New Beta Patch - Class Changes, Difficulty Changes, New Gear Models

NA Maintenance Postponed, Blue Tweets, Blue Posts - Balance & Bugs

Armory Stats - Battleground Popularity
Today we are taking a look at the number of battles for each battleground that took place in the last month. To find these numbers, we compared the number of battles a character had in a December snapshot of data to the number of battles they had in a January snapshot of data.

These numbers come from a character's statistics pane, so any bugs with character statistics will have skewed the results. This means that there isn't any way for us to verify how accurate these numbers are, so do not take them as fact.

The data used today is a sample made up of ~6.9 million level 90 characters. The sample is slightly biased, as players who are not in a guild are less likely to appear in our sample.

Don't see a chart? Enable javascript!

Connected Realms Update - 15/01
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
The following connection will need a little more time, and has been re-scheduled:

English Realms
  • (PvP) Bloodfeather and Kor’gall/Burning Steppes/Executus

The following realms are scheduled to be connected next:

English Realms
  • (PvP) Balnazzar and Shattered Halls/Ahn'Qiraj/Trollbane/Talnivarr/Chromaggus/Boulderfist/Daggerspine
  • (RP PvP) Ravenholdt and Scarshield Legion/The Venture Co/Sporeggar

German Realms
  • (PvE) Shattrath and Garrosh/Nozdormu

I've updated the original post, all realm connections went through except Bloodfeather and Kor’gall/Burning Steppes/Executus, which needs a little more time. We'll let you know when that's back on the schedule

If you are on a full realm, and not getting connected, will you receive more char slots then? Or will Blizzard sort this in another way, like merging a dead and a full realm? Seeing as, if you are on a realm getting connected you would be able to play with 22 chars at least (in cases with only two realms being connected), having them all in the same guild etc.
There aren't any plans to give a bunch of extra character slots to folks on non-connected realms to my knowledge, no. In the situation you mentioned with connected realms, the limit per realm is still the same, it's just those characters have a bit more freedom with how they interact with guilds or characters on a different realm (the one they're connected to).

Full realms will not be connected with any other realms, that would just make queues worse.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
PvP Gear in WoD
What matters is that the gear takes the same amount of time (mean, median, and mode), and therefore effort, to acquire regardless of what you do to get it; an instance is an instance is an instance, and what you do in that instance doesn't mean a god-damned thing. Using strict Item Level parity as the benchmark is how you get from here to there.
Of course it matters what you do.

How do you reconcile time investment in the two tasks when they don't require the same of you to complete? How are small group sports analogous to large-team puzzle solving? How is spending a week or weeks wiping on a boss comparable to a matchmade PvP game where you're going against human opponents of similar skill?

Both require mastery of your class and coordination, but you can't cross out the type and manner of gameplay as common denominators and say it doesn't matter. Of course it does. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Login Screen Music
So I was listening to the login music from the past expansions and it seems to me that Blizz uses it as a overture to all the music to the current and the last expansion. Anybody else notice this or am I just nerd raging for no point
In interviews in the past, Russell Brower has discussed how he likes to keep the original idea of the login music (the theming and key elements) and build on it with each new expansion. There's an expectation of hearing a certain style of music that says to people that they're logging in to World of Warcraft. It evokes emotions in many people and so he's said he doesn't want to take that away but instead, enhance and add to it with each of the expansions. If you sit and listen to the whole thing, you'll find that you've ended up on a journey of sorts through World of Warcraft history. It tells you about where you've been and where you are now or are going to depending on where you are in your gameplay. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

A Day in the Life of Blizzard
Would a fly-on-the-wall developer meeting series be possible? Let us see one of the fabled sit downs, if it is very clearly stated that what is being discussed is just ideas maybe the community could handle it.
I can see how something like that would be cool. In reality though experiments like the recent "WoW Source" interviews would be closer to the final product than our weekly CM meetings with the developers. There's a certain production value and level of professionalism we want to achieve with any official Blizzard video, and not only are our meetings very informal, they're meant to accomplish something a little different than any public-facing interview. It's not really in anyone's best interest for us to repurpose those meetings for public consumption.

Nah. I've seen people throw darts to make important decisions before. At least, that's what I hope they're doing. If they're actually thinking about it, we're all in big trouble with the major rework going into WOD.

It's funny to hear blizzard (a multi-billion dollar company) talking about resources. But then again they are so stingy they can't hire a few programmers to fix bugs that have been around since vanilla, and they just recycle content over and over (see hearthstone, diablo 3 etc).

Aka - We only NET about 95 Million dollars per month...Clearly we don't have enough resources for ANYTHING like this...
Reality is often quite a bit more complicated than these clever little narratives devoid of facts people like to conjure up. I wish we could get together and chat about that in greater detail some day. I'm sure the three of you would exercise patience and understanding should the opportunity arise.

Would be awesome to get a real glimpse of what it's like behind the scenes, but I wouldn't believe it.
Sadly, there's quite a bit that can't be shared and/or you would find terribly boring. I've been neck deep in spreadsheets and planning documents as are many others. "Behind the scenes" would involve a lot of photos of people staring at computer screens, sounds of frantic typing, email notifications flickering across the screen, instant messages, and meetings involving spreadsheets and planning documents. There's a lot of work that goes on and not as much shenanigans as some would like to hope for, but as Zarhym said, we do try to give more glimpses into individuals and what they do at Blizzard when we can. We'll keep working toward that end as much as possible for you. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Classes
Was the Elemental Focus buff not actually added? The tool-tip in game still shows 15% instead of 20%
The Elemental and Death Knight buffs won't show up in tooltips until the next patch, unfortunately. It is live though. (Source)
Weird question: Why does it show up in the Aspect of the Hawk-Tooltip? Normally it needs a patch to update it!
Difference in how they're built under the hood, whether they're built to be extensible by other spells or not. (Source)

With the "ability bloat" being removed. Can we expect major / minor rotation changes for classes in WOD?
Some specs may see no rotation changes, others may see significant rotation changes. I wouldn't expect any 'overhauls' though. (Source)
"mages will no longer be able to assign anything to the 3 key as they no longer need that many bindings."
Perhaps I'm odd, but if I were limited to two keybinds, they'd be 2 and 3. Button 1 is always some utility/movement button. (Source)

Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Am I wrong in thinking those dk buffs favor unholy over frost?
Slightly, which helps balance them better. (Source)

Many DKs don't seem to enjoy the awkwardness of Plague Leech. Is it here to stay? many seem to want it to go the way of the dodo
We recognize that some people find it awkward to use, and some don't. That's fine for an optional talent. (Source)

To confirm: Icy Talons was buffed because Frost AoE is in a good place and to keep parity b/w DW & 2h?
That's a decent summary; yeah. It was a knob that affects both DW and 2H fairly evenly, and results in them being closer. (Source)

Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Wheres the moonkin buffs? Aren't we underperforming?
No, Moonkins are performing pretty well right now. Not amazing single target, but still quite good in most situations. (Source)

Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Aye, the hunter buff is just across the board for all hunters. (Source)
So, five out of six tiers in a row for Hawk buffs. Think there might be a bit bigger of an underlying problem, perhaps?
We use Hawk as a buff knob because it's a safe, consistent way to do it, without any unintended sideeffects on rotations. (Source)
I think you mean you use Hawk because hunters do not, dare I say it?, scale well with gear and fall behind as each tier goes on.
Buffing Hawk is a buff to Hunter scaling rate. (Source)

Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Any plan to give MW a ranged damage dealing chi dump for using with lightning?
Unlikely. CJL is meant primarily to be used in tandem with healing chi spenders. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Not retribution?
No, Retribution is doing fairly well. (Source)

ret still need cast time for rep and TE, does this really balance in PVP for a melee class?
In WoD we're going to alter talents per spec a lot more, but not sure either of those as instant cast with short cooldown is good. (Source)

Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
I like all these dps buffsbut can you nerf disc priests while you're at it?
We discussed this heavily. We prefer not to make nerfs that aren't bugfixes this far into a tier; bad for guilds close to a kill. (Source)
Can we take this to mean that, at SOME point we will get a disc rebalancing? Even if it's not now?
Yes. (Source)

did you forget shadow priest on that list?
Didn't forget Shadow; they're not underperforming. Their performance varies significantly between fights, but overall good. (Source)
hrm, do you think a single target buff would make them too strong on some fights?
Yes, Shadow's pure single target is lower than others, but they still end up doing quite well on average. (Source)

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Do you feel that warlock pets movement speed is too slow? Seems like a DPS loss to use pets in a target switching fight.
No; how good they are at target switching is a pro/con of different warlock pets. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Warrior Haste: Perhaps we could have it reduce all CDs above 30sec? Original Fury Mastery did something similar.
That's basically what Readiness does. May not be exactly "all CDs above 30sec", but something like that. (Source)

Free Character Migrations Available
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Update - While Free Character Migrations opened this morning as planned, the page to initiate a transfer is currently and inexplicably inoperable, displaying a maintenance message. We're continuing to investigate the cause, but don't have a current estimate for when the FCMs will be available. We'll provide an update and re-post the announcement on the front page of the site once they are, though.

If you're on one of the source realms listed below, you can move your characters to one of the designated destination realms and avoid the queues -- for free!

By initiating one of these transfers, you will be moving your character to a new realm and home. This is a one-time, one-way move. If you wish to move your character elsewhere, you will need to use the paid transfer service.

  • Area 52 => Turalyon
  • Stormrage => Turalyon
  • Tichondrius => Blackrock
  • Illidan => Blackrock
  • Bleeding Hollow => Korgath
  • Darkspear => Korgath

Please be aware that, due to the unpredictable nature of free transfers, we may close down any Free Character Migrations at any time and without warning if the target realm becomes full. If you plan to move with friends or your guild, we suggest that you coordinate the effort to reduce the chance of any stragglers being left behind.

Early closures aside, this set of Free Character Migrations will end on Wednesday, January 22.

Begin a Free Character Migration now! We recommend reviewing the FAQ, as it details what is or isn't allowed for transferred characters.

Free Character Migrations Available
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
If you're on one of the source realms listed below, you can move your characters to one of the designated destination realms and avoid the queues—for free!

By initiating one of these transfers, you will be moving your character to a new realm and home. This is a one-time, one-way move. If you wish to move your character elsewhere, you will need to use the paid transfer service.

  • Draenor => Magtheridon
  • Silvermoon => Wildhammer / Kilrogg
  • Kazzak => The Maelstrom
  • Outland => Grim Batol
  • Ragnaros => Grim Batol
  • Stormscale => Grim Batol
  • Sylvanas => Grim Batol
  • Twisting Nether => Grim Batol

Please be aware that, due to the unpredictable nature of free transfers, we may close down any Free Character Migrations at any time and without warning if the target realm becomes full. If you plan to move with friends or your guild, we suggest that you coordinate the effort to reduce the chance of any stragglers being left behind.

Early closures aside, this set of Free Character Migrations will end on Tuesday, January 21.

Begin a Free Character Migration now! We recommend reviewing the FAQ, as it details what is or isn't allowed for transferred characters.

Poll: What is Your Favorite Battleground?
Which battleground is your favorite? Be sure to let us know what you like about it in the comments! (For reasons other than how often you seem to win in it)

This article was originally published in forum thread: Armory Stats - BG Popularity, Connected Realms, Blue Posts, Blue Tweets, FCM, Poll started by chaud View original post
Comments 134 Comments
  1. Aspen's Avatar
    Didn't we just have a store mount only a few weeks ago!? If they say all time spent on mop delays wod, how are they justifying all these mounts. Were going to be without new content for months and months more, but I see they have time to add store items on top of sub prices.... despicable. ...
  1. Hottage's Avatar
    Sad to see yet another awesome mount relegated to the Blizzard $tore, but hey, it helps fun the game without causing a hike in subscription fees, so why not?

    As for the Battegrounds, in Classic it would have been Alterac Valley no question, it was literally like being a unit in a Warcraft III game. The epic battles, Ivus and the Frost Lord, calling in Cavalry charges and Airstrikes! Nowadays I'd say Warsong Gulch, because it's possible for one skilled player to really make a difference, only sucks when people take the flag then farm.
  1. Itisamuh's Avatar
    I can't fathom how Alterac is winning the poll, when most Horde can't stand it due to its horrible imbalances.
  1. Darksoldierr's Avatar
    IoC and SotA default voted off, on any of my char, be it Ally or Horde. I can't stand Wrath BGs, i do not know what devs were smoking during making those and tought Vehicle combat will be fun, terrible Battlegrounds, especially before changes to SotA, it was frickin 'PvE to kill the demo', and now they even made it worse...AOE AROUND BOMBS ALL DAY ERR DAY, because that makes for better gameplay

    For me AB > Kotogu > WSG > rest
  1. Strakha's Avatar
    Some Ghostcrawler (the twitter post's still on the front page if you think i made them up)

    quotesfromgc/

    "Blizzard employs X artists. If some of those work on Silvermoon, then something else isn't going to get made."

    "Even hiring more artists still makes the choice between working on something old or something new."

    endquotesgc\

    So basically everyone(mostly blizz, but who pays them yadayada) is paying for this crap, but you have to pay a second time to actually get it.

    Optional mounts versus better things for everyone does not seem like a good way to stop the erosion of subs.

    Thoughts?
  1. mmoc495d044790's Avatar
    AV is not a fun as it used to be. loved it when i could just sit down and kill alliance over a long time in the same AV
  1. Regalbeast's Avatar
    haha....some Blizz employee somewhere is feeling like a total idiot for making that mount available on the store too early.
  1. Strakha's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Regalbeast View Post
    haha....some Blizz employee somewhere is feeling like a total idiot for making that mount available on the store too early.
    january is the historically lowest month for sales on average for most companies. im sure it will go on sale just before the superbowl when more people than ever will be drunk.
  1. Kaleredar's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Itisamuh View Post
    I can't fathom how Alterac is winning the poll, when most Horde can't stand it due to its horrible imbalances.
    Bunch of whiners is what they are. I haven't played a single AV game in the past... well, a pretty damn long time that was decided because of "Alliance-favoring imbalance." The horde barely even try in Alterac Valley anymore. Same goes for Isle of Conquest.
  1. IronArms's Avatar
    How in the world is Alterac Valley the highest on the list? It's the worst BG in existance now! It takes forever to traverse the map, no one ever stays somewhere to cap so your team can win(and for good reason, standing around and waiting is boring). I'm glad no one has really voted for Isle of Conquest because that one is even worse, but seriously AV?
  1. Kaleredar's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Steelstrider View Post
    How in the world is Alterac Valley the highest on the list? It's the worst BG in existance now! It takes forever to traverse the map, no one ever stays somewhere to cap so your team can win(and for good reason, standing around and waiting is boring). I'm glad no one has really voted for Isle of Conquest because that one is even worse, but seriously AV?
    Alterac Valley is plenty of fun for Alliance. I enjoy making the horde squirm. Hell, you can pretty easily force a turtle and grind them down into dust. It's quite enjoyable.
  1. TrollShaman's Avatar
    Maybe unlike the bat I might actually buy the skyreaver mount... if they're usable in no-flying areas like dungeons hopefully.

    Dammit Blizz.

    Personally I enjoy strand of the ancients, kinda even though somehow Horde is more likely to win it from my experience at least.
    How AV is the most enjoyable I don't understand. Alliance usually wins it due to positioning of pvp objectives.
  1. Kaleredar's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by TrollShaman View Post
    Maybe unlike the bat I might actually buy the skyreaver mount... if they're usable in no-flying areas like dungeons hopefully.

    Dammit Blizz.

    Personally I enjoy strand of the ancients, kinda even though somehow Horde is more likely to win it from my experience at least.
    I liked the OLD SoTA. All they've done is double down the zerg factor. After I got the meta for it, it was straight to blacklist...

    How AV is the most enjoyable I don't understand. Alliance usually wins it due to positioning of pvp objectives.
    Like I said, that claim is BS in pretty much any AV game nowadays. The horde don't even try.
  1. mmoc92521f709a's Avatar
    Alterac Valley: it was a great battleground once upon a time but due to countless nerf's killing mechanic's that wont ever be used until its fixed like the giant's or collecting scraps for summon troop's/buff's or releasing strong allied npc's it is getting more and more boring since now it is all about the rush. it was great back when the fight could last an eternity, yet you still got honor/reputation the longer you stayed and the more objectives you achieved, games could be decided with the team who had the most player's who went for objective's and stalling the enemy to summon stronger npc troops to push through, bases could hardly be solo caped without dying no-matter the gear if you where careless. now it is more like npc's die from 1-3 hits, aside from that its a rush towards the end of the map, ignore enemy player's almost like a pve raid and simply a race of time.... please bring back the epic feeling of the old alterac with new reward's and perhaps new reputation + threatening strong npc's making the fight last for multiple hour's. please bring back what you destroyed by overlooking during expansion's and nerfs or simply split it into 2 version's 1 normal as now and a 2nd hardcore old style.

    Strand of the Ancient: same case as AV, npc's and tower's got weaker over time, the map is more of a rush than it is fighting back, currently having the wall's is a disadvantage and the match is just not fun, it was not even that good to begin with but grew worse over time since it was simply just auto scaled with level's rather than taking a look and re-balancing it.

    Arathi Basin: a very well made map that goes back all the way to the first battleground's. it has been popular since due to the difference between all bases where each base grants a minor advantage and something negative, like the mine's grant you the possibility to capture it but the enemy cant see whether or not you are there even after capturing it so it put's extra pressure on other bases. the blacksmith serves as a spotter/tactic, where you can spot from a distance and guide your team or simply use as a shortcut. the lumber mill server's as a flight post where you can levitate/slow fall quickly toward's nearby bases should they weaken or be in trouble.

    Warsong Gulch: perhaps the most interesting yet balanced fight you can have, it offers the possibility for a team to go all out in a center/base fight or to ninja a flag or tank it through, due to its simplicity it offers a wide area of tactic's

    silvershard mines: an interesting map that display's a lot of options for tactic's however the minecart bug that occurs if you flip a switch just when it is turning still occurs from time to time when it turns the other way around and goes back all the way rather than towards a deposit.

    Temple of kotmungu: a great map indeed, the creativity is unique and remind's of the first pvp map's if you compare the re-play ability or tactics you can play in them.


    note: all in all i gotta say the map's added during mists of pandaria remind me of the creativity of the old first battleground map's they are fun to play and can be replayed without getting you bored with multiple tactics. on the other hand they are still letting AV/SotA die by simply auto balancing and nerfing thing's rather than thinking of those who play for the skill and fun it require's, the fight's have turned into a rush for time rather than a long battle as the map's appeal to and worked the best with, so many map's yet no long map's that last hour's you can join or leave during the fight's. think back on the epic battles from alterac that all remember, there are even some who play on fake server's to achieve/obtain that old feeling again where gear was not everything and npc's where not as similar to critter's as they are now but where you had to think once in awhile if you would encounter 5-10 npc's with aoe slowly taking them down risking your life or wait for backup. now you can aoe or kill them one by one without loosing any health... bring back skill and effort
  1. mmoc91c26bb0a7's Avatar
    I still have the option to purchase the sky-reaver from the ingame store. Auchindoun EU.
  1. Kaleredar's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Cr0wl0ck View Post
    Alterac Valley: it was a great battleground once upon a time but due to countless nerf's killing mechanic's that wont ever be used until its fixed like the giant's or collecting scraps for summon troop's/buff's or releasing strong allied npc's it is getting more and more boring since now it is all about the rush.
    You can literally do all of that still.
  1. MrExcelion's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Resania View Post
    I still have the option to purchase the sky-reaver from the ingame store. Auchindoun EU.
    I thought I did too, but then I clicked "buy now" and got a shop error.
  1. Noix's Avatar
    Any US server got mount yet?
  1. kurnie's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Dalanos View Post
    How the hell is AV winning this poll?
    all the bots are voting. AV and IOC are the most blacklisted bg's in the game
  1. MrExcelion's Avatar
    Probably a bit of nostalgia too. I also use it for leveling 85-90 during the CTA. If Alliance have a high win rate they're also going to like getting it lol

    More than anything I think it's the nostalgia. Post-Vanilla BGs are all pretty low. Nothing has really wow-ed us.

Site Navigation