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    Sept 14 Hotfixes, Zone Previews, EU Community Q&A, Blue Posts, D3 Poll, TCG Art

    Scheduled Maintenance, Puzzle Ring - So Many Goblins, Build Diversity & Skill Hotswapping, Poll

    Patch 5.0.5 Hotfixes - September 14
    Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
    Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 5.0.5. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below went live the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. We will continue to update this list in the days to come as additional hotfixes are applied.

    General
    • Talents can no longer be removed if they are currently on cooldown.

    Classes

    Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
    • Druids under the effect of Dash no longer gain the Stampeding Roar buff from other Druids.
    • Eclipse should no longer provide bonus damage after it fades.

    Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
    • The Devilsaur Hunter pet ability Terrifying Roar should no longer apply to player pets or guardians.

    Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
    • Pyroblast and Combustion should combine to do the expected amount of damage and critical damage.
    • The initial damage of Combustion is now properly affected by Shatter, increasing its crit chance accordingly.
    • Cauterize can now only absorb up to twice the mages's maximum health.
    • Glyphed Inferno Blast should properly apply the Pyromaniac debuff.

    Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
    • Holy Paladins should now get the intended 15% bonus to spell hit.

    Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
    • Shadow Word: Pain should now interrupt flag captures and other similar processes with its initial damage (but not it's periodic damage over time).

    Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
    • Crimson Tempest should now stack correctly with Sanguinary Veins and Mastery: Executioner.
    • Cheat Death can now only absorb up to twice the rogue's maximum health.

    Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
    • Shadowburn should always return a Burning Ember when it instantly kills the warlock's target.
    • Soul Leech now causes Fel Flame to heal the Warlock for 10% of damage dealt in all three specs.
    • Fel Armor now increases Warlock's health by 10%.

    Dungeons and Raids
    Scholomance

    Items
    • The level requirement for use of a number of elixirs has been fixed.

    Quests
    • Players are now able to complete the quest Mimicking Nature's Call by using the Carved Horn near the frozen waterfall in Howling Fjord.
    • The quest objective for Call of Duty should again require that players "Ride the mercenary ship to Vashj'ir".

    Bug Fixes
    • Level 10 characters logging into patch 5.0.5 for the first time will now learn Control Pet and Control Demon properly.
    • Death Knights advanced via a scroll of resurrection should now receive all level appropriate abilities including Death Gate and the two unique mounts: the Deathcharger and the Winged Steed.
    • In the Gilneas starting area, Lady Sylvanas' health has been returned to normal.

    Vale of Eternal Blossoms Zone Preview
    As we get closer to Mists of Pandaria, now is a good time to take a look at the new zones. You can find this preview again in the menu at the right side of the navbar. Below is an edited video by BaronSoosdon that adds some eye candy to the zone, let us know what you think!





    Kun-Lai Summit Zone Preview
    As we get closer to Mists of Pandaria, now is a good time to take a look at the new zones. You can find this preview again in the menu at the right side of the navbar. Below is an edited video by BaronSoosdon that adds some eye candy to the zone, let us know what you think!





    EU Community Q&A
    Blizzard sent out answers to a number of questions to the EU fansites, and you can find the full list on WoWSource. We have selected some of the more interesting questions below.

    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    Q: Do you plan to implement more new functions in the BG UI, like tag as team button, categorize BGs by type (CTF, Payload, Murder Ball, etc.) to make BGs even easier to get into for MoP?
    A: No current plans to adjust any of the Battleground UI features.

    Q: What are you doing in order to try and ensure that players no longer play for a short while at the start of a season and then sit on their ratings to get gladiator? This causes issues because there are quite often very few players playing at higher ratings because of this and it creates a repetitive experience of fighting the same teams constantly.
    A: It's really difficult to measure this type of thing right now, but we don't ordinarily see large numbers of players making a habit out of achieving a rating and sitting there successfully without playing.

    Q: Ever since the transmogrification feature has been added to the game, players seem to be more concerned with their character’s appearance. Since so many tabards give such good buffs, players feel “obligated” to use them, even if it ruins their character’s look. Having said that, do you have any plans for adding an interface option to “Hide Tabard”?
    A: The reason we haven't allowed tabards to be hidden is because the very idea of a tabard is to allow the wearer to proudly display the faction or guild they're representing. With that being said, we know that tying bonuses to tabards creates the feeling of a mandate to wear some of them. We're fixing this in Mists by removing the whole concept of tabards providing reputation bonuses. Reputation and factions work a bit differently than those in past expansions. Beyond tabards which provide reputation bonuses, there aren't really any other tabards players should feel obligated to wear for an extended period.

    Q: Does the current account-wide achievement/mounts/pets tech allow you to also have account-wide attunements if desired in the future? (Although we don’t have attunement questlines anymore).
    A: We don't have any plans to bring attunements back, nor is there any intention to somehow share quests across characters. There are points where we have to draw the line and say "this is something you have to earn at the character level." We don't want to pull too much meaning from the act of rolling alts.

    Q: Looking back, are you happy with the moment at which the debuff was introduced in Dragon Soul? (Some players feel it happened too early.)
    A: Yes, we're happy with the point at which the debuff was introduced. The timing of each nerf was completely data-driven. As we see participation and progress start to flatline across the board due to raid groups hitting "brick walls" on particular bosses, we introduce a nerf to encourage them to come back and keep trying. Each time we do this we see Dragon Soul participation increase exponentially compared to previous weeks.

    The most advanced raiders who can work through a single progression block for weeks a time, or who aren't stopped by such blocks for very long, will probably never see eye to eye with us on these nerfs. They perceive it as nerfs to content that's already doable. But as we've said in the past, it's not reasonable to ask the majority of casual riders who'd like to progress through normal (and maybe some Heroic) to wipe on the same boss for weeks or months at a time without giving up. It's better for the overall community for us to make goals feel more attainable over time before they become discouraged and stop playing, particularly during long content lulls like the one between Dragon Soul and Mists of Pandaria.

    Q: Players on low population realms are very concerned that the cross realm zones won’t alleviate their troubles. They point out that the cities will still feel empty and the economy will not be improved, and they do not see that guild recruitment will become any easier. Do you have any plans to address these concerns?
    A: We recognize that the cross-realm zone feature won't solve all population and balance issues. With that said, we're anxious to see what effects it does have, and we'll be monitoring realm population and faction balance very carefully.

    Q: What's the reasoning behind removing the Auction House from Pandaria?
    A: Firstly, we want to ensure our servers are stable. The Pandaria hub will be a very crowded area. Ultimately, we think the model for TBC and WotLK worked okay, so we don't foresee any major issues with requiring players to return to capital cities to use the AH. This also helps keep the capitals from being ghost towns.

    Q: With cross-realm questing coming in MoP, will elite quests be re-introduced?
    A: No, we don't have plans to bring back elite or group quests in Pandaria zones. Scenarios are designed to somewhat replace the need for those quests, while also providing a matchmaking, cross-realm option to solve the problem of players not being able to find groups for elite quests if they miss the initial game release leveling rush.

    Q: Many raiders ask for more recognition (feats of strength, achievements, cosmetic rewards, pets, mounts, titles, etc.) for completing dungeons before debuffs are enabled. Have you given this anymore consideration for Mists?
    A: Yes, this is what the new "Cutting Edge" feat of strength is intended to accomplish. This feat of strength will only be obtainable when players complete the content before any debuffs are introduced to nerf the content, or before the next raid tier becomes available. We'll see how it goes, but the idea is to stick with this type of reward structure for future raid tiers.

    Q: Can you elaborate on how the raid progression (gear-wise) will look in Mists of Pandaria? Some players wonder if having LFR right from the start means we might see a progression system that requires players to start on Tier 14 and progress from there, or if there’ll be new heroics and gear that will allow players to bypass older raid tiers, as in Cataclysm and Wrath of the Lich King.
    A: Each new LFR tier will have an increased minimum ilevel requirement, so there will be sort of a natural progression path there further in the lifespan of the expansion. Players will conceivably run Heroic dungeons to gear up enough to hit the minimum ilevel for the first tier of LFR, then collect enough gear to be eligible for the second tier of LFR, and so on. That said, it won't be mandatory for every player to progress this way, particularly if they run normal or Heroic raids. We're not yet ready to talk about the potential for additional Heroic 5-player dungeons with higher ilevel requirements coming in future Mists patches.

    Q: Players with heirlooms in low level BGs can, quite frankly, trounce anyone in questing gear, and this is highly frustrating for new players and those who don’t have heirlooms. Seeing that ‘twinks’ were moved to their own BG queues for also having a massively unfair advantage over regularly geared players, are you considering doing something about this situation too?
    A: Heirloom gear is basically the equivalent of rare-quality items at any given level. It doesn't feel right to nerf them somehow in PvP when people can run low-level dungeons for similar gear. Players competing with heirloom gear in Battlegrounds will still continue to gain experience if they don't branch off into the "twink" queue.

    Q: From a lore aspect, how do you feel the three dragon soul dungeons turned out? Some players were surprised to see Benedictus’ story play out the way it did as no one really anticipated seeing that twist.
    A: We originally wanted more story hooks to really highlight Benedictus's betrayal. Unfortunately, we didn't end up having the time to build his character out as much as we had hoped.

    Q: In BC, 5-man dungeons were replete with missions that appeared to be heavily lore-centric; this was not felt too much with Cataclysm. Is there anything in the pipeline to add more lore-based and engaging content in regular dungeons for current or future content?
    A: We don't feel like dungeon quests really served the purpose they were meant to. They didn't really help advance the story and sometimes just added an unnecessary feeling of gating. These days we try to do a better job of telling the story of various dungeons by nicely tying the lore to the zones in which the dungeons reside. A great example of this in Mists of Pandaria is the quests in Valley of the Four Winds really paving the way for what's happening in Stormstout Brewery.

    Q: Can you explain our stance on the difficulty of the leveling experience? Many players, having been around for some time, feel that low-level content is too easy beyond level 20 and should increase in difficulty over time (they cite lack of elite packs, no more group quests, gear optimization, etc).
    A: We agree that the low-level experience is a little too easy at times. We wanted to make sure we weren't scaring new players off, but we don't want to bore people either. There needs to be some fear of death. We've been going through and working to increase spawn points and try to make the world feel more dangerous in certain places (particularly 1-20). We don't want to make it frustrating, but people should notice in the 85-90 zones that much more attention needs to be paid to how their characters are positioned, what other creatures are around them, how many creatures they can take on at once, how creature pathing could put them in harm's way, etc.

    Q: Some players had great experiences with things such as the Chess Event in Karazhan and the Ulduar Siege encounter in Wrath patch 3.1. Are there any plans to add additional interactive encounters such as these in future raids?
    A: Whenever it makes sense we'll certainly try to do more unique events like these. They're a lot of work, but they're definitely a lot of fun too. The chess event, for example, was an idea one developer worked through on his own time and had a decent mock-up ready to present to the dungeon encounter team. He saw it through and it was awesome, so we added it to the game.

    Q: Regarding LFR, is it your intention to make LFR completely uninteresting for hardcore raiders so that they don’t ever want to go there with their main characters? Some people dislike the idea of having to go through LFR to get some upgrades and claim that even if the chance of getting and upgrading gear is smaller than before, most guilds will always go there if there is any chance at all of getting the slightest competitive advantage from it.
    A: While we would prefer that LFR not be part of the progression path for people who are doing the content on normal/Heroic with organized guilds, we understand that competitive raiders will take every possible advantage, and that when everyone is starting in dungeon blues, they will take any possible upgrade they can get. We’ve made adjustments to the loot system that curb some of the more onerous practices (i.e. doing a dozen guild runs to optimize LFR loot allocation). We’ll structure the power level of future tiers’ LFR loot so that it doesn’t replace Heroic gear from the prior raid, and we’re continuing to discuss other solutions internally to limit the pressure for competitive raiders to run LFR. That said, there are some positive community effects when groups of guildmates hop into the LFR queue, and are able to lead and share knowledge about the encounters with the core LFR audience.

    Q: When will we update the Zergling Leash model to get it more in-line with the HotS models?
    A: We have no plans at this time. It’s not a simple model port from game to game.

    Q: People would like to see more ways to teach other players how to become better at PvP, especially in the battlegrounds. Many people feel that game really needs more tutorial systems and tooltips that could help newcomers or "weak/unskilled" become better players. What are your thoughts on this, and is it something you would consider for the game?
    A: We want to make an effort to make BGs easier to learn. At some point we want to do Dungeon Journal-type entries that explain the lore and basic strategies of each map. Eventually we’d like to elaborate on that by having fly-through videos that demo what each BG is all about. We might do more queue separation as well based on gear quality, if we can avoid inflating wait times.

    Blue Posts
    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    Stormstout Brewery Challenge Mode Event
    The barrels are bugged and we're working on a hotfix for them.

    In general, in Challenge modes we try to remove randomness, because we don't want external factors to have an undue influence on completion time, and we definitely don't ever want people to be 80% of the way through a clear and say, "Oh, the boss spawned with the wrong set of abilities, reset and try again."

    On Normal and Heroic, Yan-Zhu picks three random abilities out of a possible six. On Challenge mode, we've pre-selected the same set of three abilities every time.

    Similarly, in Mogu'shan Palace, the Trial of the King encounter normally randomizes the order of the bosses, and Raigonn in Gate of the Setting Sun randomizes the order of the adds he summons, but in Challenge mode those are all set to specific orders. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

    Theramore Scenario Item Level Requirement
    Thank you for giving us some much needed answers Neth!!! Appreciate it!
    I just went back to verify this further to make sure I wasn't giving incorrect information. (Sorry for the confusion folks.) There is also an item level that goes with it. At level 85 Theramore's Fall is set to item level 353. At level 90 the item level is currently set for 425.

    If you're not at the correct item level for the level 85 scenario when it goes live, you still have some time before it releases (Sept. 18) and it will be running for a week at that level before it goes to level 90. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

    Challenge Mode Stats Normalization
    The explanation can get a bit technical, but basically no, you don't need a separate set of gear for challenge modes.

    When your gear is scaled down, we keep your hit and expertise % the same, and if needed, subtract extra from your other ratings while keeping their proportions the same. It's also worth noting that we've added 1 level to every enemy in challenge mode dungeons, so that the bosses are 93 instead of 92.

    These numbers aren't accurate, but just to illustrate how it'll work: If you have 15% hit, 10% crit, 10% haste, and 10% mastery, and your gear needs to be scaled down by 20% to reach the normalization threshold, normally you might expect your stats to go down to 12% hit, 8% crit, 8% haste and 8% mastery. Instead you'll end up at 15% hit, 7% crit, 7% haste, and 7% mastery. (I know that not all stats require the same ratings so this isn't precise, but hopefully you get the idea.)

    Now, I did lie a little bit: If you're very precisely trying to hit some haste breakpoints for your spec, you may end up wanting to keep a separate set of challenge mode gear, but that's the sort of behavior we expect from people who already have Gold and are trying to improve their time by a second or two for realm/region leaderboard bragging rights. But the impact of a stat point or two here or there is going to be trivial compared to basic things like how your group handles patrols, how much or little crowd control you choose to use, and so forth. If you think back to something like the original Zul'Aman bear run, success or failure was never a matter of having 1% extra crit or not; it was more typically a product of whether you let that scout make it to the drums, or whether you got too reckless and wiped to one of the bosses. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

    Healing Balance
    Hello my fellow life menders and givers,

    Most of the tuning that has been done so far has been focused on level 90, that's why sometimes we may see a few abilities that are clearly too good at lower levels. (Holy Shock comes to mind, and this one has already been hotfixed).
    We’re not focusing our efforts in balancing abilities prior to Mists, the most important thing right now is that we get everything tuned correctly for the new MoP content and particularly for level 90. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

    D3 Poll: Should Skill Swapping Reset NV Buff?
    If you need some context, take a look at this blue post!


    TCG Art
    Blizzard has updated the Trading Card Game art gallery to feature ten new pieces.



  2. #2
    I hope they hotfix the DK's current ability to /cast diseases on to friendly targets. It's really making it impossible to level an alt in a frequented area...

  3. #3
    The instagram-like filters used to treat those videos are horrible. Not to mention it changes the view of how it really looks in-game.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by widowmaker View Post
    Not to mention it changes the view of how it really looks in-game.
    That is why we have screenshots and videos on the zone preview pages!

  5. #5
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by widowmaker View Post
    The instagram-like filters used to treat those videos are horrible. Not to mention it changes the view of how it really looks in-game.
    You must not be familiar with BaronSoosdan's previous works then, he used 'instagram-like' effects in his videos before it was cool, heh.

    Can't hate it though, using the Antayla track, guy got taste in my books.

  6. #6
    wait so does this mean moonkin are doing more damage than they "should". i mean, i guess moon druid damage is in an alright spot and im lovin all the burst but its just barely keeping up at the moment.

  7. #7
    Merely a Setback Kaleredar's Avatar
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    In BC, 5-man dungeons were replete with missions that appeared to be heavily lore-centric;
    I don't know exactly what this person thinks they were remembering... Burning Crusade dungeons might have been any number of things, but "lore centric" certainly wasn't one of them. Why did we care what the etherals were doing in mana-tombs? Who the hell was Omorr the unscarred? I still have no bloody clue why the naga wanted all the water in zangarmarsh.

    Cataclysm dungeons were much more "story focused" than any of the burning crusade ones. The only real "floater dungeon" was Blackrock Caverns.
    “Do not lose time on daily trivialities. Do not dwell on petty detail. For all of these things melt away and drift apart within the obscure traffic of time. Live well and live broadly. You are alive and living now. Now is the envy of all of the dead.” ~ Emily3, World of Tomorrow
    Quote Originally Posted by Wells View Post
    Kaleredar is right...
    Words to live by.

  8. #8
    Deleted
    they put moonkin up to a decent spot in damage, only to nerf us again? cmon! 0_o

  9. #9
    The Unstoppable Force Granyala's Avatar
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    That boots image... Teleport gone bad? Oo

  10. #10
    Wtf is a Submerge Bunny and how do I kill it?

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Trollfaced View Post
    they put moonkin up to a decent spot in damage, only to nerf us again? cmon! 0_o
    Numbers at 85 don't even matter any more, it's old content in blizzards eyes.

    ---------- Post added 2012-09-15 at 12:36 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Kaleredar View Post
    I still have no bloody clue why the naga wanted all the water in zangarmarsh.
    The aim of the Coilfang Naga is apparently to control the water of Outland, which is becoming a rare commodity on the continent. Although no evidence exists, one theory is that they are attempting to gather enough water to create a new Well of Eternity for Illidan -wowwiki

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by widowmaker View Post
    The instagram-like filters used to treat those videos are horrible. Not to mention it changes the view of how it really looks in-game.
    If you're talking about the bloom and glow, I love it. It makes the game feel like a fantasy dream world. I love the bloom as it is in the game and wish it was more extreme, and his videos do that.

  13. #13
    Bloodsail Admiral hiragana's Avatar
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    Loved the videos, much better than someone just flying round recording,

  14. #14
    It's not a boomkin nerf, it's a fix. You could go from 100 lunar + Incarnation to 0 and pop Celestial Alignment and you would double dip in the mastery buff for eclipse.

    Since it's likely this was a unseen bug in the beta and ptr if they see our numbers drop too much we'll get a buff. It likely wont hurt too much since it was only with the timing of two cooldowns that this was even noticed.

  15. #15
    Deleted
    I don't see why everyone is praising these "Fear and Loathing" videos so much. The blur and bloom effects are really annoying. Soosdon did a fine job at recreating the "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" trippiness in his Moonkin video, but these videos are neither trippy, nor enjoyable to watch due to the overused effects. Either go all the way, or keep it simple by showing the landscapes as they are ingame.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by widowmaker View Post
    The instagram-like filters used to treat those videos are horrible. Not to mention it changes the view of how it really looks in-game.
    Turn your graphics up cuz my game looks fairly similar to that

  17. #17
    Warchief Alayea's Avatar
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    BaronSoosdon's style is great, in my opinion. I saw all of them as WoW Insider spotlighted each one last month and I was blown away by the quality of the image and the sweet music. Not everyone will like the style he uses, of course.

    Also, I'm amazed at how people can be voting 'yes' in that poll. It was put in to discourage willy-nilly skill changing and create some sort of permanence, which is among the other things Bashiok mentions in his posts on the subject.
    Alayea - Enhance/Resto (Main) Lithala - BM Gekkani - Holy/Shadow
    Mathrie - Fury/Prot Mayae - Resto/Bal Elita - Frost/Blood
    Chrystie - Frost Draika - Combat Ioreth - Ret/Prot
    Vexbolt - Destruction Yin - WW/MW Yolis
    Urwenn

  18. #18
    Sorry to say it like this, but this is a news site... you can’t just change the news to make them prettier. And no, this is not an opinion, this is the way things are. Either the game looks like that, or it doesn’t. Ease up on the filters in the videos, and do some reading on journalism. You have a few million hits a day I assume, so act at least like amateurs.

  19. #19
    Grunt
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    I love these videos.

  20. #20
    Really enjoying these vids. Can't understand why they are getting so much hate. I'd rather see the zones like this, with a bit of vagueness and shine to them than a full on walk through of what we'll be seeing come MOP. Leaves something to the imagination.

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