Upcoming Feral Changes II, Blizzcast 6, Blue posts

[Boubouille]

Upcoming Feral changes, Part II

This is an update to my previous post on Feral armor changes.

ARMOR
As previously announced, we are changing the way bear armor works so that bonus armor on items does not receive the bear armor multiplier. Specifically this means that weapons, trinkets, rings, necks and cloaks with bonus armor will not be multiplied by the bear bonus. Only cloth and leather will benefit from the Bear and Dire Bear multiplier.

We are compensating Ferals for this armor loss by improving the Survival of the Fittest talent. In addition to its current effects (stats and crit prevention), it will now also increase armor contribution from cloth and leather items by 22/33/66%. That should be very close to your current armor bonus. This makes Survival of the Fittest rather over-budget by talent standards, but we figured it was one talent we can be pretty certain most tank-oriented druids will have (and to be honest nearly all Ferals).

FERAL ATTACK POWER
We are no longer going to have weapons in the game which improve feral attack power. Instead, your attack power will scale based on the dps of the item. Practically speaking this means almost no change for any gear you currently use -- you should not see your dps change. What it does mean is that we can create the occasional dps staff that could be used by druids or hunters (or very undergeared warriors), and that Ferals may occasionaly use two-handed dps maces. We are going to convert all existing Feral staves over to this new system (but again, you should not notice any change to your dps). We are also adjusting the UI so that when druids look at these weapons, you will see what the improvement will be to your damage in forms. This does not mean we are no longer going to create bear and cat weapons, just that those weapons will be slightly less niche than they are now.

These changes will be in place in the next patch. This patch will ship sometime before the 3.1 major content patch featuring the Ulduar raid. (Source)

Blizzcast: Episode 6 is out!
It seems that the next episode of the Blizzcast was released early in Europe, you can't find it yet on the US official site but it's definitely here on the european one

The WoW part of the podcast is an interview with Monte Krol (Lead Tools Programmer for World of Warcraft), you won't find any big announcement here but it's still a good read

Also, there is a Community Q&A where Alex Afrasiabi (Furor, WoW Lead World Designer)) answered a few questions.

First up from the player Akercocke on the European Turalyon realm. Will there be a new line of class quests in Wrath of the Lich King, aside from ones that are for the Death Knight?
Not at release. We do have some things planned for the upcoming patches but for release nothing. We love to do more there is just some trickery involved with class quests, the main problem being that – at least we’ve learned in the past – that we don’t want to roll these things out piecemeal, so a couple classes at a time. We did that with the hunters and the priests and the fan reaction wasn’t really good. Although they did like the quests it’s just that I think everyone wants their own class to get a quest and we agree we think that should.

The next question is from Preliatus on the realm Kirin Tor. Are there any updates as to the whereabouts of General Turalyon? (WoWWiki)
So Turalyon, last I heard, he was locked away in some legion home world but you know that’s just a rumor. But really there are plans for Turalyon, it’s one of those things that we keep every content patch we try and work out something. Invariably it goes another way and so we’re hopeful that eventually we’ll get to him.

Some players are particularly interested in quests that will involve these famous lore heroes, do you find these quests more challenging to implement than others?
Oh yeah, they are way more challenging to implement. The main hurdles basically are that our established lore characters have histories and stories, there’s memories attached to all those characters so players remember them from not just World of Warcraft but all the Warcraft series. So we have to be really mindful of giving them the proper due respect. We’ve done things in the past where they weren’t received as well and even doing something as simple as changing the appearance of a hero that currently exists causes some uproar. It’s definitely getting that entire questline or storyline built up is a challenge more so than just introducing a new hero.

What do you think of the new Sylvanas model?
I personally like the new model much better than the Night Elf that we had but we are getting a new custom built model which looks amazing. (Source)

Is there any particular storyline from the original game that you are excited to be picking up again in Wrath of the Lich King?
Several. It’s been a nice expansion, it was a good break from Outland where things got a little… different I guess is the best term for it. Anything that involves Arthas, Lich King, we’re all over, we love that stuff. Expanding Tirion Fordring’s line and roll rather in the expansion is huge for us. A personal favorite of mine if the Forsaken’s involvement in the early zones with their plague, their blight, that’s something we’ve been forming for years with the old world and we obviously paused it for Outland and we’re coming back. I think we’re just releasing some new stuff in this next build that will kind of bring all that to a head that I’m pretty excited about.

Aside from that there’s also a whole lot of new stuff that we’re also excited about, so Vrykul and Brann and his involvement with the Titans. The power struggles in the Horde, we’re going to start seeing some of those in the next upcoming beta pushes that I’m really excited about. The whole Wrathgate series which we’re just getting ready to release that movie and I hope the fans will love it, I know I love it, so I’m pretty confident they will.

I think the good thing with Northrend is the whole atmosphere of the world just lends itself to a more natural storytelling environment. I think myself and all the other designers really kind of attached to it.

Another thing is, we talked in the past about is how we plan for Arthas to play a bigger role in this expansion, a bigger role than Illidan did in The Burning Crusade, so without giving too much away how well would you say this has gone so far?
I think it’s gone really well. If you start as a Death Knight, the first person you see is the Lich King. Going through our zones, Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, Grizzly [Hills], Zul’drak, I think almost every zone has at least one encounter with the Lich King, some with Prince Arthas himself - the Alliance get a series in Dragonblight for that - so I think it’s gone really well. Then in Icecrown again, you’ll get several interactions with the Lich King and then going forward in patch 3.1 and beyond there will just be more.

Blue posts

Tanking in WotLK
The goal is roughly equivalent. The goal is not identical. Identical would mean making all abilities identical, down to things like Divine Shield and Innervate. I also want to caution you all that there are plenty of players who are concerned about the degree of homogenization we’ve done to get the tank classes as close as they are. It’s cool for everyone to have their different visions for what the game should be, just make sure not to impose your vision on everyone else. There are eleven million people playing WoW….

As far as the other arguments are concerned…

-- You can argue that our design is for warriors to be the best tanks. But I can debunk that right here. It's not. They will probably be superior in some cases and inferior in others, but never to the extent that you bench the warrior and bring in another class for a certain fight.
-- You can argue that some classes need to tank worse than others to compensate for their other abilities or degree of hybrid-ness. But that is not our design.
-- You can argue that some classes end up being better tanks for some reason or another. This is a totally legit concern. I don’t think we have any evidence that this is really happening yet, but it is something we pay a lot of attention to.

-- In Classic WoW there was really only one tank, the warrior.
-- In Burning Crusade, we added two other tanks, but the design was that they were typically used in an OT role. There were exceptions of course.
-- The design for Lich King is four tanking classes. You should be able to raid in Lich King without a warrior tank, or without a warrior period. You can replace “warrior” in that sentence with 9 other classes. One of the reasons we spent so much time on the warrior Prot tree is we wanted to compensate them for removing them from the “best tank” pedestal, or at least making room up there for druids, paladins and DKs as well. (Source)

Gear and class scaling
Our general philosophy is that we don't want relationships to be too predictable. Much of the fun of improving your character is seeing the effects that different kinds of gear have on different rotations. To use an extreme case, if every piece of armor just said "improves stats by 1%" getting loot would be a lot less fun.

Similarly, we don't want classes to be too similar. It's interesting and fun when you switch classes from say a warrior to a rogue and see how different stats affect you differently.

Scaling is very important to us in the sense that we don't want certain classes or specs to completely fall down at certain gear levels. This has happened in the past. But what those levels are is very important. If mages dramatically overtake warlocks when everyone has 20,000 spellpower, then I just couldn't care less except possibly as an item of trivia. If and when WoW ever reaches numbers of that level, the class mechanics will have changed so much in those years that its just not worth worrying about at this time. (Source)

Class utility
On the issue of utility, yes our design is that nobody has an ability so awesome or critical that they are gauranteed a raid spot. In truth you can get all of the important buff and debuffs with a relatively small number of players (especially in a 25 raid) so you should be able to bring who you want after that. If some classes bring versions of a buff that are obviously and significantly superior to another's then that is the sort of thing we'll get fixed. (Source)

[US] Free transfers to Saurfang
We are nearing our goal for transfers to the realm, Saurfang. We will be turning off the free moves for the following realms on Thursday, November 20, at 6:00am PST (November 21, 1:00am AEST). (Dreadmaul, Barthilas, Thaurissan, Frostmourne, Jubei’thos)

[EU] Free transfers to Chamber of Aspects
Two additional source realms added (Arathor, Hellscream). Migration extended until Friday Nov 21, 10:00 CET, and may be extended further. (Source)

[EU] Cross-realms free character transfers[/b][/color]
All realms have received additional destination choices. Migration extended until Friday Nov 21, 10:00 CET, and may be extended further. (Source)

Hunter (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9095))
Hunter DPS in PvE and impact of nerfs on PvP
Hunter pve dps is definitely something we're keeping an eye on. It's high and perhaps too high, but we need to see some more players raiding first.

[...] We definitely don't think it's a good design to inflate a whole class in PvE if they are weak in PvP or vice versa. If hunters are weak in PvP, as many of the hunters suspect, then we want to handle that as a separate issue. A Steady Shot nerf for example, would have less impact on PvP than reducing dps across the board, and we would certainly be prepared to compensate hunters in other ways for PvP.

Again, we have not announced any changes. There is no hotfix incoming. We don't think this is a hotfix worthy issue. Standard caveats to all that apply. (Source)

Priest (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9095))
Holy priests
On the issue of the Holy priest, I know it's easy to interpret "flexible" as "jack of all trades and master of none." I don't think that is a fair description of Holy though. While healers may still retain more of a niche than dps or tank specs, there is still a lot of overlap. Holy priests can single target heal, top people off, dispel and do different things. Mass Dispel is a great example of an ability that isn't just a carbon copy of another class's ability. If Holy priests were inferior to shamans, druids and paladins at their respective roles, then I don't think you would see as many of them brought along. (Source)

Lightwell easily killable / deselecting the player's target when he clicks it
These are by design. You generally need to select things to work on them, not just click them. We designed Lightwell to be very fragile since it now heals so well. We didn't want it to be used primarily as a tank-healing tool because it would be too powerful. (Source)

Guardian Spirit triggers GCD / Spirit of Redemption cancels its effect upon death
The spirit bug is known. I'll have to investigate what the design is on the GCD. (Source)

Penance require facing target to be casted
I think it was just too hard to get Penance to work correctly with facing for damage but not healing, so we just changed it to not have a directional component for the next patch. (Source)

Shaman (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9095))
Future changes to totems
I actually agree with you about totems. They are a really cool idea on paper that has never quite lived up to that concept in reality. We do have some ideas on things we'd like to try with them, but it will require some experimentation and isn't the kind of thing we can just hotfix in. There have been many suggestions from the community on totems already, but feel free to add more. Just know that our vision is not to turn totems into the same kinds of buffs that other classes have. They have to be, you know, totems. (Source)

Elemental DPS scaling
I have said we are addressing this issue. We hope to be able to have an announcement soon. In the meantime, I'm glad you're enjoying Lava Burst. It's a fun spell. (Source)

Orc racial Command doesn't affect shaman's pets
Just an oversight I'm sure. We have no problem doing this. (Source)

[Derrington]

What do you think of the new Sylvanas model?
I personally like the new model much better than the Night Elf that we had but we are getting a new custom built model which looks amazing.

Woo, new models, hoping to see new ones for all leaders

[Madpete]

Druid changes just sucks... plain and simple >

[Sharandris]

This Feral AP change is just pathetic. Taking another speciality off from WoW and making it simplier "casual like". I really liked especially the over 2000 attack power increase in feral on many WotLK druid staves.

It sucks. (not only because I don't like hunters stealing our staves) But a staff warrior hmm, titan gripping those..

Start stealing their equipment: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=39245
I mean, what the hell is wrong with you? This equipment sharing works both ways.

Why do you always have to draw a picture of the average, hard working player who is in a raid group with a stupid leadership which gives items to the wrong people?

This isn't vanilla WoW anymore where I had to fight for the eyepatch and fish terminator in ZG, this is the second expansion. These problems are almost gone, I hardly encountered them without being able to show everyone how wrong the person in question was.


edit: spelling

[Zainfear]

Did you guys miss the part where it says that your overall DPS and armor will stay exactly the same, regardless of these changes?

Consider them a quality of life improvement tbh.

[Aureoloss]

does this mean that cat druids will now be on par with mail gear armorwise? we get the bonus armor AND the +66% multiplier?

This Feral AP change is just pathetic. Taking another speciality off from WoW and making it simplier "casual like". I really liked especially the over 2000 attack power increase in feral on many WotLK druid staves.

It sucks. (not only because I don't like hunters stealing our staves) But a staff warrior hmm, titan gripping those..

you cant titan grip staves

[Sharandris]

Found another new druid item:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40406

Time to get badass-looking again.

[Zainfear]

Did you guys miss the part where it says that your overall DPS and armor will stay exactly the same, regardless of these changes?

Consider them a quality of life improvement tbh.

By the sound of it yeah, it doesn't say "while in bear form".

[Sharandris]

By the sound of it yeah, it doesn't say "while in bear form".

Troll.

edit: Errh... since you quoted yourself, I suppose you made mistake and were referring to another statement. So I take back my statement, sorry.

[Aureoloss]

Troll.

edit: Errh... since you quoted yourself, I suppose you made mistake and were referring to another statement. So I take back my statement, sorry.

i think he was answering me when i asked if cats are now on par with mail gear armorwise, since they get the bonus and the +66%

[Sharandris]

i think he was answering me when i asked if cats are now on par with mail gear armorwise, since they get the bonus and the +66%

I guess you are right. Anyway, I suppose we won't get this bonus in cat form unless Blizzard thinks 'cats are to weak in arena'. GC knows the difference between cat and bear and I doubt they will do this.

Since we get all the rogue gear, it's obvious that our survivability against melee attacks is more or less on par with them in terms of dodge%. Melee shamans don't have this huge agi pool (or maybe they will?) and in PvP, I kill them faster than a rogue because of that.

So, what's my point? Well, we already have bear form to avoid getting nuked physically. While in PvP-gear, we were always used to have less armor in bear than in PvE. Why? Because there was no armor on trinkets, rings, staffs or cloaks usable for PvP - and this is the point: This 'missing' armor is now baked into sotf; We are already buffed for PvP by having our bear armor value from PvE.

[Quicky]

Hum... "but again, you should not notice any change to your dps"

And the nerf on savage roar ? ... Because... Savage roar juste increase AP, not +dps

nice...nice... very nice nerf

[Zainfear]

i think he was answering me when i asked if cats are now on par with mail gear armorwise, since they get the bonus and the +66%

Correct. My apologies 8)

[Puntar]

This Feral AP change is just pathetic. Taking another speciality off from WoW and making it simplier "casual like". I really liked especially the over 2000 attack power increase in feral on many WotLK druid staves.

It sucks. (not only because I don't like hunters stealing our staves) But a staff warrior hmm, titan gripping those..

This was long overdue as it is just silly to be restricted to very special type of weapons (within weapon type) designed solely for one spec of one class.

[Sharandris]

Hum... "but again, you should not notice any change to your dps"

And the nerf on savage roar ? ... Because... Savage roar juste increase AP, not +dps

nice...nice... very nice nerf

I guess DPS is converting to attack power. Rip would be nerfed to the ground else.

[Quicky]

I guess DPS is converting to attack power. Rip would be nerfed to the ground else.

No, at the moment AP is converting in dps. (14 ap = 1dps) (not 1dps -->14 ap)
But, Savage roar don't care about +dps....

So.. It's not a nerf only on RIP... All our skills we be nerfed, because of the lack of gain to savage roar

KT staff : +2000 AP (so 143 dps)
+10% --> 2200
Savage roar +40% --> 3080 (so +1080 ap...)
In here the nerf is about 1080/14=77 dps. (on ALL skills... And all multiplier of PA (rip/FB ...)

So we have a "buff" of 3080 AP with this staff. And with this patch we will have 143 dps instead

So a nerf of 77 on hit | Just with ONE item
A big nerf for RIP/FB |

The loss in AP is a loss for savage roar... undestand : "savage roar nerf"

--> dps nerf

[Madpete]

They say ap will scale with weapon dps ... so if its a 200dps mace that would give 2000 attackpower ... (picking numbers out of the blue) so it will work like it usually does, the number to look at is just dps for the weapon instead of fap ... that how I understand it ... otherwise they will have to change all our abilities as well (and Im sure they will if its the case) otherwise the might as well do delete from classes where class = druid

I guess all the current staff will get a dps value so they match the excact amount of ap on them now...

[Sharandris]

No, at the moment AP is converting in dps. (14 ap = 1dps) (not 1dps -->14 ap)
But, Savage roar don't care about +dps....

So.. It's not a nerf only on RIP... All our skills we be nerfed, because of the lack of gain to savage roar

--> dps nerf

Sorry, I mean the WEAPON dps will be converted to attack power which itself, of course becomes "true" dps at a 1/14 ratio. And I say this because I know that this will ruin our finishers and thus, our overall dps.

I don't know why to argue here because the problem is so obvious. If weapon DPS would get a multiplier and converted to normal dps, the whole "feral combat skill" thing also can be questioned. So, speaking in terms of implementation it should be easier to just convert weapon dps to attack power first instead of convertign directly.

edit:
This is already stated in GC's post as I just realized:
[blizzquote="Ghostcrawler;http://blue.mmo-champion.com/26/12891010295-upcoming-feral-changes-part-ii.html]Instead, your attack power will scale based on the dps of the item.[/blizzquote"]

[Jiai]

Seriously, this weapon change is great. Looting a Feral staff was pretty annoying when you had no Feral Druid in your group, and weapon upgrades where hard to find when playing a Feral Druid.

[rimmer]

ooh nice change on FAP, but still having loot drop thats only usable for 2 classes isn't going to be fun. perhaps they need to put some 2 hander talents in the shammy enhance tree, or even add staves to titans grip (i admit it would look stupid).
The other options of course are make all feral staffs into polearms and give druids the polearm skill they originally intended, or let either ret pala or DK's use dps staves as well.