Patch 7.1 - Midnight Mount, SC2 BlizzCon Goodies, Blue Posts, Pumpkin Carving Contest

Dev Q&A and Class Balance
I think the big problem is the balance discussion in the QA came over a bit high handed or even a touch meanspirited.

While it is likely not exactly as it was intended, the whole 'we know yall need buffs but if you become the top spec it will upset the peole who play that spec so no love for you' impression taken from the QA was sort of crappy, especially for people playing Elemental or Frost - who also dedicated a lot of time and AP in the hopes that they would be buffed not to be better than Unholy or Enhance, but on par.
Sorry to hear that it came across that way.

Just to be clear, I was trying to explain why we sometimes may seem conservative or slow with balance changes. Frost mages were used as an example of a spec that we do feel is currently lagging behind in raid and dungeon gameplay, but not by nearly as much as data from public log sites might suggest. It seems less disruptive to buff a spec incrementally, allowing time for the results of each change to play out and repeating if needed, rather than risking overshooting the mark. (And yes, we definitely have failed in this goal at times - post-launch rogue spec balance comes to mind.)

At the heart of balance concerns is the fact that people just want to be able to feel like they have a place in the endgame as their preferred class/spec, and we entirely share that goal. Class balance is an ongoing process, with new variables coming into play all the time, as item level increases, new trinkets, legendaries, and set bonuses enter the mix, players get deeper into their respective artifact trees, theorycraft evolves, etc.

The Q&A didn't delve into specific details because the exact list of changes is and was still evolving. There will be a new 7.1 build on PTR very shortly, and patch notes to follow. That patch contains some improvements for several of the specs that currently are currently underperforming (including both flavors of Frost). Those changes should in general move things in the right direction, but we'll be continuing to watch and adjust further as needed. (Official Forums)

Karazhan PuG Requirements
That already happens in 5-man heroic and regular mythics runs.

There's nothing inherently wrong with having premade groups with inflated min ilvl requirements.

The game gives players enough freedom for them to organize themselves in any way they want, it’s part of the social aspect of the game and extremely important for any mmorpg.

Some geared players might just want to do a few fast runs and thus will use a very high minimum ilvl requirement on their heroic or mythic runs.
Others (more altruistically) might instead put an even lower ilvl requirement than LFG has, just to help a few friends gear up more quickly than they’d do on their own.

In the end, nothing is stopping anyone from starting their own group with the ilvl requirement they feel is more appropriate for any particular content. It’s all in the hands of the player (save a few hard caps here and there).

GL in Karazhan! Hope you enjoy all the surprises it has in store for you and all the nostalgia moments! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Mythic Keystones
This was one of the things touched on in the Q&A last week.

We definitely appreciate it's a frustrating experience having someone dropping mid-run from a keystone group. It's something we've been looking at but haven't yet come up with an alternative that wouldn't invite more serious abuse of the system.

If you can swap in other people, the party leader could theoretically replace people with his friends. If your keystone didn't deplete if someone dropped, it would invite people to ALT+F4 or drop as soon as something went wrong which reduces the associated challenge of a mythic keystone run - particularly at the higher end.

Keystones are plentiful right now, and if one run doesn't work out, then another one might. We like the social aspect of people finding new friends via the Pre-Made Groups finder who then link up later on to tackle higher difficulty keystones.

In an ideal world it's best to go with people you know, but realistically that's not always a possibility. That's why it's always a good idea to make sure everyone is on the same page at the start of the run, before the keystone is even used. If it's intended to be a 3 chest run, communicate it. If you're just going for the clear, communicate it, so you don't have someone drop mid-run because they wanted multiple chests.

Again, we understand that it's a frustrating experience to be involved in, and it's something we're continually monitoring. There have been some interesting suggestions in this thread, so please keep those coming. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Demon Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
Havoc Demon Hunter
Moving to the Demon Hunter forums.

I somehow missed part one of this thread, sorry for letting it cap out. I'll review this in the morning and get some questions out to the development team so we can share some insight on upcoming DH changes. Hopefully I will be able to help explain our thinking/philosophy here.

Thanks for all the patience! (Official Forums)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
Paladins and Crusade
What do you mean by "potentially incorrect datamined information"?

Up until the most recent PTR build, every datamined change was reflected on the PTR version. As of right now, Crusade isn't even functioning on the PTR, and the tooltip has reverted to the live version (except all of the numbers are replaced with 0).
I assume this is a PTR bug that you're seeing.

An update on this from the development team: we've reverted the change on PTR that folks were seeing from datamined information. Crusade will be staying the same in 7.1 as it is on live currently.

We may take another look at this skill in the future (design-wise), however, and when and if we do so we will look to the community for feedback.

Thanks for your feedback on this everyone! (Official Forums)

Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
Outlaw Rogues
I've sent off another round of questions for developers on the topic of Outlaw and our plans/goals moving into 7.1.

You guys will be the first to know when I hear anything, of course. Hoping to have something to share tomorrow. ([Official Forums)

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
Warlock Talent Changes
Got some answers from the development team on this.

The aim and ultimate goal of the swap is to create competition in the talent rows, with a secondary intent of adjusting tankiness and mobility overall. With this change (taking tuning into account), there should now be more interesting choices in some rows, instead of the usual feel of "mandatory-ness" that we've seen in this past cycle.

Demon Skin previously dwarfed its competition in nearly ever situation, and its combination with Dark Pact offered too much survivability.

With Demonic Circle, we heard the broad feedback about how it was missed when players had to opt-out of taking it because of better picks in its row. Now that it's lined up against more equally-powered and niche talents, we believe Demonic Circle will see more use overall.

Hope this answers some of your questions - I'm here for feedback and discussion on this. ([Official Forums)

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