Patch 5.3 Dev Interview, Blue Posts, Blue Tweets, Fan Art Creation

[Duster505]

NOW THAT was a good interview.

I listened to the Gamebreaker.tv interview and what a bunch of PR upon PR. It was obvious that GBTV was just asking the questions that devs had put in front of them. I dared to say that - and was banned

There are many good points in the interview that I have been pointing out for long. Example - lowering DPS when ppl stand in dmg instead of increasing the dmg ppl take.

As far as 5 man content goes tho.. Blizzard failed this expansion and they can not hide from that. They are trying to admit it... but as a game developer you should have realised that well before and it should never have happened.

As far as raids having longer lifespan... Just wrong. Totally and utterly wrong. Just because ppl do it once a week does not mean that they do it more often. And considering so many dungeons are being run while leveling - I can say with 100% confidence that the livespawn of dungeons is MUCH MUCH MUCH longer than any raid that becomes outdated almost the same day a new one is added - for ANYTHING but legendary and transmorg.

But Blizzard needs to add new features to their 5 man content to give more variety. If making the dungeons is so hard... then give more random features to it so ppl do not feel they are always doing exactly the same thing. And considering what has been going on for AGES in other games... random maps could be added if they bothered.

Considering that 5.4 is less than 4 month away (if they are really aiming for faster content) - they better start talking about it AND the new expansion ....... unless ofc they are once again let players wait for 8-12 months after last patch until expansion. Sadly that seems to be the case once more.

[Pacster]

*I might be wrong here but I got the impression from last time I checked top rated teams, that there was a very high representation of shadow priests in 3v3. Even though this was before the nerf to Void Shift, so we’ll see how things go from here.*

Oh, so that's how we "balance" classes? We look at representation and if representation is high then that means they are op?
Finally I get why blizz manages to fail time after time at balancing classes.
Did it ever come to their mind that a dark priest ist just pretty cool and that 20 priority buttons are much more challenging/interesting than always hitting the same 4 button rotation as a mage? I mean if people would be into playing always the same mechanic, they'd play pve instead of pvp, right?
And last but not least: May it be that shadows have been crap in pvp all the way since introduction of arenas and always did depend on imba cc of icemage or rogue(in the hands of really skilled players) to have ANY chance to be able to compete....and that players just wanted to play their old shadow again after it finally got on an equal level? How many really new shadows just levelled for arenas did we really see?


*Plus you have quite a few instant damage dealing abilities, shields, heals and CC.*

Did I miss out on any abilities? I mean, I play the shadow since classic...maybe I just don't know all spells yet. As far as I know we got exactly ONE instant spell that we can cast while moving(2 if you count that star or halo in...three if you add the pet. Both with cds and not doing much damage)...and that one does periodic damage(not exactly great for bursting). SWeath needs to be glyphed and is bad, plague needs orbs for which you first need to stand still to get them, other instants first need to procc(so not around at all at start...and you need luck) and to even get the procc chance you need to cast VT(which is again an stand still spell). On top of that our only instant can be dispelled.

Quite a few cc? Which ones? A mass fear for which you need to get to the target...it's not exactly instant if you run at your target at slow speed(most other classes run faster). I mean, hey, what do I do if I see a shadow running at me? Count one and one together. Every second class has an immunity ability against fear.
Then we have horror...oh no..wait...for horror we first need an orb for which we have to cast mindblast(which is a loooong cast)...then we have a 1(!!!!!) second fear(which works even on distance, yay)...unless of course we need the orb for plague...ooops. Then we have silence(actually by far our best cc. But blizz is already discussing about taking blank silences out of the game...guess who will be hit first...useless against non-casters).
And last but not least Psyfiend OR tendrils/roots. Roots need the enemy close by again, about every enemy has a break free mechanic, wasted against casters. It's that bad that about all players use the psyfiend. The psyfiend on the other hand is pretty crap too, you need to lay it down, it then has to cast(at a random target, good luck trying to use him for a cc-chain), is killed easily and people can just run out of range. Don't make me talk about mind control.
2 shadows likely have a harder time to totally control one skilled target than ONE mage or rogue would....but hey, we got plenty instant cc. We do. Blizz said so. You just got to believe them.


*The point was to nerf Shadow. Their damage, survivability and utility are all high. Hard for other specs to compete (PvP).*

When, where, how? Their damage is only high if they survive the first 20seconds without of having to go full time healer. But seriously, whose damage isn't high if you just let them stand still and do whatever they please? The difference between shadows and other classes ist that most classes are already on that damage level in 5 seconds....which means that shadows have to heal to survive(which then means they don't have much damage anymore)...and on top of that shadows really have to use all their 20 buttons AND stand still to get to a damage level and support themselves in a way that other classes manage with 5 buttons while running after you.

Granted, the shadow was worse in recent years than it is now, but that doesn't mean it is imba.
Is there anybody even playing shadow at blizz? The pale dude in the corner whose name nobody knows and that never speaks up, maybe? ;-)

[Yuuki Asuna]

I really hope this new feature is a way we can do old content scaled up to level 90! Of course there will be exceptions, but I really want to do LK stuff again with friends! Especially at level 90

[ganush]

Regarding LFR...

I don't think punishing people for standing in bad stuff is the solution, I think rewarding them for not is. If a player completes a full LFR encounter without taking damage from the the avoidable stuff, double their chance at loot or give them an extra bonus roll. Also, have a 'ready for raiding' achievement for each LFR boss and if you get em all you can have a fancy title. If you provide tangible rewards for better play, people will play better. The way LFR is right now, crap play is rewarded the same as good play. The player standing in everything stressing the healers or dying won't give a crap if they aren't doing good dps either.

Also, nice to see a backtrack by GC on his ridiculous statement that players have to choose between good raids or more dungeons.

[Nivena]

NOW THAT was a good interview.

I listened to the Gamebreaker.tv interview and what a bunch of PR upon PR. [...]

Oh yes, it was really lame ;-)

[Deleted]

Holy crap that drawing is amazing. Makes me want to draw stuffs

[subanark]

Regarding LFR...

I don't think punishing people for standing in bad stuff is the solution, I think rewarding them for not is. If a player completes a full LFR encounter without taking damage from the the avoidable stuff, double their chance at loot or give them an extra bonus roll. Also, have a 'ready for raiding' achievement for each LFR boss and if you get em all you can have a fancy title. If you provide tangible rewards for better play, people will play better. The way LFR is right now, crap play is rewarded the same as good play. The player standing in everything stressing the healers or dying won't give a crap if they aren't doing good dps either.

Also, nice to see a backtrack by GC on his ridiculous statement that players have to choose between good raids or more dungeons.

Bonus roll is not a good idea, as it may cause some players to bail if they get hit by something. Now, loot that isn't too hard to obtain, but still useful like spirits of harmony would work. Another option is to require players that get hit by avoidable stuff too much to do a "training" solo instance to get loot. This way, the player has to spend more time if they aren't doing a good job. If AFKs are a big enough issue, then dps penalties for missing stuff might also help (as long as enrage timers are removed). The biggest issue is that it would require more coding to do so.

My thoughts are that LFR should be a no-fail situation. The more people screw up the longer the fight takes. If you receive fatal damage then you get a debuff that reduces damage/healing done and damage received. Then you get put back at full. This effect would fall off eventually. The room would not be locked, and new people can join if any are missing part way though. Leave the chance to wipe the group to smaller group situations.

[Neotokyo]

that was awesome to watch.. the whole picture just coming to life like that. very very talented indeed

[Whidbey]

The Big slow down wasn't jade forest it was at 80 going through cata all over again.. boooorrrriing.

[Deleted]

Dungeons and Raids
25 player raiding feels more epic than 10 player raiding, as well as allowing you to bring in friends or newer players without as big of an impact on the raid.
25 player raids can fall back to a 10 player raid size if they begin to fall apart, while 10 player raids will just disband if they start losing people.

Laughing my ass of. "Oh we just found out that apparently 25 man guilds where pretty cool after all. 10 mans just disband when they get into trouble".

[The Penguin]

Disappointing that Greg can't think outside the box and just give Locks a Tank Spec. When Cat / Bear was jammed into one spec they had no issue breaking protocol and allowing Druids to do everything. Pure Specs all across the board need to go the way of the Dodo, especially now that choosing what spec you want to recieve loot for makes gearing far easier.

[Duster505]

Disappointing that Greg can't think outside the box and just give Locks a Tank Spec. When Cat / Bear was jammed into one spec they had no issue breaking protocol and allowing Druids to do everything. Pure Specs all across the board need to go the way of the Dodo, especially now that choosing what spec you want to recieve loot for makes gearing far easier.

You mean Warlock tanks do not need any extra gear to go from tanking to dps? Name me one tanking spec that can do top DPS in same gear as they do in their DPS role... And then you might realise the flaw.

There are classes in the game now that need 3 totally different set of gear for their roles. That would be very unfair to them to see Warlocks stroll around with 1 item set... doing all the content.

[Halicia]

That would be very unfair to them to see Warlocks stroll around with 1 item set... doing all the content.

So basically, priests ?

[Prokne]

Maybe they get no heals, you stand in fire they deserve to die.

I do this all the time when I heal and it works pretty good, after 1 or 2 deaths ppl learn not to stand in bad stuff. People who dont care about mechanics wont care or wont notice that their dps is low. They will notice that they are dead a lot and have huge repair bills.

[chanfle]

Cross faction raids in 5.4 ??? Considering alliance is in cahoots with the horde it doesn't seem too crazy.

[Deleted]

As we all know, we are now agaist Gorrash Hellscream and we can defeat him at next patch, but 5.4 patch also should lead us to the next expansion.
Can`t hardly wait to hear about the next expansion, but I think, that happen only just Blizzcon2013...

[Nuvuk]

Losing battlegrounds or arenas repeatedly to get gear so that you could be competitive in PvP wasn't fun.

Wait what does that mean? Are they making the loss have a gain to?

[Deleted]

You mean Warlock tanks do not need any extra gear to go from tanking to dps? Name me one tanking spec that can do top DPS in same gear as they do in their DPS role... And then you might realise the flaw.

Ferals/Guardians

There are classes in the game now that need 3 totally different set of gear for their roles. That would be very unfair to them to see Warlocks stroll around with 1 item set... doing all the content.

If going tank warlocks would be gemming differently (sta), use different trinkets and probably have different stat priority. That's about as much gear set switching as other classes like priests, shaman, druids (both feral/guardian and boomkin/resto) and virtually all pure dps have.
The biggest difference with hybrids is that warlocks don't have a second tier set to collect. But that's easily fixed by Bliz.

Nobody would mind it if it means shorter LFD queues and new options for struggling raid groups.

[Axefresh]

"The UNANNOUNCED feature is on schedule for patch 5.4."

What do you guys predict it will be?

I'm hoping for a stat scaling feature like in Challenge Modes that allows us to have the stats native to the old raids. It would make old raids hard again

[Ansgar]

Wait what does that mean? Are they making the loss have a gain to?

No, but as you might already know, Blizzard ended up giving 65% base resilience to everybody regardless of the gear they are wearing. This change made the "gearing up process" in battlegrounds less forgiving, as you will no longer be instant killed by somebody who has the better gear.

Well, you will most likely still die, as you wont have the PvP power to compete, but atleast you now have a chance to fight back, CC the oponen, run away, heal your self, call for help, or even learn from your mistakes ( in case you are just starting to learn a new class ), before you gout get killed.

Piror to patch 5.3 you either had to buy all the crafted pvp gear and still be undergeared, or you had to play a ton of battlegrounds, where you basicly wouldn't be able to help your team much, and you would most likely die all the time, not because of lack of skill, but because of the lack of gear.

You basicly wouldn't be able to help your team, or learn your class, before you had the gear, in order to survive and be able to compete, and learn from your mistakes.