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Season of Discovery Hotfixes - 23 April
Season of Discovery Hotfixes - April 23
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Season of Discovery Hunter Adjustments - April 23, 2024
Bounty Rewards Hotfix, Blue Posts, Curse Weekly Roundup
Quest Cancellation Re-Enabled, The Tavern Is Open Trailer, MG Decklist Round-UpLevel 90 Boost on the PTR
The Level 90 Boost process is now enabled on the PTR for testing, but it appears the final step of the process isn't working yet.
Garrosh Heirlooms and Bonus Rolls
Many players have asked about if it is possible to get a heirloom from a bonus roll, but @olandgren let us know that you won't get heirlooms from a bonus roll.
Dampening Duration Change
Lower Level Battleground Balance
I had originally written here how World of Warcraft is a really big game, and while we know there are a lot of different types of activities outside of max-level content that people enjoy, we're not always going to be able to focus on each of them all of time. But it wasn't written particularly well and I feel like my points were probably fairly obvious to everyone.
Anyway, in short: we will be address some low-level PvP balance in Warlords.
First off it's worth noting the item squish. While individual brackets might not see a huge change, certainly the power curve between levels will be a smoother one. It'll have a bigger impact on world PvP as it'll be more like it was in vanilla, and relative power between characters won't see these dramatic swings. Back in the day even if you were 10, 20 or even 30 levels lower than someone else, you still had some shot at getting away, if not actually killing them. Of course as people start gearing up again that disparity will grow in the outdoor world, but it should be fun to get back to a smoother character power curve, and it'll at least always hold true for sub level-100 gank attempts.
We recognize that low-level PvP balance just hasn't gotten the attention it needs, and that's largely due to us having to focus our attention on content that the majority of players focus their attention (e.g. max level). In Warlords we're going to be doing a bit of ability shuffling (read: deleting) which is going to result in the need to smooth out the ability-acquisition pacing (when you get a new ability and at what level), and we'll also be taking a pass on low-level balance at the same time. It's difficult because of the spread of people across all levels and ensuring every ability of every spec at any one particular level vs. another character/level/spec of another level have parity. Low level brackets just inherently bring a measure of un-balance with them due to the possible level difference, which is necessary to ensure they can fill up with enough players. Our goal is primarily to smooth out the outlying abilities - and this is hand-in-hand with the item squish - to ensure the base damage of all the abilities before scaling is appropriate. There are just some obvious tuning problems right now that we'll take care of, and then as much finer tuning as we can manage. We'll be looking for feedback during beta.
I thought base damage was being abolished entirely, in favor of pure scaling. At least this was what I have heard elsewhere many times before this.
There has to be something to scale from.
Anyway, in short: we will be address some low-level PvP balance in Warlords.
First off it's worth noting the item squish. While individual brackets might not see a huge change, certainly the power curve between levels will be a smoother one. It'll have a bigger impact on world PvP as it'll be more like it was in vanilla, and relative power between characters won't see these dramatic swings. Back in the day even if you were 10, 20 or even 30 levels lower than someone else, you still had some shot at getting away, if not actually killing them. Of course as people start gearing up again that disparity will grow in the outdoor world, but it should be fun to get back to a smoother character power curve, and it'll at least always hold true for sub level-100 gank attempts.
We recognize that low-level PvP balance just hasn't gotten the attention it needs, and that's largely due to us having to focus our attention on content that the majority of players focus their attention (e.g. max level). In Warlords we're going to be doing a bit of ability shuffling (read: deleting) which is going to result in the need to smooth out the ability-acquisition pacing (when you get a new ability and at what level), and we'll also be taking a pass on low-level balance at the same time. It's difficult because of the spread of people across all levels and ensuring every ability of every spec at any one particular level vs. another character/level/spec of another level have parity. Low level brackets just inherently bring a measure of un-balance with them due to the possible level difference, which is necessary to ensure they can fill up with enough players. Our goal is primarily to smooth out the outlying abilities - and this is hand-in-hand with the item squish - to ensure the base damage of all the abilities before scaling is appropriate. There are just some obvious tuning problems right now that we'll take care of, and then as much finer tuning as we can manage. We'll be looking for feedback during beta.
I thought base damage was being abolished entirely, in favor of pure scaling. At least this was what I have heard elsewhere many times before this.
There has to be something to scale from.
Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Character / Items
Will Legendary Cloaks be relevant in WoD? I hope so, I'm a little late to the party and don't want to get rid of it.
Legendary cloaks will not stay relevant in WoD. You still have time to get plenty of use out of it. (Celestalon)
This makes me a sad panda.
Think about what it would do during WoD. It would feel terrible to need to go back and do MoP raids in order to get them. (Celestalon)
Art
can you elaborate on these reasons please?some really dislike fist weapons for the same reason as people hating guns.
Bow/gun thing was based 100% on audio issues (I know, weird "solution"), not visual/aesthetics. (Dave_Maldo)
Any chance of seeing strength fist weapons? My warrior would prefer to strap spikes to his fists and punch people.
That would be awesome indeed. (Dave_Maldo)
The item for Hunters pets Kibler's Bits should last alot longer than a mere 5 minutes. Thank you!
There was a push to keep class pet sizes "reasonable" (Monstrous Bite T_T) but 5 mins DOES seems short. Will try to look into! (Dave_Maldo)
I know lots of mages who would give their mouse arm for the broom to be permanent.
Was discussed for Enchanting once or twice, but we're good w/ where it is, for now! (Dave_Maldo)
Any chance of Brazilian Carnival become a world event, with music and allegorical cars to show off each race of the game?
That was proposed back when we were still making new, full-blown holiday events (Brewfest etc.). Who knows; maybe one day! (Dave_Maldo)
is there any chances for adding "White" items become transmogrifiable and even legendaries like illidan's blades?
Very unlikely for the former; it's how many items they don't want unlocked are locked. Less so for the latter. (Dave_Maldo)
out of interest, why? What do you or we gain by this lockout mechanism for white items? struggling to think of any.
The debate revolves around preserving a certain look & feel in the world/player pop for "real" gear (vs fun temp costume). (Dave_Maldo)
Any chance for actual spectacles, such as the ones Lord Crowley wears, to be added to the game? As a transmog item maybe?
Those totally SHOULD have been in the game by now, yeah. We even discussed SFK or on the shore or... anyhow, yes. Yes. (Dave_Maldo)
Will we ever be able to dye our gear? This is something I've wanted since we got transmorgryph.
Maybe one day? Not planned for anytime soon though, sorry. (Dave_Maldo)
Old vid, but still applies. -PLEASE- look into it, it has been years now.Iirc noggen scale down now too.
Art mods wep sizes by type, both in-hand & while sheathed, on a per race/gender basis in order to handle a HUGE range of assets. (Dave_Maldo)
Art does this to get weps in-hand as big as possible while still fitting theme and not creating terrible sheathed clipping issues. (Dave_Maldo)
Any chance of a moving sun and real-time shadows?
The tech peeps love working on stuff like that when performance permits. Maybe one day! (Dave_Maldo)
With the new models in WoD, will it mean the end of tabards poking through capes when jumping etc?
It'd be cool. Some clipping (in general) is practically unavoidable but I imagine they'll clean up as much as they can! (Dave_Maldo)
Will Legendary Cloaks be relevant in WoD? I hope so, I'm a little late to the party and don't want to get rid of it.
Legendary cloaks will not stay relevant in WoD. You still have time to get plenty of use out of it. (Celestalon)
This makes me a sad panda.
Think about what it would do during WoD. It would feel terrible to need to go back and do MoP raids in order to get them. (Celestalon)
Art
can you elaborate on these reasons please?some really dislike fist weapons for the same reason as people hating guns.
Bow/gun thing was based 100% on audio issues (I know, weird "solution"), not visual/aesthetics. (Dave_Maldo)
Any chance of seeing strength fist weapons? My warrior would prefer to strap spikes to his fists and punch people.
That would be awesome indeed. (Dave_Maldo)
The item for Hunters pets Kibler's Bits should last alot longer than a mere 5 minutes. Thank you!
There was a push to keep class pet sizes "reasonable" (Monstrous Bite T_T) but 5 mins DOES seems short. Will try to look into! (Dave_Maldo)
I know lots of mages who would give their mouse arm for the broom to be permanent.
Was discussed for Enchanting once or twice, but we're good w/ where it is, for now! (Dave_Maldo)
Any chance of Brazilian Carnival become a world event, with music and allegorical cars to show off each race of the game?
That was proposed back when we were still making new, full-blown holiday events (Brewfest etc.). Who knows; maybe one day! (Dave_Maldo)
is there any chances for adding "White" items become transmogrifiable and even legendaries like illidan's blades?
Very unlikely for the former; it's how many items they don't want unlocked are locked. Less so for the latter. (Dave_Maldo)
out of interest, why? What do you or we gain by this lockout mechanism for white items? struggling to think of any.
The debate revolves around preserving a certain look & feel in the world/player pop for "real" gear (vs fun temp costume). (Dave_Maldo)
Any chance for actual spectacles, such as the ones Lord Crowley wears, to be added to the game? As a transmog item maybe?
Those totally SHOULD have been in the game by now, yeah. We even discussed SFK or on the shore or... anyhow, yes. Yes. (Dave_Maldo)
Will we ever be able to dye our gear? This is something I've wanted since we got transmorgryph.
Maybe one day? Not planned for anytime soon though, sorry. (Dave_Maldo)
Old vid, but still applies. -PLEASE- look into it, it has been years now.Iirc noggen scale down now too.
Art mods wep sizes by type, both in-hand & while sheathed, on a per race/gender basis in order to handle a HUGE range of assets. (Dave_Maldo)
Art does this to get weps in-hand as big as possible while still fitting theme and not creating terrible sheathed clipping issues. (Dave_Maldo)
Any chance of a moving sun and real-time shadows?
The tech peeps love working on stuff like that when performance permits. Maybe one day! (Dave_Maldo)
With the new models in WoD, will it mean the end of tabards poking through capes when jumping etc?
It'd be cool. Some clipping (in general) is practically unavoidable but I imagine they'll clean up as much as they can! (Dave_Maldo)
Dark Legacy Comics - #425
DLC #425 has been released!
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