SoO Changes in Patch 6.0 and WoD, Blue Tweets, Raid Finder Transmog Gear, Interview

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Siege of Orgrimmar Changes in Patch 6.0 and Warlords of Draenor

In the recent Dev Watercooler: Raiding Azeroth Part 3—Warlords of Draenor, we discussed some of the raid changes coming in the next WoW expansion. Before Warlords of Draenor launches, players will have a chance to experience the new raid structure firsthand in the Siege of Orgrimmar.

In the upcoming Patch 6.0, the pre-expansion “systems” update planned to go live in the weeks leading up to Warlords of Draenor’s release, we’ll be converting Siege of Orgrimmar to use the new Normal, Heroic, and Mythic difficulties. Both Normal and Heroic difficulties will support flexible raid sizes and our cross-server Group Finder tool, while Mythic will be a fixed 20-player size. At the same time, “stat squish” will be in effect, the new class changes will be live, and Hit and Expertise will no longer be stats on items, so those will be replaced with more useful ones on all existing items. The raid as a whole will be retuned for the new numbers and scaling size—overall, it should prove no more difficult than it is currently, and will likely be easier in many places.

With the end of an expansion and a raid tier, along with introduction of a new level cap, we’ll also be retiring a handful of rewards. We want to encourage everyone to enjoy one last hurrah in the Siege of Orgrimmar before your adventure on Draenor begins.

In addition to the above changes, when Patch 6.0 arrives:

• Flexible Raid difficulty will cease to exist as it does now, and will be removed from the raid queue interface. The new Normal difficulty of Siege of Orgrimmar will offer a similar experience to that of Flexible Raid.
• The new Group Finder tool will be available, designed to help players create and find groups for Normal and Heroic Siege of Orgrimmar and other cross-realm group content.
• Siege of Orgrimmar achievements will be relabeled according to the new difficulty structure (e.g. “Heroic: Malkorok” will now be “Mythic: Malkorok”). Credit for these will be retroactively awarded to players who earned them before Patch 6.0.
• The Garrosh Hellscream “Ahead of the Curve” and “Cutting Edge” Feats of Strength will cease to be obtainable.
• This means that the Kor’kron War Wolf, awarded by the “Ahead of the Curve” Feat of Strength, will also cease to be obtainable upon release of the pre-expansion Patch 6.0.
• With the release of Patch 6.0, the drop rate of the Heirloom weapons from Garrosh Hellscream on Normal, Heroic, and Mythic difficulties will be significantly increased.
• Players who have yet to get any Heirlooms will have a 100% (guaranteed) chance of getting a spec-appropriate Heirloom when defeating Garrosh on Normal difficulty or higher.
• The chance of receiving additional Heirlooms beyond the first will also be increased.

When Warlords of Draenor is released and players are able to head to Draenor and level past 90:

• Garrosh Hellscream will no longer drop Heirloom weapons.
• The Kor’kron Juggernaut mount will cease being a guaranteed drop from Mythic Garrosh Hellscream, and will instead become a rare drop (like Invincible’s Reins, Mimiron’s Head, etc.).

All other loot, achievements, and cosmetic rewards (e.g. the Kor’kron Dark Shaman transmog set, rare battle pets, etc.) will remain unchanged.

Blue Tweets

Classes
But reduce disarms duration to 4 seconds, while disarmed you can still control your character. Storm bolt is an unavoidable stun.
We don't plan on bringing disarms back but if we had left them, we would have removed weapon chains and set duration to 4 seconds. (holinka)

Fine line b/t "too much" and "not enough"; similar to healer/spirit changes. If other stats are compelling: no issue.
While interesting in concept, it would feel extremely negative in practice. "Why do rogues only get 5% regen from 10% haste?" (Celestalon)

Hunter (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Do you think hunters overall got hit by the nerfbat the most in terms of CC reduction/removal?
No I don't think changes to their CC are far far beyond others. (holinka)

Mage (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Will multistrike proc ignite for firemages? Thoughts on combustion w/o skull banner, alter time or haste snapshotting?
Multistrikes of your other spells can add to your Ignite DoT, yes. Ignite itself cannot Multistrike. (You can benefit once). (Celestalon)
Snapshotting has trivial impact on Combustion, but the others are significant. Planning to buff Combustion. (Celestalon)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
buffing ret damage isn't gonna make the spec more fun. there's still gaps where I do nothing but wait for RNG procs etc.
Having a few empty GCDs here and there (NOTE: I did *not* say often) is good gameplay. Allows room for expansion/procs/etc. (Celestalon)

Priest (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Is the shadow priest mana issue addressed in the upcoming expansion? the mana problem is even worse in pvp.
We don't see it as a problem. It's intentional that mana is a limiting factor on your utility usage (but not on DPSing). (Celestalon)

Warlock (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
hi celestalon is there any chance of keeping any form of carrion swarm for demo locks? maybe through a glyph or something?
Not likely. It's power that we don't want them to have. (Celestalon)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
what was the thought process or rather for which situation/purpose was gladiator stance designed ? feels like a pvp only talent
It's for when you want to be a sword and board DPS, only have prot gear, or prefer the prot rotation but want to DPS. (Celestalon)

Racials
War Stomp? Does it stay or go?
Stay. (Celestalon)

we want something from Blizzard on changes to EMFH. You realize it's an unfair advantage to Alliance, so why remain quiet?
We need to evaluate Warlords trinkets and then see PvP testing. That's part of the point of testing. Then we'll see. (WatcherDev)

Character / Items
What will happen to Ravenlord? Will we still be able to farm for him? Been trying for months.
Sure. Outland as a level 60-70 space isn't going anywhere. Though hopefully you'll get your mount soon! (WatcherDev)

Will the burdens ever become BoA? I really do not need them on my main?
No plans to change that at this point. You can pass 496 gear to your alts, but you need to play those alts to get the 535s. (WatcherDev)
wouldn't it make sense for the tokens to be rare and then become epic from a burden? Sick of guild news feed being blown up
The guild news feed issue is definitely a pain. In 6.0 items like Timeless tokens or Kael'thas legendaries will be filtered out. (WatcherDev)

Warlords of Draenor Stats
Hey just curious, will all shields have bonus armor or will there be dps bonuses on them for gladiator stance warriors?
I'm not sure about bonus armor on shields, guessing not (Regardless Bonus Armor will have DPS value. (Celestalon)

Are you the right person for this? Hope so. Will certain old content fights(like Spine of Deathwing) be retuned for solo?
Yes. We will absolutely 100% ensure you can still solo old raids, just as you already can. (Celestalon)

PvE
I'm assuming the solution they have arrived at is make LFR far less compelling than Flex then ultimately remove it.
Raid Finder is an important system and the only way many people can experience our raid content. It's here to stay. (WatcherDev)

PvP
Is there anything you can do to fix world pvp : pve gear > pvp gear? or should ppl just unsub until xpac?
PvP gear is ilevel 550 and you have about 50% damage/healing from PvP power. PvP gear is very good now. (holinka)

What is wrong with 2v2 this season? it seems like very good players who are normally 1900+ are fighting at 1600 all the time
One of the downsides of the inflation system is that when it resets, it's an abrupt drop in rating. (holinka)

With Warlords of Draenor having a 90-99 battleground bracket, are you looking to expand other brackets to their 10 level ranges?
Yes (holinka)

Would you guys ever add a team matching system for PVP? (You currently only do opponent match.) http://t.co/6kn0KTwJU7
We've discussed solo ranked matchmaking. We're going to be doing it in Skirmish first. (holinka)

Professions
First Aid. Any plans to reinvent/remove? Lost its touch since Vanilla/BC.
We're discussing ways of making it feel more relevant (and no, not bandaging yourself on cooldown in raids). Nothing to share yet (WatcherDev)

Garrisons
An interview mentioned that we would get things like Cavalry, Bombardment and Ridable siege tanks as perks Is this true?
One major goal is for garrisons to give you incredibly cool perks even outside of your garrison. Lots of things we're trying out (Muffinus)

so, with garrison's perk, will per example the free ress every day carry over into raids etc?
Probably not, would make those buildings feel mandatory for raiders. Choice/customization are big draws, don't want to railroad (Muffinus)
it may be a fantastic feature but the description of how it is being integrated worries me.
Getting everything the garrison offers isn't hard-gated by the quest line, you can do dungeons for all 10 levels if you want! (Muffinus)

Nervous about Garrisons, don't like having to drop what I'm doing, run across Draenor, and "defend" my garrison.
It's not time-limited, working on the mechanism, doesn't require you to drop what you're doing. (Muffinus)

Will we be able to name our NPC followers in the Garrisons in WoD?
They have names! Followers are not pets! Not even the Worgen ones! (Muffinus)

awesome and what about the walls will they need a prerequisite like X amount of buildings added to ur garrisons ect
The walls come with the garrison, wouldn't be a very good base without walls! (Muffinus)

Warlords of Draenor - Raid Finder Transmog Gear
It looks like you will be able to access the old Raid Finder color variants of gear in Warlords of Draenor!

FinalBoss Interview - Ion Hazzikostas
If you missed the interview yesterday and want more than just the recap, you can watch the full interview now!

[Tock20]

Awesome! Finally able to get transmog from old LFRs!

[Zoaric]

Woo, nice to see they're looking at First Aid.

[Jester Joe]

Awesome! Finally able to get transmog from old LFRs!

Long overdue. Very long overdue.

[Aenwyrm]

Solo scenarios at 100? So much for needing other people for anything at all =D

[ben-]

Great news that heirlooms will drop more with 6.0!

[Zigrifid]

Hmmm am i the only one thinking that the patch 6 (not wod i mean the prepatch) release date is closer than we think? (i hope im wrong ).

[Aelric70]

Hmmm am i the only one thinking that the patch 6 (not wod i mean the prepatch) release date is closer than we think? (i hope im wrong ).

Probably late July or Aug... WOD 4 - 6 weeks later.

[CasCrow]

Wonderful. Forcing Normal SoO on people that cant even get a flex kill. And making Garrosh not drop anymore looms when WoD hits. Just freaking lovely.

[t11fa]

Wonderful. Forcing Normal SoO on people that cant even get a flex kill. And making Garrosh not drop anymore looms when WoD hits. Just freaking lovely.

How are they forcing normal on you? Normal come 6.0 will be the same difficulty as Flex is now, nothing has changed except the name. And yes, the heirlooms are meant for when you level to 100, which you'll probably do right away? You will have had almost a year to get one when they get removed on the launch of WoD, and you won't need it afterwards.

[Issalice]

Disappointed by the removal of heirlooms. What about alts and such for the future?

[SL1200]

"Players who have yet to get any Heirlooms will have a 100% (guaranteed) chance of getting a spec-appropriate Heirloom when defeating Garrosh on Normal difficulty or higher."


I wish they had done that from the beginning. I still don't have my Heirloom and my guild disbanded after only a handful of garrosh Normal kills.

[Deleted]

I'm still curious about Siege of Orgrimmar achievements will be relabeled according to the new difficulty structure (e.g. “Heroic: Malkorok” will now be “Mythic: Malkorok”). Credit for these will be retroactively awarded to players who earned them before Patch 6.0.Any New FoS or anything what kind of credits?

[t11fa]

Disappointed by the removal of heirlooms. What about alts and such for the future?

Alongside the fact that you've had ages to farm the guy for heirlooms, you will have an increased chance for more than a month when 6.0 hits.

- The chance of receiving additional Heirlooms beyond the first will also be increased.

[TrollShaman]

Wonderful. Forcing Normal SoO on people that cant even get a flex kill. And making Garrosh not drop anymore looms when WoD hits. Just freaking lovely.

the driving reason may be diminished to some, as the current-tier kill and the wolf mount will no longer drop. Personally i want a normal garrosh kill for that reason; heirlooms are icing on the cake if i do get to see it drop AND win it :P

if heirloom drops do stay once people hit 100, you'll just see people actively doing siege for the looms alone and probably won't rest till their alts have them all.

[DrIvoRobotnik]

Sigh.. yet another cool warlock spell removed...not even for a real reason, "just cuz," apparently is okay now days.

[Bruin]

Wonderful. Forcing Normal SoO on people that cant even get a flex kill. And making Garrosh not drop anymore looms when WoD hits. Just freaking lovely.

1.) "Normal" IS Flex (as the player base currently knows it). Heroic is what is currently known as Normal.

2.) 6.0 Garrosh kills are a GUARANTEED heirloom drop for your spec until Launch Day, about a 6 week period. This is on any difficulty on Normal+; and since the fight will likely be "slightly" easier (that hit/expertise you're currently swimming in? yeah, that became Mastery/Crit/Haste so your effective power as increased as well, woot!), it's only you holding yourself back if you don't get it before Warlords launches.

3.) @Issalice: Concerning alts/the future the Devs have said that they will be adding in 85+ heirlooms later in the expansion for player to spend currency (what Valor will likely become) on, just not right at launch.

4.) @Aenwyrm: read the tweet again, soloing *level 90* scenarios at Level 100. Watcher was right, it should definitely be doable.

[Verrai]

Long overdue. Very long overdue.

Yes, yes indeed. I hated missing out on recolors that looked better from LFR.

[Mormolyce]

But wheeeeeeeeeeeeeen!!???

Also great news about old LFR and scenarios. I wonder if that applies to DS LFR and even the old version of Theramore from MoP prepatch (unless it was straight up deleted).

[Durandro]

Well, better finish off those Challenge Modes while we have time. And get many Garrosh kills.