Blizzcon Dev Interview, Blue Posts, Post-BlizzCon Sale, OpenRaid Event, Fan Art

[Azaael]

They probably cancelled the feature so they could put as many hands on deck to get WoD pushed out the door ASAP. Which, well, makes sense-given that the past two expansions had unacceptably long tails at the end, they know this time they need to actually get it out at a decent time, and I think for the first time in their lives are actually working under a time constraint. It might not be one put on them by anyone, but since they've been dropping, rather than gaining subs, they don't want to take any chances regardless of how big they still are.


As for faction imbalance, they should really look at Rift and just offer cross-faction guilds and groups. That won't help PvP servers, but absolutely *nothing* they do will help the high pop PvP servers with severe imbalance; unless they connect high-pop realms that's a lost cause. At LEAST they could solve half the issue of guild recruitment and such for PvE if they'd just put in cross-faction. It's apparent story-wise; the war is over, the next bunch of WoW is going to be Azeroth vs. Bad Guys, and it would be the most sensible thing they can do gameplay wise. With this, the higher-pop unbalanced PvE servers would at least have the more populated faction open for recruitment. Wouldn't again be a perfect fix, but it would be another attempt at some kinda fix. (Would deal with issues with racials as well, since you no longer would have to all jump to a faction because of certain racials. I'd like them to take out some of the racials anyway and leave the fun ones, but they seem adverse to that for some reason.)


Blizz have always been a strange company-they don't mind doing some drastic changes but then are afraid to pull the trigger on others(which are arguably more positive changes sometimes.)

[Bamahut]

Only 0.5% player base with the Armored Skyscreamer mount. I feel special now!

[F-Minus]

PvP players feel like 2nd class citizens? Let me think, a game that is 95% PvE focused with a PvP tack-on which gets a new arena maybe once every 2 years ... well yeah PvP is an afterthought, deal with it. For the 5% of the game it represents it's way to invasive in PvE anyway and should be dropped completely.

[Toiran]

Do people not notice that far, far more effort has been put into pvp tier sets this expansion?

Look at tier 16, it looks awful for nearly every class, whilst nearly every season 14 set looks absolutely amazing.

This might be a stupid question as it's unannounced....but rumours etc, whats the unannounced features?

[spekkiebig]

"The team is still thinking about letting you enter LFR with a lower than normal item level if you have the gold proving grounds achievement, especially with alts."

They should at least balance it better before they use that as a way to give people benefits, its easy to get gold on some classes and a lot harder on others (and it usually forces you to play and game/enchant totally different then in real raids)

[Tython]

How is raid finder in a decent place? 1 hour plus queues are not acceptable. Blizzard really needs a healthy dose of reality as flex killed LFR...

[cuafpr]

Calling people honey is incredibly condescending, which is probably why you did it, but in case you weren't aware, it's a jerk move.

Regarding DPS in LFR doing under 100k: They might be getting judged, but they aren't getting kicked. I very rarely go into LFR, but the dozen or so I've seen have had tons of DPS below 100k, a couple people remark afterwards lol terribad dps, then move on. There is rarely any discussion about kicking those bad DPS.

However, if a tank misses even one gouge on He, DPS scream bloody murder to kick the tank. Should that tank be kicked for failing? Sure, if every DPS under 100k were to be kicked as well, which would be damn near half of them.

I dont expect 100k dps in LFR.. I'd say 40-50k is min before I wonder what's up, and 70-80 average to good, 100k+ is usually done by people with some experience beyond LFR.

I actually think the new loot system for 6.0 will help LFR, less chants and gems as a something that will help the more casual crowd LFR is aimed at.

[Rioo]

"Proving Grounds aren't perfectly evenly balanced for every class and spec, so they shouldn't be used to compare the different classes and specs."

It's funny comparing the amount of people of each class that have completed Endless DPS and getting a clear picture of how imbalanced PGs are.

http://www.wowprogress.com/char_stat...ield.pg_damage

978 mages
963 hunters
830 DKs (both frost and unholy)
740 warlocks
490 monks
448 rogues
407 warriors (both fury and arms)
331 shadow priests
221 retribution paladins
124 shamans (both ele and enh)
70 druids (moonkins and ferals)

While these numbers are skewed, as more people probably could do it with their mains if they tried instead of just going on a DK alt and faceroll it, they still show how damn awful druids and shamans have it. So yeah, Blizzard is completely right here and having PG as a alternative to an ilvl requirement would be really stupid.

[taylor20k]

The drop in the number of tanks in Raid Finder is partially due to how they are treated. (If you want faster queues, be nice to your tanks!)

Is Ghostcrawler trolling?

No, he's not. I used to love tanking, till i tried lfr. Now i refuse to ever tank again for the exact reason he stated. And i looked up all the fights before hand and made notes, etc. and i never missed a taunt but as soon as the off tank dies it's always my fault when he was standing in stuff. gg. i went and vendored my prot set and never looked back.

[d0e1ow]

I just took a look at the Blizzcon post-sale. I REALLY want the children's book that Metzen wrote. I love good children's stories and illustrations. :O Has anyone read it/seen the art? Is it any good? I practically begged my boyfriend to order it for me.

[Megalithic]

"The big unannounced feature was really two features. One was cancelled and one was delayed until WoD. Ghostcrawler will let us know when it is added though!"

What happened to "Just pick one of the 5.4 features, that's the unannounced feature."? I'm glad to see he finally admits to lying to all of us. Why should I believe anything he says when he flat out lies to his customers?

Yeah, sounds like a flat-out lie to me, also. When will Blizzard realize that he is the one killing WoW?

[Neichus]

The other thing that isn't mentioned in the post when it comes to tanking LFR is that hell is other tanks.

I've been tanking for the majority of my WoW time and being a raid lead for a normal/heroic guild I'm very familiar with the fights and how they work. So when I get into LFR and the other tank insists on not paying attention to mechanics or disregarding any sort of coordination I have no recourse. Or the opposite: the taunt-happy tank who seems to operate on the principle that if it isn't attacking him something must be wrong. It's just frustrating because a poor tank can actually block a good tank from doing their job in several fights, or simply lead to their deaths by inactivity.

I don't bother to tank LFR any more for that reason. I don't receive any personal recrimination from people and I've never been blamed for another tank screwing up, but the fact is that I like being a tank because it gives me control of the encounter and in LFR it's just too often ripped away by the other tank.

[ZehGeek]

That is true. The problem is, that you can pull some crappy dd's through lfr....with a crappy tank you are screwed. You can go without 2-3 dds...with 1 healer missing...but you need those 2 tanks.
Then there is the problem that if one tank does not know what to do, there is only one other tank to explain it to him....cause not every dd knows exactly what a tank has to do in a particular encounter(just like tanks often don't know everything about the healer or dd job). If you have no idea of an encounter as a tank then it will be very obvious within the first minute of the fight.
And last but not least you got many tanks that behave like "F*** you all!"-divas screwing over entire raids very well knowing that if they leave then the raid is dead. If you check for quitters that leave raids because "the raid is not good enough for them."and compare that to the number of tanks, healers and dds in such a raid then the percentage of tanks and healers that quit is way higher than that of dds(at least my experience).

I think it would be solved if tanks would be less mandatory. On the one hand a bad tank would then not hurt so much...and on the other hand tanks would actually have to try hard to earn their spot. We would need encounters where 3 tanks would be a benefit(even if one of them is crap)...but if there is just 1 tank then the encounter should be possible too. The current situation leads to diva-tanks and on the other hand players that always expect tanks to be perfect(cause if they ain't it always results in a wipe)...

Because DPS are dime a dozen, and tanks and healers you have to wait.
On your last point though, why have Tanks have to specificly earn their spot? Why not everyone have to earn their spot?
Diva tanks is because if you're doing Fallen Protectors and some random Warlock is yelling "TANK, TAUNT THIS FKN ADD OFF ME, GOD DAMN IT," when the add isn't tauntable and fixates, you're not going to be very happy. Nor people constantly pulling ahead of you.

Some people do know the enounter, and are willing to give a quick rundown, but when you have people like this:

TRANSLATION:

I rolled a Tank into LFR without reading up on the fights and expected to inconvenience 24 other players by asking them how to do my job. Blame the terrible tanks that can't be arsed to read boss mechanics for the 30 min queue times.

Really discouraging, even if you do know a basic idea of what to do. Reading about the encounter, is different then actually seeing it, specially in a 25 man setting.

The drop in the number of tanks in Raid Finder is partially due to how they are treated. (If you want faster queues, be nice to your tanks!)

Is Ghostcrawler trolling?

Have you actually tanked in a really bad run? Mob mentaility is strong. Specially when everyone doesn't know what their doing, and a Warlock on protectors during He's desperate measures is like "TANK, TAUNT THIS FKN ADD, BADDIE", and it takes not only me, but a DPS warrior who tries to taunt the fixated add, to tell him it's fixated.

[Wolvshammy]

"The big unannounced feature was really two features. One was cancelled and one was delayed until WoD. Ghostcrawler will let us know when it is added though!"

What happened to "Just pick one of the 5.4 features, that's the unannounced feature."? I'm glad to see he finally admits to lying to all of us. Why should I believe anything he says when he flat out lies to his customers?

Sub cancelled. Tired of his #$%^ lies. That dude is the reason this game is dead.

[Dallas1229]

Basically this will be the story that WoW becomes. They will start to release expansions more often, they will give fewer patches per expansion, and will provide us with fan art and "new expansion" content ideas for 5-6 months while we hold our sub fees waiting for a new expansion, but no experience any new content. MoP has barely been out for a year, maybe about 14 months, and they are already telling people that it will no longer be updated. So from now until WoD everything will once again feel irrelevant. I want to believe blizzard cares about its customers, but at the end of the day money>quality product. They need to take a lesson from Anet, with multiple teams working on big projects that are spaced to come out at different times. I find it hard to believe that anet can afford more developers that Blizzard activision.

Also i truly believe Activision is the kiss of death to any beloved franchise because they try to market it to everyone, make it as generic as possible, and release as much content that costs money as possible. Every Call of duty costs $60 with another $60 for dlc content (if you buy the season pass, its more if you dont). WoW on the other hand charges $15 monthly + $40 for expansion. Figure they try to release an expansion every 18 months. $15*18+$40*2= $350/18=19.222*12=$233.33 per customer per year, just to play the most up to date current content. That doesnt consider any extra purchase for the game. Activision is great at business but lousy at making a good game, and i say the WoW community finally speaks up with their vote that count, which is your money. Break the shackles of this game that abuses you for your money.

[Maxsul]

Unacceptable response about server population imbalances. The solution cannot be that people on dead factions have to pay to move all of their alts to a more satisfactory server. It's incredibly shitty.

Take Illidan for instance...any alliance left are completely shit out of luck. They will not get a merger/connected realm. It's simply not an acceptable solution for those players.

[Azrile]

No, he's not. I used to love tanking, till i tried lfr. Now i refuse to ever tank again for the exact reason he stated. And i looked up all the fights before hand and made notes, etc. and i never missed a taunt but as soon as the off tank dies it's always my fault when he was standing in stuff. gg. i went and vendored my prot set and never looked back.

Agreed completely, and you are always the first to get targeted for a kick after a wipe. It is so much less annoying to just go as a healer and just relax and cast spells. You don´t have to play hard or be stressed, just mindless spam a few spells and you will never get kicked.

- - - Updated - - -

Unacceptable response about server population imbalances. The solution cannot be that people on dead factions have to pay to move all of their alts to a more satisfactory server. It's incredibly shitty.

Take Illidan for instance...any alliance left are completely shit out of luck. They will not get a merger/connected realm. It's simply not an acceptable solution for those players.

And what is the solution. Let alliance transfer off and make the problem that much worse for those that are left? The pvp servers have been extremely unbalanced since BC was released. You have had plenty of time to reroll if you don´t like pvp.

[Maxsul]

- - - Updated - - -

And what is the solution. Let alliance transfer off and make the problem that much worse for those that are left? The pvp servers have been extremely unbalanced since BC was released. You have had plenty of time to reroll if you don´t like pvp.

It's not just about PVP. Most stuck around because they got even MORE pvp. It's the bloated side that took the easy road.

But now you can't pvp or pve. You can't sell anything, you can't buy anything. You have to use 3rd party websites to do anything more than LFG. OR, you can pay $150 to transfer your 6 toons to another server. 10 months of subs.

The solution? Real damn easy. Flag this faction/server for free transfers, to anywhere. Give it a cooldown. Want to transfer to the bloated side? That'll cost you extra. Want to transfer to a server not bloated? FREE! All other servers, regular price. What's so hard about that?

Just like saying "connected realm" vs. "server merger" is a move to keep the stock from plummeting, they don't want to do "free" transfers either to alarm people into thinking the game is on a nosedive for subs.

[Alayea]

"Proving Grounds aren't perfectly evenly balanced for every class and spec, so they shouldn't be used to compare the different classes and specs."

It's funny comparing the amount of people of each class that have completed Endless DPS and getting a clear picture of how imbalanced PGs are.

http://www.wowprogress.com/char_stat...ield.pg_damage

978 mages
963 hunters
830 DKs (both frost and unholy)
740 warlocks
490 monks
448 rogues
407 warriors (both fury and arms)
331 shadow priests
221 retribution paladins
124 shamans (both ele and enh)
70 druids (moonkins and ferals)

While these numbers are skewed, as more people probably could do it with their mains if they tried instead of just going on a DK alt and faceroll it, they still show how damn awful druids and shamans have it. So yeah, Blizzard is completely right here and having PG as a alternative to an ilvl requirement would be really stupid.

From my own experience, I can confirm that it's really bad for enhance shaman. T16 has us leaning back towards mastery again, but haste still has good value. But downscale to pre-T14 values, and mastery goes way up while haste dramatically declines (its value is even lower than crit).

I'm thinking of just cheesing it on an alt so I don't have to farm a different gear setup and spend lots of gold and/or mats on gems, enchants, reforges, and glyphs.

[Deleted]

Tanks are just very exposed in LFR due to there being 2 - they're very identifiable, they need to be relied on and they are responsible for a majority of shit going down.

This creates the illusion that tanks are responsible for give all and take all when DPS can roll their face and do 50k. (Which is beyond me how you actually do)

But Ghostcrawler is right - Stop being stuck up and rude, and people will feel more inclined to be friendly/do stuff for you.
Basic social skills right here folks - screaming and crying won't get you for, even if your 5 year old mind tells you it's the 100% right thing to do.