Would that make those items feel more appealing and rewarding to you? Personally I imagine it would, since that gear would be much more noticeable whenever you would inspect someone.
    You are onto something. Purple as epic color lost its epicness.
  1. Morgomir's Avatar
    No matter what, in most circumstances it improves the chances for loot, just by removal of people who roll on stuff they shouldn't. I would rather walk away from a dungeon or raid knowing my luck was bad, than being pissed at the community for being stupid, rude, or greedy.
    this x 1000
  1. risingforce's Avatar
    Aww, I don't like those Vengeance changes! ;(
  1. iamthedevil's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by kindomroll View Post
    Like we couldn't already see this in the front page....
    Someone seems a little bit lost.
  1. deathslover's Avatar
    wtf blizz nerfing monks revival one of the only heals cd that is worth using
    so all they heals classes get their CD's increased and monks get nerfed good one

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Aeula View Post
    Zarhym said howdy to horde and only a 'hello' to alliance ?! It's pretty clear blizz favors the horde now...

    But seriously, why couldn't we hordies let garry have a bit of fun with his new sha-infused power before stopping him ? He seems to be giving the allies a good run for their money.
    And speaking of money i wonder if the economical aspects of this war will be shown in a future expansion...more poor crouding the streets of the capital cities...the occasional riot... y'know typical peasent/peon stuff.
    and you didnt kno that already?
  1. Crazozourus's Avatar
    At the end of every raid tier, all epics should be converted to blues so if you want to have epics you need to get them.
  1. Flower Milk's Avatar
    I don't like the LFR loot system because it just means one less thing for people to talk about, and the game feeling more and more lonely and singleplayer. It seems like the only thing that ever gets discussed in LFR nowadays is calling someone a noob or something. I just want a MMO experience again :/
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