World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

Low Population Server Issues
We do realize that this system does not address all of the issues affecting low population and faction imbalanced realms, but we do feel that it will improve things quite a bit. This is a brand new technology being developed for World of Warcraft, with the purpose of bringing life back to the more barren parts of the world, so this is only the start. What needs to be understood with the cross-realm zones technology is that it opens more doors to future systems that could help with those other matters as well.

There is still no solution how can guilds on our realm find new people for PvE or PvP. What a shame...
This system will actually assist you in finding players to PvP and PvE with, not to join your guild, but they can join you through the cross-server groups and raids features. While leveling up you will once again have more players in the world to interact with. With friendly players, you will be able to interact with them and maybe end up on each other’s friends’ lists, and grouping up again later for either PvP or PvE. With more players of the opposite faction running about, you will also have more world PvP too

This technology and the systems surrounding it are still in development and as such your feedback on them is greatly appreciated. We hope to have more innovative technologies and systems coming in the future that will keep improving the World of Warcraft experience for everyone! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Healer Leveling Feedback
1) Spirit doesn't mean "this is for healers" the same way Strength means "this is for plate-wearers." We assume healers will have some pieces with Spirit and some without, depending on their regen needs. If a boss drops cloth with haste and mastery, and you say "there is no healer gear on this boss" we are going to respectfully disagree. That was my point.

2) On the other hand, if you just can't find any Spirit gear anywhere, that would be a problem.

3) It's likewise a problem if say mail, leather or plate-wearers can find Spirit much easier than cloth. That shouldn't be the case, but bugs happen so we'll take a look at it.

4) All healers should have about the same longevity, but that includes all of their sources of mana and the cost of their spells. This isn't an easy thing to compare just by looking at e.g. Meditation.

5) You should have plenty of mana to heal level up dungeons and even heroics. You might need to reforge or be on the look out for a few more Spirit pieces, but overall you shouldn't feel that every pull and boss fight is a nail-biting mana battle. (Mana will matter a lot more for raiding and challenge modes.) We want level 90 in blues to feel a little easier than level 85 in blues, so please let us know if that's not the case.

6) It's possible there are bad points in progression before level 90, because we haven't looked at that as much yet. If you have just hit say level 88 and haven't gotten any new level 88 gear yet and run a dungeon, it's possible mana return is lower than intended. Feedback on that is also useful. Do keep in mind that at this stage you might run into a boss that is horribly overtuned or just bugged. Just because you can't keep a tank alive doesn't necessarily mean that your mana needs to be massively buffed. It could mean we need to adjust the encounter. That said, the intent is not that you sit around idle much of the time, waiting for mana or too scared to waste a heal that isn't 100% critical.

Beta is going to be buggy and unpolished- very buggy and unpolished. It may not be a very enjoyable experience. It's not for everyone, and if you don't enjoy content in a half-implemented state, you might have a better experience waiting until the final product, which we will try our hardest to be as bug-free and polished as possible.

If you enjoy offering feedback before things are set in stone (insofar as they ever are in this game) and you don't mind seeing the inner workings of the sausage factory that is game development, then beta may be more fun for you.

P.S. I like to think I am less smug than snarky. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Death Knight (Forums)
Death Knights and Number of Class Changes
I'm not losing too much sleep, but for Warlocks they've had a huge set of changes and information and it's clear that they haven't been forgotten. It's not even hyperbole that Blizzard isn't listening to us, look at the notes. Look at the changes. Warlocks know they're being taken care of. We don't.
This is a tough issue for us to solve as far as forum discussions go, because we think some classes need larger changes than others. There will be some DK changes, but overall we don't think they have the spec identity problems that the warlock changes were largely intended to address.

It may not seem fair to classes or specs that aren't undergoing as many changes, but we try very hard not to monkey around with things just for the sake of changing systems that we think work. I'd agree that every class needs a little bit of newness in an expansion, but there is a lot of that from the talents and glyphs. That said, I will try to carve off some time to address some DK concerns. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Hunter (Forums)
Silkworm and Porcupine Pets
Just read a forum on petopia that said the silkworms and porcupines that are part of the "boar" family weren't meant to be tameable pets, but they forgot to change that part when they got rid of the boar placeholder models. Please don't take away my porcupine.
We decided these animals shouldn't be boars anymore, but they will be tameable. Silkworms can be worms. Porcupines can be their own family. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Warrior (Forums)
Warrior Feedback
For Arms, we're trying a new Taste for Blood right now, where the Overpower procs buff your next Slam instead of Overpower. The effect lasts longer than the buff in your build, and can stack up several times, but the general intent is you Slam when Overpower stops proc'ing. The decision point can come about whether to Slam or CS or MS if those are all available, and how much Rage you can afford to bleed off to Heroic Strikes and still have enough left for the big Slam. This is a pretty new change, so it's entirely possible we'll change it again before you see it. I just din't want anyone spending too much effort modeling the Overpower buffs Overpower design. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

In the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria beta, we’re introducing a new technology that will enable players to meet up and group with other players in under populated areas of the world such as low level zones or areas that other players may have outleveled or moved on from. This technology will allow players to form a group with other players from within a select pool of realms in order to quest just like they normally would while still allowing the social structures of their home realms to remain intact.

During the initial phase of testing we will be sharing the following zones between the available beta realms: Northern Barrens, Ashenvale, Azshara, Darkshore, Westfall, and Silithus. We are also able to split over-populated zones and will be testing this new technology on the Pandaren starting area (turtle zone).

For beta testing purposes, we will be matching up all realm types whether they are PvP or PvE. This is different than what we plan to do for the live realms, however. For the live realms we will be matching realm types: PvP with PvP, PvE with PvE, RP-PvP with RP-PvP, and RP-PvE with RP-PvE. As always, we plan to keep an eye on constructive feedback while in testing of this new technology.

F.A.Q.

Q. Why cross-realm zones?
For many years now, the significant majority of the player population online at any given time has consisted mostly of characters at or near the level cap. This has resulted in an environment where characters that are leveling up experience a world that has fewer other players to interact with than what the world was designed for. Cross-realm zones give us the capability to ensure that level-up zones retain a population size that feels more like the high level areas of the game, leading to a more fun play experience for characters of all levels.

Q. How do cross-realm zones work?
When you’re in a zone that is set as a ‘cross-realm zone’ you’ll notice that in addition to the players you’d ordinarily see from your realm, you’ll also see (and be able to play with) players from other realms. This will happen seamlessly, and players will be able to group and quest as they normally would with players from their own realm.

Q. How will this work on boats or zeppelins?
Usually transitions will occur on area boundaries (think moving from Darkshore to Ashenvale).

Q. Can I form groups with the people I meet in the zone?
Yes! You can group and talk to others within the cross-server zone normally though trading will be restricted much as it is within raids, dungeons, or battlegrounds.

Q. Will my cross-realm group be disbanded if we move on to an adjacent zone together, like from Goldshire to Westfall or from Thousand Needles to Feralas?
Much like how cross-realm groups currently work, your party won’t be disbanded when you move through different zones, though if you’re not in the same home realm, you won’t be able to see each other if you’re in separate zone instances.

Q. Will I be able to group with my friends?
Yes, you will be able to group with your Real ID friends, provided they are within the same faction. The functionality works the same as it does for cross-realm dungeons, raids, or Battlegrounds.

Q. What level range do my friends and I have to be within in order to group?
There is no restriction on level ranges. You’ll be able to group with anyone you would normally be able to.

Q. Can I go into main capital cities while grouped with others?
Capital cities and areas with regularly high populations will not be set as cross-server areas/zones so you will not be able to enter into the same instance of a city as someone who is from a different realm.

Q. Will I be able to trade with others I meet?
Trading restrictions are in place much the same as they are in cross-realm dungeons, raids, and battlegrounds.

Q. How is group loot handled?
Group looting will function the same as it would with any group you would create through normal play.

Q. Who will I be playing with?
You’ll be able to interact with players from within a select pool of realms which will make it possible to run into a player in Redridge that you already ran into within Westfall.

Q. What areas will be shared?
This can vary from realm to realm and relies on how densely populated (or underpopulated) an area is. Capital cities and areas with regularly high populations will not be eligible for area sharing.

Q. What about resources or gathering nodes, will those be shared too?
Resources and nodes will be available to all parties within the shared area the same as always. We will be keeping a close eye on the impact of area sharing and should an area become too populated, we are capable of adjusting how many realms are able to connect to a shared area.

Q. Does this mean that Auction Houses will be merged?
No, when any player access an Auction House, they will be only able to access their home realm’s Auction House.

Q. What about zones that are already overpopulated, like new race starting zones?
With this technology, we can also flag zones to allow for more than one copy of that zone per realm. Players on that realm will be split among those copies in order to alleviate problems due to overpopulation. Players won’t normally see or interact with those on a different instance of their zone, although joining a party will relocate all party members to a single instance of that zone.

Q. How will this work for PvP vs. PvE realms? Will these realm types be shared?
No. Realm types will be matched with like realm types. So if you’re on a PvE realm, you’ll only be matched with other PvE realms. The same rules will apply for matching RP realm types and will be restricted to matching RP-PvP with RP-PvP and RP-PvE with RP-PvE. We plan to keep an eye on constructive feedback while testing this new technology.

Q. How will RID groups work? Which realm type would we play on?
If you group up with somebody from a different rule type (via RealID for example) and go into a cross-realm zone you’ll be on the ruleset for that player’s realm type. So, if you’re on a PvP realm and a friend joins your group from a PvE realm and enters a cross-realm zone, the group will be in one of the PvP realm clusters and will use the PvP realm ruleset.

Q: I really don't see any reason to group with others when everything is so easy to do at the lower levels. All these other people will be doing is killing my mobs and taking my resources.
The game is specifically designed with variable respawns, and huge influxes of players on launches. Having very few people in a zone is actually not what the game is supposed to be.

Q: Will be have to zone to every zone from now on then?
No, it's as seamless as it is today.