Tier 16 Priest, 5.4 Dev Interviews, 5.4 PTR Notes Update, Raid Testing, Blue Posts

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Patch 5.4 - Tier 16 Priest Armor Set
Keep in mind that this is just a preview and the final set may be different.





Patch 5.4 Developer Interviews
Horde for Life had the chance to interview Marco Koegler (Technical Director) recently. You can find information from previous interviews on our Patch 5.4 Developer Interviews page.


Technical Aspects
  • Developing WoW with countries that have poor network connectivity in mind is part of the reason why you can play WoW relatively well on a poorer connection.
  • Making the game feel like you are playing locally by compensating for latency on the client and server end has always been an important part of development.
  • Fixes that took days in the past now take a matter of hours thanks to the advancement in how patching is done.
  • Whenever new features are added, people on older hardware are kept in mind to make sure the game is playable for them still. It is a painful process to maintain that kind of compatibility, but Blizzard doesn't want people to be unable to play the game due to new features.

Gameplay
  • The BMAH has been successful at giving players that are focused on earning gold items to purchase, such as mounts, pets, transmog sets, and other things. It was also useful in phasing in access to the Brawler's Guild. There aren't any changes to the BMAH planned. It isn't decided yet if new locations will be added outside of Pandaria in the future.
  • CCP allows players to run somewhat more freely with the economy, but Blizzard is interested in making sure that no one has a severe impact on other players.

Experiments and the Economy
  • The Guardian Cub was an experiment in allowing people to sell an item purchased with real currency for gold. If it would have been hugely popular, we might have seen more things like it. Playing with an established economy is dangerous though, so the devs are careful not to do anything major.
  • There are currently no plans to directly sell gold to players. It wouldn't be popular with players or good for the game.
  • The new items added to the in game store in Patch 5.4 are really only targeted at Asia as time saving conveniences. Blizzard definitely doesn't want to venture into the pay to win territory or change the current business model. It is an experiment, similar to the Guardian Cub.

Previous Expansions
  • At one point in developing the water effects for Cataclysm the oceans were 3D, moving up and down and side to side, but it looked odd with characters swimming in it. Having the waves move players or making them less visible under waves didn't work out well, so the team went with a 2D water surface with a ripple effect.
  • Vashj'ir made it difficult to place spells in a 3D environment. There was also an underwater wave effect that gave some people motion sickness, which was addressed by making the effect less pronounced in the center of the screen.


Patch 5.4 PTR Patch Notes Update - August 20
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
General
Battlefield: Barrens
  • Vol’jin and his forces move beyond gathering supplies and into a full assault on the Horde capital. As such, the Battlefield: Barrens weekly quest will no longer be available once the invasion on Orgrimmar begins in 5.4.
  • Ravika, the Darkspear Rebellion Quartermaster, will no longer be available.
  • Latent Kor'kron armor tokens will no longer drop or be available for purchase. Players who still have a Radical Mojo will continue to be able to combine it with existing Latent Kor'kron armor tokens.
  • Gahz'rooki's Summoning Stone and Raptorhide Boxing Gloves are now available as a rare drop from Kor’kron, and other associated creatures in Northern Barrens.

Classes
Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Frost
    • Frost Strike now deals 115% weapons damage (up from 105% weapon damage).
    • Obliterate now deals 250% weapon damage (up from 230% weapon damage).

Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Glyphs
    • Major Glyphs

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • General
  • Enhancement
    • Lava Lash now deals 260% weapon damage (down from 300% weapon damage).
  • Talents
    • Echo of the Elements' spell duplication effect can no longer occur more than once every 4 seconds when used against hostile players, and their pets or guardians.

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Affliction
    • Soul Swap no longer does any damage, and now copies damage-over-time effects instead of just moving them without needing a glyph. Copied effects now once again preserve their power and duration. Duration has been reduced to 3 seconds (down from 20 seconds).

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Arms
    • Slam now deals 25% more damage, but the Rage cost has been increased by 25% as well. While Sweeping Strikes is active, Slam will deal 35% of damage dealt against the primary target to all other enemies within 2 yards, and targets affected by Colossus Smash receives 10% more damage.

General
  • Surprise Attack!: Fixed an issue where players may sometimes not receive credit for defeating Hei Feng.

Battlegrounds and Arenas
  • All non-gladiator gear in Battlegrounds, Rated Battlegrounds, and Arenas will be scaled down to an item level ceiling of 496.
    • Grievous Gladiator gear is exempt from this item level ceiling.
    • The item level ceiling will increase at a rate of 1 item level point per week until it reaches a maximum of 512.

Raid Testing Schedule - August 21
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
On Wednesday , August 21, we will continue testing raid encounters in the Siege of Orgrimmar raid.

Each encounter should be available at approximately the listed times below for all Public Test Realms.

Wednesday , August 21
  • Norushen - 25 Player Normal - 10:30 PDT (13:30 EDT, 19:30 CEST)
  • Thok the Bloodthirsty- 25 Player Normal - 13:30 PDT (16:30 EDT, 22:30 CEST)
  • Garrosh Hellscream - 25 Player Normal - 16:00 PDT (19:00 EDT, 01:00 CEST)

As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a beta environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session, change the boss being tested, or cancel a test entirely, due to bugs, server hardware issues, etc. Keep an eye on this forum for the latest information, and thank you in advance for testing and providing feedback.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Change to RPPM Mechanics
As an update to this, as part of our continued balancing, we're going to increase the "time since last proc" reset on boss pulls to 120 seconds. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Experience Increase Potions
Hold your horses. The in-game store items that you mentioned may be popular in Asia, but we have to see what pans out here in Europe and the US. They may not make it into the game at all if we don't feel it's the right thing to do. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
IMO sets that become classics are ones that embody a class in some way. T16 has coherent theme accross all sets, but doesn't -
I see what you're saying, but polls of best sets always skew towards early ones, which makes me think nostalgia plays a big role. (Source)

Please rethink this RPPM change. Fun trinkets like UVLS are now having stupid low uptimes. Better yet, go to back to ICD.
ICD trinkets just feel passive. Every 10 sec, you get 1000 stats like clockwork. With RPPM we wanted to recapture fun double procs. (Source)

quick q: do you guys nerf drop rates anywhere near as often as people think you do without telling us in patch notes?
No. (Source)

the expansion is coming to an end and for the first time in the last 3 I don't have all classes at level cap. Alts != fun atm.
Many players got so many maxed out alts during the final patch in ICC and DS. (Source)
mostly the gear hump once you ding 90. Takes so much maintenance to be current. Wish valor ot Ancients stacked
If you go Flex or Heroic Scenarios, there is no ilevel. If you want higher ilevel for that or other content try Timeless Isle (Source)
Hscenario takes ilvl I'm almost sure.
In 5.3. Not in 5.4. We concluded that premade content generally doesn't need those requirements, (Source)
You seem to miss that many heroic scenario groups are being built using the trade chat. It's infact not premade
Premade is premade. If you invite even a stranger you have a chance to vet or kick them. (Source)

will the item upgrade NPC stay with the release of 5.4?
That is what we are thinking at the moment. (Source)

So, will I be able to send heirlooms to a connected realm?
The goal of connected realms is to give you folks to play with, not to give you more alts. (Source)
I'm not saying it won't happen, but just keep the goal in mind -- that's our priority. (Source)

Also did you play pre-reforge version of WOW? believe me no one wants it back reforge became core of wow's end game style.
Can you explain why? Nobody is making interesting decisions, except possibly healers. Everyone else follows a website or calculator. (Source)
Reforging is good because it means the gap between BiS and everything else is smaller. "Interesting" isn't relevant.
Interesting decisions are much more important to the developers than the gap between BiS and not BiS. YMMV. (Source)
the only real gap exists between "interesting for developers" and "interesting for players".
They are sometimes at odds since the player mindset is typically to remove obstacles and the developers' is to add them. (Source)
It may be counter intuitive, but obstacles are fun. Curving tracks with hills and koopas > straight drag strips. (Source)

For hardcore raiders, having highly geared "Alts" is needed.
That's a choice very competitive guilds make. I don't see why we'd need to make alts easier to level and gear just for them. (Source)

Then stop adding flavor items that players can't collect. Do you expect people to farm for items then trash them?
Inventory space is a resource. It has been since vanilla. (Source)

And that's different from the current legendaries how? You created the sense of entitlement by making them readily available
The cloaks are just a different cat entirely. Nearly everyone can get them. The original question was class-specific weapons. (Source)
In some ways, we thought glaives worked better than daggers, when rogues could sort of know the date they would be completed. (Source)

25 Death Knight Mogu'shan Vaults
OpenRaid and #Acherus will be running an Alliance-US Mogu'shan Vaults this weekend with only Death Knights!

This article was originally published in forum thread: Tier 16 Priest, 5.4 Dev Interviews, 5.4 PTR Notes Update, Raid Testing, Blue Posts started by chaud View original post
Published on 2013-08-21 04:32 AM
53 Comments
Comments 53 Comments
  1. ProfessorTjc's Avatar
    I am more comfortable about that echo of elements change rather than get shafted on damage from Lava burst.
  1. Farora's Avatar
    That has to be the ugliest and most uninspired tier set yet.

    Also, damnit at making ele shamans less fun.
  1. AnTwan's Avatar
    I started playing the game with 5.2. I simply don't understand how people think the old armor and weapons look better than the stuff coming out today. There are a couple of cool Wrath Sets and a few good looking Cataclysm ones, but for the most parts the old sets lack so much detail, especially (understandably) the vanilla and BC ones. The modern sets have much higher resolution, cooler effects, and the appearance of depth that most of the older sets do not. As such, I would also chalk it up to a lot of nostalgia. That's the only way it makes sense to me.
  1. mmocf93185380c's Avatar
    Thank goodness for transmog.
  1. mmoc65ba707d63's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by AnTwan View Post
    I started playing the game with 5.2. I simply don't understand how people think the old armor and weapons look better than the stuff coming out today. There are a couple of cool Wrath Sets and a few good looking Cataclysm ones, but for the most parts the old sets lack so much detail, especially (understandably) the vanilla and BC ones. The modern sets have much higher resolution, cooler effects, and the appearance of depth that most of the older sets do not. As such, I would also chalk it up to a lot of nostalgia. That's the only way it makes sense to me.
    Well the older sets were more class-based while now are tier-themed, as the guy said on tweet. Look at this one, it's actually pretty hard to say if it's a paladin, a priest or a mage... take a look on the old T6 for example, you could see a paladin or a priest coming from miles away, and there was no way to confuse them.
  1. wowaccounttom's Avatar
    The last tier (im guessing) and its this ugly??? so far, every single one has been rather disappointing.

    it looks like some random armor pieces picked up from old vanilla instances.. 5 man.. before level 60 ... just horrible
  1. AnTwan's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by noskillz View Post
    Well the older sets were more class-based while now are tier-themed, as the guy said on tweet. Look at this one, it's actually pretty hard to say if it's a paladin, a priest or a mage... take a look on the old T6 for example, you could see a paladin or a priest coming from miles away, and there was no way to confuse them.
    I don't know man, I think those armory speak to the classes because you saw those classes wearing the armor. I tink the priest gear could easily be Mage or warlock gear. My main is a Shaman and I decided to look at some old tier sets to see if I wanted to xmog in to any of them. I decided I would jut try to finish normal tier 15. I'm a troll, and it looks kind of voodoo-y with the mask and shoulders and it has neat fiery effects (the normal version). When I look at it I see shaman but maybe that's because that's what I've gotten used to seeing a shaman in.
  1. link_991's Avatar
    This is legit the first tier where I don't like any of the sets, they're kinda bland and don't really fit their classes well. It's really disappointing after tier 15 which has some pretty neat sets.
  1. SodiumChloride's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Noctus78 View Post
    I never get the fuss about reforging. every time i read about it, it seems to say that GC wants to get rid of it. am i reading it wrong?

    Yes i do need a side for optimal reforging, but i remember the struggle to get your gear right was a absolute nightmare before that.
    whats the alternative
    It's a PITA, yet another "step" before you can wear the gear you just got. The fact that its pretty expensive isn't helping - I'm sure everyone has /facepalm after getting one upgrade then have reforge lite inform you you got to reforge 90% of your gear.
  1. TheRevenantHero's Avatar
    Blizzard doesn't want to add more things to the shop that are either cosmetic or make leveling a bit quicker simply because they're fucking lazy. Look at the helms they added. $15 for ONE? I've seen maybe....4 people with one. Otherwise everyone I know thinks they should have been a bundle for $15. The reason they don't think it would be popular is because they're basing it off their retarded prices for the transmog helms. They learned they can't bleed players for hardcore dough so they won't bother with more additions other than mounts and pets.
  1. mmoc65ba707d63's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by AnTwan View Post
    I don't know man, I think those armory speak to the classes because you saw those classes wearing the armor. I tink the priest gear could easily be Mage or warlock gear. My main is a Shaman and I decided to look at some old tier sets to see if I wanted to xmog in to any of them. I decided I would jut try to finish normal tier 15. I'm a troll, and it looks kind of voodoo-y with the mask and shoulders and it has neat fiery effects (the normal version). When I look at it I see shaman but maybe that's because that's what I've gotten used to seeing a shaman in.
    Good for you. My priestes is wearing the T3 replica and everyone makes fun of her 'cause that set is ugly and poorly designed, but she doesn't care: she was a hipster before it was cool.
  1. Outofmana's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by noskillz View Post
    Good for you. My priestes is wearing the T3 replica and everyone makes fun of her 'cause that set is ugly and poorly designed, but she doesn't care: she was a hipster before it was cool.
    /highfive.
  1. Mongoose19's Avatar
    Horrible set as usual. They can't make a proper one since bulky era started in ToC.
  1. AnTwan's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by noskillz View Post
    Good for you. My priestes is wearing the T3 replica and everyone makes fun of her 'cause that set is ugly and poorly designed, but she doesn't care: she was a hipster before it was cool.
    And there is nothing wrong with that. The great thing about all these options is that they are subjective and it's your choice. I just think its a little ridiculous when people say "No one likes the new sets. The old sets are way better. Nostalgia? Ridiculous!" I think people should be honest with themselves when determining where their emotional response is coming from. Is it actually aesthetics or is it other influences.

    To note, I think nostalgia is a totally acceptable reason to transmogrify a set and I will like hold on to my tier 15 stuff for ever because, sentimentally, it was my first normal mode, current raid content downed. That's pretty cool to me.
  1. zrankfappa's Avatar
    Recolor Tier13 Paladin? oh wait ... the feathers on the shoulders and helm are different. But hey , that's what transmog is for right? covering up all the horrible new tier sets!

    Did GC really expect everyone to sit there and do all the math themselves to decide how to best hit the CAPS by reforging? The devs sometimes astound me with their total lack of foresight. I always thought that reforging was a way to reduce the number of armor peices that they had to make, in that a peice wouldn't be completely useless to some particular class.

    And the hatred for Alts ... man. What is with the hate for ALTS? IMO Valor of the ancients should stack and JP/VP gear should all be bind on account. It should get easier with the more you have. But then ... I like ALTS, they keep me from getting bored.
  1. mmoc7a4a5b24d2's Avatar
    Siege of Orgrimmar.
    That is the name of the Raid. Now have a look at the item sets and tell me the big mistake here.

    They forgot the theme of Orgrimmar and went for swirly Pandaria Titan-Old God nonsense!
  1. Granyala's Avatar
    What an adorable looking set. On a Draenei, I agree that human is ugh, but MMO champ for some reason always loves the human model.

    I hope that I can get my claws on the white/red version. Will look fabulous on a dark skinned Draenei.
  1. Flytime's Avatar
    btw patch will hit on 10/11 September! source: blizz gamescom (gamona.de)
  1. eggs's Avatar
    That set looks like a recolour of the druid t6
  1. voskopoula's Avatar
    Some 1-2 weeks ago some posters told me to stop whining and that changes are not final. I wrote then, that no matter what, these nerfs will happen and the community will be happy about them because just before the patch, blizzard will remove 1-2 of them. That this is their strategy, to implement nerfs without the nerfed spec community whine or stop playing by throwing many nerfs in the ptr only to remove some just before the patch goes live.
    Some posters in here said i was nuts but oh look! 1 nerf went out, all the enhancement shaman community will stop whining and boom! ptr goes live with 4 nerfs.!
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