World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

Classes

• Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Glyphs
    
    • Glyph of Regrowth should now properly remove the periodic component of Regrowth while active.
      

Quests

• Secrets of the First Empire: Fixed an issue where an excessive amount of Trillium Bars could be removed while completing the quest.
  
• Securing A Future: Lady Jaina Proudmoore should reappear properly if the player logs out while completing the quest.
  

Creatures

• Maturing Raptor should spawn more frequently now.
  
• Trained Compy should spawn more frequently now.
  

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• Throne of Thunder
  
  • Durumu the Forgotten
    
    • Durumu will now have a longer delay before resuming his attacks while the maze of Eye Sores despawn.
      
  • Iron Qon
    
    • During the final phase of the encounter, Iron Qon's Quilen champions should no longer try to reposition themselves in 10-player and 25-player Heroic difficulty.
      
    • Reduced the health of Ice Tomb.
      
  • Ji-Kun
    
    • Fixed an issue where players with Daedalian Wings may incorrectly receive the Lesson of Icarus debuff while flying between some of the upper nests.
      
  • Primordius
    
    • Fixed an issue that could cause Fully Mutated players to deal excessive damage to Living Fluids or Viscous Horrors that are under the effects of a Warlock's Immolate.
      
    • Reduced the health of Primordius by 11% in 10-player and 25-player Heroic difficulty.
      
    • Reduced the health of Viscous Horrors by 15% in 10-player and 25-player Heroic difficulty.
      
  • Tortos
    
    • Fixed an issue where certain situations could cause Whirl Turtles to travel more slowly than intended when kicked.
      
  • Twin Consorts
    
    • Reduced the health of Lu'lin and Suen by 10% in Raid Finder difficulty.
      

Items

• Socketing a legendary Meta Gem (Capacitive Primal Diamond, Courageous Primal Diamond, Indomitable Primal Diamond, and Sinister Primal Diamond) to a bind-on-equip helmet now causes the helmet to become soulbound.
  
• Courageous Primal Diamond should no longer have its Clearcasting effect get overwritten incorrectly, and the Clearcasting effect should no longer activate if the character is not in combat.
  
• Indomitable Primal Diamond should now properly have a chance to activate the Fortitude effect received from all damage sources, not just from auto-attacks.
  
• Rune of Re-Origination should now activate its effect more frequently for Hunters.
  

Why not have something similar for PvE? Why not? I know there are valor and justice points but they don't cover everything. Weapons would be a good example.
Just my opinion, since I feel this is an interesting topic to talk about...
One of the aspects that makes raiding (and PVE) so exciting is the fact you don't know what will drop and when. It's not the first time I find myself in a position where I'm chasing a particular drop and it just keeps evading me *forever*. It is, indeed, rather frustrating when you consider it from the perspective of the person that wants to finally get that new shield or bracers or whichever.

On the other hand, though, and this is where I think it'd make PVE less attractive is that, if you can plan for certain which upgrades you'll be getting, and when, then, there might not be enough reason to progress past certain bosses. Say, your guild has a hell of a time trying to kill Megaera. Under such a system, you'd still be rewarded with a Tier 15 helm token after some time, despite that one dropping only from the Twin Consorts. And therefore, losing part of the incentive to keep pushing your raid progress to that boss as well as getting rewarded just for showing up on the instance and doing some progress.

Also, the Valor Point items do ensure you'll be able to get items within a reasonable timeframe, of course, you might argue you'd like to get gear faster, but the fact is that you can control to some extent when you'll get something.

Putting those things into perspective, sure, weapons may feel harder to attain since you can't get them through Valor Points, but, if you could carefully plan item by item when and how you'll get each upgrade, wouldn't that remove that excitement of finally getting the item you've been chasing for so long?

please explain where the excitement is of going through raid after raid & the item (weapon in this case), just never drops? oh look, another raid & yet again nothing drops...i can hardly contain myself until next week when i get yet another chance to try my luck. oh the excitement of it all. put in that context, would you really think its enjoyable to go through yet another LFR only to find it doesnt drop again?
Now talking about weapons... how often has it really occurred to any of you that you've never had a weapon drop for an entire tier? Personally I've never been in that position. Have I gotten my weapon late in a tier? Yes. Have I gotten it soon after a tier had launched? Yes. That's RNG. I'd wager if most people could plan their upgrades, weapons might be on the number one spot (depending on the class, of course).

But above all that, the underlying question isn't just convenience, but rather it branches into two things:

-Why do we want to get rid of RNG? Because we can't control drops? Why is that negative if you're having fun playing the game? If someone out there wants to get all the items as soon as possible so he/she can stop playing the game as soon as possible, then maybe the proper question should be... are you having fun in WoW? Because the moment we start thinking on the quickest way to get everything done and then not come back until a new patch has been released might be a sign of needing some time to disconnect from the game.

-Once you control your drops, what's next? removing RNG from quests? from things like which artifact you'll get next on Archaeology or which jewel pattern you'll learn on that next research?

RNG does have a positive aspect for the game. Sure, it makes it unconvenient when we're trying to control everything, but I believe it ultimately falls back to the "having fun" aspect of all this. Would you have fun in a game where you can control everything? For an extended period of time?

No RNG there, but hey, I guess there's a reason companies pay you a pre-determined sum of money each month rather than by handing you an random item you may or may not find use for. I like my job a lot and having a random reward system wouldn't make it more fun.
But this is a game, not a job. It should be fun, if it feels like just an obligation... what's the point? I mean, from what some of you are expressing, it sounds like you feel obligated to play and the loot is forcing you to play longer than you'd like. Isn't that an odd sentiment to have?

A table of gear comes out, where you can CHOOSE whether you want the tanking gloves(which you have) or the tanking shoulders (which is whole new and exciting!) Then you don't have a chance of getting a set of fine armor which you already have. I've tried this too many times. It comes up on my bonus roll and i get all excited until i see it's the same damn boot or shoulder that i already have gotten 3 times!

Conclusion: It would be nice to actually choose the armor you want if you should be so lucky to finally get a loot (which is rare these days LFR). Don't hate, this was just a crazy yet awesome (in my opinion) idea that fell into my little mind!
But we don't have just LFR, there're normal and Heroic raids. A player running LFR and Normal/Heroic using such a system could probably pick the perfect gear for himself quite quickly. One thing is frustration with not getting loot on the Raid Finder (which is something that may be alleviated in 5.3) and a different thing to have a system where you can basically cherry pick the gear you want to perfectly cover each slot. It takes a lot of that excitement I mentioned.

Players should get loot for EVERY boss they kill. It's simple as that. You go, you kill, you loot. There can't be nothing else, since the game is not about the lore, story or immersion anymore, but pew pew and lewt. Truth be told.
That's never been the case in the game.

If blizzard wants to change this, they should emphasise on the lore and story. Yes, there will be losses, but when the design revolves around killing LFR Tsulong (with THIS char) 20 ACTUAL times and never getting the bloody trinket he drops
But there were other options, right? You could get other trinkets if the one from Tsulong just refused to drop (which in the other hand, you can safely say is bad luck after so many kills).

Nobody wants to take RNG away. And nobody talks about getting everything as fast as possible. We want to see Progress in Raiding. Either in Raid-Progress or in IL/Loot. All in good time is a different thing than "Well you will get that Item without alternative maybe never, thats RNG"
It's just, we can't simply reduce it to "hey, we want progress in raiding". Sure, I bet that's a cool idea for many, but it has consequences on other aspects of the game, and that's what I find interesting, discussing those things. If we reduced everything to the perspective that makes our arguments valid, we would probably just limit ourselves to post either "hey, this is cool, we'll pass it along and see what the developers say" or "hey, sorry but the developers are not considering this". Is that the kind of interaction you'd like from the blues? I'm genuinely curious.

My DK friend still has no sha touched weapon and he's using the weapon from msv. I dont have my sha touched weapon either, but at least I have the healing mace from MSV upgraded. It's stupid how easy it is to obtain the sha touched gem but getting the weapon simply wont happen.

I have never gotten my weapon from toes. The drop rate for weapons needs to be increased then people wouldn't be so upset on the matter.
Ah! But he's using a weapon from that tier!

Of course, not the one he wanted, but one from it. You can say it felt getting sha touched weapons was too hard which is a valid argument, but it doesn't make my point any less valid, he did get an upgrade. So perhaps the thing isn't just RNG or RNG not, and it's more about... are the items and the effort required to get to them truly rewarding? Let's say Jin'rokh dropped the best weapons of this tier. And only weapons. Would it be as satisfying to finally get them as if they dropped only from Lei Shen?

I'm not sure you understand where I'm trying to get to. I think discussions like this (about loot systems in wow) are indeed interesting, and I'm 100% sure they provide useful feedback to the developers. It doesn't mean they'll necessarily implement anything of what you've mentioned here, but it'll make them have a better perspective of what the community thinks about this and might even give them a few ideas of their own on how to tackle those things they might also perceive as issues.

In short, don't focus too much on if I'm rebating your arguments. That's not the point of my posts, in the end it isn't me who you need to convince of anything and there's no gain in happily sitting down and saying "sure, this is all good!". If I'm asking something it's not to be dismissive, just to give more flesh to the discussion and allow more people to chime in with their thoughts. The more (ideas and perspectives), the merrier, because that's what makes these things so interesting.

PvE
will there be leeway for healers to take part in hc scenarios?seems a shame if we miss out on stuff just because we arent dps
You can heal them. It should allow the other two players to pull more stuff or move faster. (Source)

The need for real cooperation made WoW great; now absent before normal mode raiding. LFG/LFR == "RaidVille"
A small percentage of players cooperated. Most just leveled and then rolled an alt or stopped playing. (Source)

What about making loot depending on the composition? 5 shamans in 10man raid - bigger chance mail dropped? 10 man is hurt now
We actually like the different types of loot encouraging (but not mandating) class diversity. (Source)
Benching friends and family because they are not diverse enough sucks. Many 10 mans are built around friend/family.
That's totally a philosophy we support. It just may not be the most efficient way to play, if that's important to you. (Source)

why do you add components like brawlers guild and challenge modes if you got no time left for normal 5 mans anymore?
You're making an apples to oranges comparison. Consider the amount of dungeon architecture in say Stormstout Brewery. (Source)

Please stop making everything doable by a randomly assembled group. Yes, I know about challenge mode. No loot.
We're considering heroic scenarios requiring a pre-made group. (Source)
I could see these going well, but I'd really like to see punishing 5-mans return. *I* like challenge modes, but friends don't.
The problem we had before was making matchmade dungeons that were essential to progression too challenging. (Source)
It's possible if you could run matchmaking dungeons to gear for LFR that heroic premade dungeons could also still exist. (Source)

Does the ptr provide you with enough or proper feedback to tune raids?
High end - yes. Heroic guilds bring their whole raid and give us lots of numbers and feedback. LFR is pretty easy to test. (Source)
Normal is the most challenging - PTR raiding is just not something in the DNA of many of those guilds (understandably). (Source)

Did you ever consider making Lesser Charm of Good Fortune available for Justice Points or BoA? I h8 doing dailies after exalted..
Elder Charms perhaps, but we don't want Lesser Charms to be grindable that quickly. (Source)

Can you do anything about duplicate gear in Raid Finder? It isn't fun to get the same item three times...
We might let "bad streak protection" apply to duplicate items as well but we haven't decided for sure. (Source)

Clarification on the bonus roll protection. Does it work on rolls in normal raids as well as lfr? and in current content?
Not sure yet, but my guess is we'll do all bonus rolls and LFR personal loot. (Source)

Also, this reads like you are planning to lower drop rates to adjust for the new loot system fix in 5.3. True?
That's not something we want to do. Just clarifying that the goal is to avoid bad streaks not to let everyone gear up faster. (Source)

Interesting idea from forums to help tank/heal queues: give healers/tanks BoA token that lets dps alt go to front of queue.
I fear the experience won't be good for everyone if players with no interest or skill in tanking do it just for other rewards. (Source)
Was me. Do u fear cmplaints frm excsive Q > so so tanks. DPS might tolerate tnks more if they tried it.
Yeah, true and the right rewards could encourage someone who is ambivalent to tank. Just don't want to force undesirable behavior. (Source)

Classes

• Players with full health no longer count towards the cap for area-of-effect healing abilities and spells.
  
  
• Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Feral
    
    • Savage Roar now increases physical damage done by 40%, up from 30%.
  
  
• Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • General
    
    • Aspect of the Hawk now increases ranged attack power by 25%, up from 15%.
  • Talents
    
    • Aspect of the Iron Hawk now increases ranged attack power by 25%, up from 15%.
      
    • Binding Shot is no longer a talent and learned by Marksmanship Hunters at level 30.
      
    • Blink Strike has been renamed Blink Strike and turned into a passive ability. The pet's Basic Attacks deal 50% increased damage, can now be used from 30 yards away, and will instantly cause the pet to teleport behind their target.
      
    • Intimidation is now a level-30 talent available to all Hunter specializations and no longer learned by Beast Mastery Hunters at level 20.
  • Beast Mastery
    
    • Beast Cleave now deals 75% of the original damage, up from 50%.
  • Marksmanship
    
    • Bombardment now increases the damage of Multi-Shot by 60%, up from 30%.
  
  
• Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • General
    
    • Arcane Explosion now deals 40% more damage.
      
    • Blizzard now deals 40% more damage.
      
    • Flamestrike now deals 100% more initial damage. Periodic damage remains unchanged.
  • Talents
    
    • Living Bomb periodic damage has been increased by 121%. Its explosion damage has been reduced by 78%, but now scales with additional periodic ticks added by haste, and hits all nearby targets (up from 3).
  
  
• Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Windwalker
    
    • Rising Sun Kick now causes all targets within 8 yards to take an increased 20% damage from the Monk's abilities, up from 10%.
  
  
• Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Holy
    
    • Mastery: Illuminated Healing now places an absorb shield for 10% of the amount healed, down from 12%.
      
    • Daybreak is now a stackable effect with a duration of 10 seconds, stacks up to 2 times, and causes the next Holy Shock to also heal other allies within 10 yards of the target for an amount equal to 75%/150% of the original healing done.
  • Retribution
    
    • Sword of Light now increases damage with two-handed melee weapons by 30%, up from 15%.
  • Item Sets
    
    • Tier-14 Holy Paladin 4-piece set bonus now reduces the cooldown of Holy Shock by 1 second, down from 2 seconds.
  
  
• Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Discipline
    
    • Borrowed Time now reduces the cast or channel time of the next Priest spell by 15% after casting Power Word: Shield (was 15% spell haste).
  
  
• Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Talents
    
    • Shuriken Toss now deals 100% more damage in the initial ranged attack, damage is no longer doubled when used on targets farther than 10 yards away, and energy cost has been increased to 40 energy, up from 20.
    Glyphs
    
    • Glyph of Cheap Shot now increases the duration of Cheap Shot by 0.5 second, down from 1 second.
      
    • Glyph of Garrote now increases the duration of Garrote Silence effect by 1 second, down from 1.5 seconds.
  
  
• Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Enhancement
    
    • Feral Spirit summoned Spirit Wolves are now immune to root and snare effects.
      
    • Lava Lash now deals 300% weapons damage, up from 250%.
      
    • Mental Quickness now converts 65% of the Shaman's attack power to spell power, up from 55%.
      
    • Stormstrike now deals 450% weapon damage, up from 375%.
      
  
  
• Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • General
    
    • Demonic Gateway cast time has been reduced to 4 seconds, down from 5 seconds, and can now be attacked and killed by enemy players. Each gateway has 100% of the summoning Warlock's health, and 100% of their resilience.
      
    • Health Funnel now causes the Soulburn portion of the spell to increase healing generated from Health Funnel by 140% instead of instantly restoring 36% health.
  • Affliction
    
    • Haunt now refunds a Soul Shard when it is dispelled.
  • Destruction
    
    • Fire and Brimstone no longer requires a Burning Ember to cast. Instead, the spell causes Immolate, Incinerate, Conflagrate, and Curse spells to consume a Burning Ember when cast, and the effect remains active as long as the Warlock has at least 1 Burning Ember remaining.
  
  
• Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Talents
    
    • Enraged Regeneration no longer costs rage to use, instantly heals the Warrior for 5% of their total health, and healing an additional 5% over 5 seconds. Using the ability while Enraged doubles the healing effects to 10% of the Warrior's total health and an additional 10% over 5 seconds.
      
    • Second Wind no longer generates rage when the Warrior is struck by a Stun or Immobilize effect.
      
      • Arms and Fury Warriors receive a passive ability that enables them to generate rage when struck by a Stun or Immobilize effect at level 56.
        
    • Shield Wall cooldown has been reduced to 3 minutes, down from 5 minutes.
      
    • Spell Reflection is no longer consumed by spells from player pets and guardians.
    Protection
    
    • Bastion of Defense now reduces the cooldown of Shield Wall by 1 minute, down from a 3-minute reduction. For Protection Warriors, this results in no net change to Shield Wall cooldown.
      
    • Shield Slam now receives a 50% bonus to attack damage from attack power (down from 100%) for Warriors below level 85.

Quests

• Shado-Pan and The August Celestials daily quests no longer have a faction prerequisite to be Revered with the Golden Lotus.
  
• A Test of Valor: Reduced the amount of Valor needed for this achievement to 3000 Valor Points, down from 6000.

Pet Battles

• General
  
  • Corrosion now deals 5 damage-per-round, up from 2, and increases damage taken by 2, down from 5.
    
  • Counterspell now deals 10 damage in addition to the ability's previous effects.
    
  • Deep Freeze now has a 10% reduced chance to hit.
    
  • Fury of 1,000 Fists now has a 4-round cooldown, up from 3 rounds.
    
  • Haymaker now has a 3-round cooldown.
    
  • Headbutt now has a 4-round cooldown, up from 3 rounds.
    
  • Impale now has a cooldown of 3 rounds, down from 5 rounds, deals 17% less damage, and no longer deals damage as a percentage of the target’s health. The ability now deals a flat amount of bonus damage instead.
    
  • Interrupting Gaze now deals 50% more damage.
    
  • Interrupting Jolt now has a 4-round cooldown, down from 5 rounds.
    
  • Kick now deals 50% more damage.
    
  • Minefield now has a 5-round cooldown, and lasts for 9 rounds, down from 10 rounds.
    
  • Mudslide now has a 4-round cooldown, up from 3 rounds.
    
  • Predatory Strike no longer deal damage as a percentage of the target’s health. The ability now deals a flat amount of bonus damage instead.
    
  • Quicksand now has a 4-round cooldown, up from 3 rounds.
    
  • Reckless Strike now has a 1-round cooldown.
    
  • Rupture now has a 4-round cooldown, up from 3 rounds.
    
  • Shock and Awe now has a 4-round cooldown, up from 3 rounds.
    
  • Soulrush now has a 4-round cooldown, up from 3 rounds.
• Battle Pets
  
  • Electrified Razortooth: swapped positions of Blood In The Water and Paralyzing Shock abilities.

PvP

• Tyrannical weapons no longer have a conquest-earned prerequisite to purchase them.

Battlegrounds and Arenas

• Picking up the Alliance or Horde flag while in a Rated Battleground now increases damage taken by 50% for characters in a tanking specialization, and increases damage taken by 20% for characters in a non-tanking specialization.

Items

• Players can now use items that are in the bank or Void Storage for transmogrification.

UI

• In-game support system is now a direct portal to the Battle.net Support site, allowing players to access the knowledge base and support contact system.
  
  • Please check out the blog titled: In-game Browser and Support Tools in 5.3 for more information about this change and how you can help us test this new feature.
    

Character
Will we ever need our Prismatic Eye or Legendary Gem in 5.4?
Our current thought is the meta gem continues to work in 5.4 helmets. The weapon gem unlikely. (Source)

Will there ever be a day where you drop the legendary no transmog thing? Such a dated concept. Let people show off.
Potentially someday. Our goal all along was to start transmog off conservatively. It's very hard to do so later. (Source)

When is Blizz going to wake up that bloated loot tables make this worse! more smaller chances has high variance
Keep in mind, our goal is not to gear up players as fast as possible. That may be the players' goal.... (Source)
I think people tend to forget when people in their raid group get loot, but they always remember when *their* loot didn't drop
Especially in Raid Finder, where you don't know or don't care if Stabby the rogue got his bracers. (Source)

How about a 5 or 10% xp buff for your account each time you reach max level per character?
Above and beyond heirlooms and guild bonuses? At some point you're going to get a level every quest. Would that make sense? (Source)

You've said numerous times in the past you wished to get rid of racials. Are we ever going to see this happen?
I doubt it. It's part of the fantasy of rolling a character. Not sure the non-twitter, non-forum players would understand. (Source)

so GC, tell me, how many dailies are planned for 5.3? Any plans in the next xpack to make reps account wide?
I'm not a fan of account-wide rep. Seems one step removed from account-wide gear. (Source)
Except that it in no way is close to account wide gear. Still need to grind Valor, etc. Nice deflection though!
Our philosophy has been to ask players to do almost everything on an alt that they do on a main, just faster. (Source)
It's all part of the same discussion though. What belongs to the character vs. the account? (Source)

If you don't want alts to catch up so easily, why is leveling so fast/easy/boring?
It's a matter of degree. We don't want an alt to take as long as a main, but we do want actual gameplay there. (Source)

Classes
It's probably still a valid point, but don't compare a mitigation-geared DK to a haste-geared paladin.
It is also the case that some tanks care a lot about their DPS and some just don't, even at the cutting-edge. That skews data. (Source)

stop removing unique class abilities to just add X generic for all classes. Bring back mana burn
We do the X generic thing to avoid too much class stacking / benching. Mana Burn we just didn't like. (Source)

Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
So, wait. in 5.3 Sudden Doom does NOTHING for DKs before level 70? seems silly.
Unholy Presence is level 64 now. (Source)

Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Hunter Bloat:EotB not "bloat-" Rotational and combat bloat is the problem. Ex.rather have Widow Venom baked in like war/monks.
While combat bloat is a bigger problem, anything that fills up action bars is a problem. Venom would be a (small) PvP buff. (Source)

why don't you want to answer to a question about hunter pet auto-taunt in dungeons? It's an obstacle that shouldn't exist.
It's a problem but we haven't come up with a solution we like more than the problem. (Source)

You made warriors dual 2h weaps you dedicated whole mop to locks why cant hunters dual 1h guns?
It would require a lot of new animation and itemization and we're not sure the gain, while positive, would be worth the cost. (Source)
(And whenever I say "cost" I am talking about production time, which is much more salient to our development than dollars.) (Source)

Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
E.g., FB plus Flamestrike plus 3 GCDs of Blizzard weaker than 5x NT. FB strong enough, but fillers too weak so NT stays ahead.
We were just talking about this. It's a fair point. We probably should have buffed the AEs when we buffed the bombs. (Source)

Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Eminence not procing legendary, Glyph of Uplift isn't working with it. Channels don't benefit until recast.
Because it's Real PPM (tm) as long as something procs it, you'll get the full benefit from the buff. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Holy Paladin T14 4pc bonus feels mandatory because its better than T15 heroic items please do something
Still skeptical of this. Giving up all of those stats on the higher ilevel is a big cost. (Source)
Thats the whole problem. You're trading 4t14 with stats, the t15 bonuses are absolute 0. The 4 t14 bonus is also fun...
I think absolute 0 is probably an overstatement. What you're talking us into though is nerfing the t14 4 pc. (Source)

Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
I quote in 5.2 "We nerfed Phantasm and Psyfiend we didn’t want to hurt Mass Dispel or other utility that Shadow" I'm confused?
We looked, and very few Shadow took the Glyph of Mass Dispel, so we didn't think the cast time would be that noticeable. (Source)
I should clarify that I meant the glyph in PvE. We don't want to nerf PvE utility. We DO want to nerf PvP utility for Shadow. (Source)
Have you considered giving mass dispel the colossal smash treatment? Pve/PvP versions
We did, but it's more complicated than CS because we're generally okay with Disc / Holy Mass Dispel. (Source)

A nerf to atonement means death to atonement. No one will ever use it and you'll have once again nerfed fun.
I predict Atonement will be fine, just not the answer to every healing situation as it can be on live. (Source)

Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
is the ST nerf thanks to the DT Buff last patch? Was fun as a CP Generator, not as a wannabe autoattack spin-off.
We didn't like it as a cheap CP generator. We wanted it to be for times when you couldn't be in melee. (Source)

Potting as a Rogue is annoying, possible to allow pots usable in stealth?
That doesn't seem unreasonable. We'll discuss. (Source)

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Curious as to decision on shammies and staves, would have liked Spiritbinding Spire from LFR as it goes well with Shammy T15?
It's a tough one. We heard from shaman upset that we would give them a 2H weapon and not allow use of their shield. (Source)

Based on feedback, we are going to revert the change and let shaman win caster staves (and maces) once again. (Source)
So you will listen to feedback on staffs but completely ignore reasonable feedback to revert the totem change?
Taking feedback isn't the same as doing whatever the community asks us to do. The design decisions are still ours to make. (Source)

Is there any chance of re-vamping Unleash Elements, specifically for ele shamans? It's practically a useless spell.
No immediate plans. It is rotational with Unleashed Fury and provides utility otherwise. The moving part is less important now. (Source)

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
are you happy with the green fire boss? Its the best thing ever to happen in pve imo. Can you confirm it will not be nerfed?
I can't promise it won't ever be, but it is self-nerfing as players get more gear. (Some players have done it very undergeared.) (Source)

Maelific G. and Haunt seem like they're too hard to design for pvp but they are perfect for pve. (Pt.2)
Agreed. This is the heart of the problem. SB:SS also means individual dots can't do that much damage in PvE, which hurts PvP. (Source)
But I should clarify that we generally like SB:SS in PvE. It's PvP where it hold Affliction back. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Once bloodthirst doesn't crit, nor proc and my rage is low. I have no other option than to wait for CD. Is this the intention?
Yes. (Source)

How many arena warriors w/o 2nd wind? If you just thought "at what rating", cookie cutter.
Might make sense to bake it in, but then warriors would not need a healing talent on top of that. Still evaluating solutions. (Source)

Is it intended that Deep Wounds isn't benefitting from passive bonuses such as Seasoned solider and the SMF bonus?
We like the DPS it is doing. If we made it benefit from other passives, we would lower the damage it does to compensate. (Source)

PvE
So Primordius now takes 75% less damage instead of 25% right? So what's about all those Guilds killed him with 25% less damage
We had to make that change to fix a degenerate strategy. We also lowered his health to compensate. (Source)

why the nerfs to 10 man normal?
We gather a tremendous amount of data on raid progression. Some encounters were tougher than intended or compared to 5.0. (Source)
so how many weeks should it take a normal 10 man guild like mine to clear ToT normal? just wondering if we are behind or ahead
Typically the most relevant variable is how many nights a week you raid. There's no right answer, but fewer nights = longer. (Source)

it sucked re-learning a farm fight. I don't hate on LFR, but why not nerf the maze hard in LFR vs big changes in norm/Hero?
It was confusing in N and H too. The maze should be the challenge not the graphics and the run backwards part was just dumb. (Source)

I loved 4.3 - LFR DS to reg/heroic DS with my guild on 4 toons every week. now I only have one raiding 90, period.
You are comparing an overly long final tier to a hopefully short mid-tier though. (Source)

Do you think anyone will do heroic scenarios without an LFG tool? You'd spend more time finding a group than doing content.
We can't make random matchmaking content too challenging. If you have to form a group, there is some incentive to make it work. (Source)
But it's definitely an experiment. We'll see what the response is. More challenge for more reward / efficiency could be fun. (Source)

Looking at the avalaible data, ToT seems to be a heavy ranged favored tier, only rogues can compete in single. Thoughs?
Pretty happy with it overall. Having 2 dot fights early on skews perceptions a bit. (Source)

What is your opinion on the amount of trash mobs in ToT? Most people I talk to (raid team/LFR) think that there is too much
It's hard to get a good read on such feedback because players inherently argue for as little trash as possible. (Source)
Yes players want less trash. I don't understand this anti player request mentality.
Players ask for a lot that would make raiding easier or more convenient. That doesn't mean it's good for the game. (Source)
Inconvenience for the sake of inconvenience is also not good for the game.
Similarly, bosses without trash in between don't feel like bosses and the raid doesn't feel epic. Pacing is important. (Source)
Again, opinion stated as fact. "Feel epic" is subjective meaningless term that lets devs justify anything.
"Feel" makes it an opinion, not a fact. And yes, our opinions are important because we develop the game. (Source)

Pacing is important. ToT fails at good pacing. Why are you defending this?
Because pacing is subjective and we're happy with it. (Source)

Pacing was much better in Ulduar, just saying. This instance is designed for LFR, norm/hard are addendums?
We always design normal first. (Source)

A lot of pulls you need to "tip-toe" compared to past raids where you AoE/burn. Ulduar still best.
I find AE/burn more tedious than anything. I like to be making some decisions when I play, even on trash. (Source)

What was wrong with HoF/ToES/MV trash? Why did you need 3-4x more?
The raid occupies a lot of geographic space... which is something many players were requesting. (Source)

I'd like to get some clarification on the Secrets of the Empire drop. Is the drop chance shared between LFR and normal/heroic?
Yes. You should not have to run LFR (for those drops) if you also run normal or heroic. (Source)