Coffee with the Devs: Dissecting Patch 5.4 Class Changes

[Kellhound]

"When Holy Paladins could melee targets, they had no mana problems at all, but when they had to heal at range (which we wanted to at least be an option, if not the default healing style), they suffered for mana."

Then why in the hell do we have plate armor and shields???? If they dont want us to wade into combat, change our armor to mail, or even cloth, so we are not stuck being the only users of int plate that has no purpose....

"Most of our core changes were to Holy Paladins. Specifically, we felt like the healing style of blanketing a group with Eternal Flame to proc absorbs from Illuminate Healing had become too widespread, and didn’t fit the healing style we wanted for Paladins."

What IS the healing style they want then? I loved being a tank healer, why was that bad? Is it really so wrong to have us be healers that go toe to toe with the foe while healing the melee around us?

[wacked2015]

Getting really tired of these posts Blizzard provides. They just love keeping this imaginary carrot on a stick in front of us and feeding us with complete bullshit. This water cooler was entirely a waste of time. They keep saying oh the balance pass hasn't come yet, oh it's just around the corner, oh it's in 2 PTR cycles we will see extensive changes multiple specs... I call bullshit. The balance pass has already come to pass and this is it.

[Mr. Casual]

"nerfing Shockwave—and probably speaks more for to the relative strength of stuns compared to other forms of crowd control, which is something we’d like to address long term. (Perhaps stuns need to be shorter, dispellable, or break on damage so they aren’t quite so game-changing.)"

am i the only who caught that? and is a little concerned being that caster cleaves>>>>> melee cleaves and most of the top pvp specs in the game dont rely on stuns. Classes with the most stuns like rogues, warriors and ww monks are mediocre at best in 3s

[Kaeth]

I love how he still pretends the Deterrence "buff" for hunters is anything but a nerf on top of a nerf.

[Millie]

The first heirloom weapon that drops for you will be for your current spec in Flex because of the personal loot system, but after that you will get one at random. The heirloom weapons are also intended to make MoP a little more alt friendly.

So the widely reviled alt unfriendliness of MoP finally gets addressed in the final major patch of the expansion and this solution only applies to raiders, and only raiders above LFR?

Wow thanks.

[nekobaka]

The first heirloom weapon that drops for you will be for your current spec because of the personal loot system, but after that you will get one at random. The heirloom weapons are also intended to make MoP a little more alt friendly.

So a heirloom for alts during the end of an expansion to make things more alt friendly where alt focus tends to ramp up anyways and is in part responsible for many players having a plethora of alts that they head into the next expansion and cant manage due to all the new content. Kind of sounds more like the developers are expecting a need to extend the life of content.

[kamuimac]

this explanation about disc priest is total bs - they have been totaly OP since begining of MoP to the point when any progress guild that dont have disc is gimping itself significantly and they keep buffing all other healing classes to keep in touch with disc- but nooo disc is in right spot according to them and not need any nerfs - in SoO disc wil have 100k dps from atonement and sick healing from shields >< ofc it is in good spot for all disc priests out there but for all other healing classses this is just slap in the face :/

[Tyraena]

I still think mages needs a change back to the old ways. You guys turned all mages into dot classes like warlocks and shadow priest....I am no longer a caster, I'm a dotter. I don't like playing warlock, I don't like playing shadow priest, and not I don't like playing mage (after 6 long great years)

Gone healing, call me when I can have my class back.

Nothing says DOT more than FIRE, and it is the only spec with dots, and somehow this doesn't make sense to you? When was the last time you saw a fire instantaneously light, burn someone, and extinguish? Backdraft references don't count, that is a rarity, not the standard behavior.

[Onmicide]

Unholy is the strongest plate dps spec in the game at present so I'm not sure what you want.

This may be true but DK dps for unholy is maybe 14th and frost is around 24th we are fairly down the totem pole. Where as some classes mages warlocks hunter their specs are all up near the rope dps.

[Feali]

The first heirloom weapon that drops for you will be for your current spec because of the personal loot system, but after that you will get one at random. The heirloom weapons are also intended to make MoP a little more alt friendly.

Because f**k you, dual-wield speccs!

[Deleted]

Poor compensation to hunters, NOT buff. slight nerf.

[MasterHamster]

*scrolls thread*
This is what happens when Blizzard communicates with the players.

[thigan]

The first heirloom weapon that drops for you will be for your current spec because of the personal loot system, but after that you will get one at random. The heirloom weapons are also intended to make MoP a little more alt friendly.

So, lets say I'm stuck at 13/14N for 2 months. If I kill Garrosh in Flex, and I get the heirloom weapon I just shoot myself in the foot?

[artem123]

So, lets say I'm stuck at 13/14N for 2 months. If I kill Garrosh in Flex, and I get the heirloom weapon I just shoot myself in the foot?

Maybe it'll be per difficulty. Ie you could get a personal one per kill, and then every other kill could be random type of thing.

[Arbs]

*scrolls thread*
This is what happens when Blizzard communicates with the players.

Sometimes I don't think its players anymore, it can be anyone now a days.

[thigan]

this explanation about disc priest is total bs - they have been totaly OP since begining of MoP to the point when any progress guild that dont have disc is gimping itself significantly and they keep buffing all other healing classes to keep in touch with disc- but nooo disc is in right spot according to them and not need any nerfs - in SoO disc wil have 100k dps from atonement and sick healing from shields >< ofc it is in good spot for all disc priests out there but for all other healing classses this is just slap in the face :/

That is because you don't know the history of Disc in this expansion, you don't understand what he means. However you don't even read what he said. Changes:

- Nerf PW:S Mana gain from Rapture
- Nerf SS uptime

You many think that is not enough, maybe, but only pallys and disc are being nerfed this patch (overall), the rest are buffed, that means they are closer to balance, maybe they overshoot (pallys) will see. In any case this is a discussion about the mechanics, from the mechanics points of view developers didn't find one mechanic as guilty, the number tuning hasn't even started in PTR.

[Xjev]

Proving Grounds won't be perfectly balanced for every class and spec, so it shouldn't be used as a class or spec ranking tool.

I think this would effectively kill one of the biggest incentives for alt play: gearing up an alt, which I enjoy a lot.

[Harazi]

Wow, how did I know the comments section here would be a bitchfest?

I do understand that every player is very much attached to their chosen class/spec/playstyle, sometimes across multiple versions of that.

Not a single one of you has any bloody respect for the devs who have to figure out how to balance and keep viable in multiple environments every class and spec that exists right now.

And some of you are really not as genius as you think you are about how to balance/change things. Not saying I am, which is why I don't complain about the classes I play, I just roll with it and try to have fun.

[tru]

Wow, how did I know the comments section here would be a bitchfest?

I do understand that every player is very much attached to their chosen class/spec/playstyle, sometimes across multiple versions of that.

Not a single one of you has any bloody respect for the devs who have to figure out how to balance and keep viable in multiple environments every class and spec that exists right now.

And some of you are really not as genius as you think you are about how to balance/change things. Not saying I am, which is why I don't complain about the classes I play, I just roll with it and try to have fun.

Because they have done a piss poor job of balance this xpac.
Maybe because they have taken so much signature and uniqueness from classes/specs.
Their overall design direction and quality of the current and past expansion (MoP & Cata) are reflected by their sub numbers ( near a 4 million drop since the end of Lich King ).

They would have to pay me to play their game in its current state.

There is nothing cool or badass about being a DK anymore
Hunters are/have been LOLBM for the entirety of MoP
Combat rogues who were once the only real PvE option are now and have been the shittiest single target pve choice for the class.
Warrior dps Arms/Fury plays too fast which can be said for many melee play styles like DKs - Ret - Combat - WW-( Which IMO is the worst designed spec ever )
Mages scale to well and fire scaling with crit like it currently does WILL BE A PROBLEM in the next tier even tho GC is to stupit two sea it.

[papajohn4]

we changed Rain of Fire to not be so essential to the single-target rotation by reducing its Ember generation.

the reduced ember generation is if you hit one target or generally fewer than x targets? Or is a flat generation reduce?