Naxxramas performance, Blue posts

[Boubouille]

Naxxramas Optimization Changes
[blizzquote="Crygil;http://blue.mmo-champion.com/1/14893179202-naxxramas-optimization-changes.html]In our continuing effort to improve the gameplay experience for our players, we’ve recently made optimizations, specifically to Naxxramas performance, based on feedback from players. With these changes, we are carefully monitoring server performance to gauge the change’s success. In addition to that, we would very much like to hear our players' personal experience in Naxxramas this week. We are asking players to post your feedback in terms of what if any changes in performance you’ve noticed in Naxxramas. Please make sure to include the realm you play on and the time frame you were participating in Naxxramas. [/blizzquote"]


Blue posts

Raid Bug - Circle of Healing / Wild Growth prevented by Vortex
We identified a bug preventing Circle of Healing and Wild Growth from being able to find targets in Vortex. It was not our intent that these heals be prevented during Vortex (beyond the nerf we already made to prevent them from being spammed).

We should be able to fix this in the next couple of days. (Source)

Raid and UI Design - Disappearance of groups in raids
Our long-term goal is to get rid of the notion of groups within a raid. We want players to be able to organize their UI however they want -- by class, by role, alphabetically or whatever. With the overhaul to the buff / debuff system we made a lot of progress towards this goal, but that left us with a few awkward reasons to still put certain players together.

From a high-level, the design is to be in a group. That group can have 5, 10 or 25 max players depending on the content. There shouldn't be a (weird) notion of being in both a 5 player and 25 player group at the same time. Imagine for a 25-player raid that the UI just shows 25 players. (Source)

Bigger isn't always better!
Sure. My point was that the dude who takes the most damage is not the best tank. The best tank is the person who takes the least damage while still locking the mobs onto them quickly and thoroughly. Standing in the fire is not the sign of a good tank. Ignoring your Shield Block or Barkskin is not the sign of a good tank.

A healer who heals mostly themselves, overheals a lot, runs out of mana, needs to borrow candles, forgets to cleanse and lets the tank die is not a good healer, even if they have the highest number.

The damage-dealer who tops the chart, but pulls aggro, stands in the fire, breaks CC (lolwut?), and argues with all of your strategies is probably not the guy you want in your raid.

But all other things being equal, higher numbers in damage and healing are still better and do have a strong correlation to player gear and skill. (Source)

Mana Pool
The problem is that there should not be infinite mana classes currently in the game. You should not run OOM every single fight (if you play well). But you should not be able to ignore it either.

For what it's worth, Resto shamans are often listed as the healer that can run out of mana. Paladins, priests and druids should ideally play a lot more like that. They do seem to run OOM in PvP, but not really in PvE. (Source)

[US] Free Character Moves
Free character moves to Scilla are now closed. Free moves to Winterhoof will be closing today at 5:00 p.m. PST. (Source)

Druid (Skills List / Talent + Glyph Calc.)
Starfall purpose
The purpose of Starfall is to do extra damage. What I mean by that is that the spell is not channeled so you can use it along with a Hurricane or whatever other spell you want to cast. It was never intended to be a de-stealther and we've become unenamored with random stun chances added to other spells.

One criticism which we think is totally valid is the paltry coefficient on Starfall. We will be hotfixing in a more reasonable number soon (tm). (Source)

Hunter (Skills List / Talent + Glyph Calc.)
Talent Trees and playstyle
The key is playstyle. It is easiest to explain with the death knight. The blood tree emphasizes melee combat and healing. The frost tree emphasizes frost damage and control. The unholy tree emphasizes diseases and minions.

To do the same thing with hunters, you'd say that BM emphasizes the pet, MM emphasizes the shots, and SV emphasizes the traps. That's a gross generalization, but you get the idea. If you like to manage your pet, you might like BM. If you want to spend less effort running the pet in and out of combat and want traps to be a smaller part of your game, then you might look at MM, understanding that it probably means more emphasis on your ranged attacks.

But you could PvP (or in the case of the death knight, tank) with any tree as long as you maximized your focus on that role with the specific talents you chose. The trees themselves become more like flavor: do you like Frost, Fire or Arcane spells?

Again, this all assumes that the relative dps, pvp utility, tanking or healing are all equitable, which is something we are trying to improve. (Source)

Paladin (Skills List / Talent + Glyph Calc.)
Warlock survavibility in PvP against paladins
We are okay (for now) with exposing yourself to CC if you use certain abilities. However, the glyph of Turn Evil turning that spell into an instant cast is probably a problem and something we are likely to fix. (Source)

Priest (Skills List / Talent + Glyph Calc.)
Shadow and PvP
We have some PvP-oriented changes in mind for Shadow. We hope to be able to announce them soon. (Source)

Guardian Spirit not procing properly the 50% heal
Update: the problem does seem to be related to a second hit killing the target before the GS heal can actually kick in. We should be hotfixing in a solution soon. (Source)

Warlock (Skills List / Talent + Glyph Calc.)
Bug - Spirit/Spellpower portion of Fel Armor not working properly with Demonic Pact
It is a bug. The intent is that the Spirit benefit is similar to the other buffs mentioned (and that none of them stack). (Source)

Warlock survavibility in PvP against paladins
We are okay (for now) with exposing yourself to CC if you use certain abilities. However, the glyph of Turn Evil turning that spell into an instant cast is probably a problem and something we are likely to fix. (Source)

[LavaDuck]

Good thing I'm not raiding laggramas

[Bainz]

I wonder how this will turn out .

[jmazing]

That u.i change seems weird making it were theres no groups but u see all 25 people. Seems like it would help healers but who else. And i hope they are fixing more than that with warlocks. Oh and i totally agree with the partwhere there talking about people who focus too much on the numbers. Its a trend im noticing seems everyone has damage meters now a days. It like a ball player who scores 50+ points in basketball but his team still loses. So you top the damage meter but we still didnt beat the boss.

[PvE_Mage]

I thought last week was pretty good... but some raiders said it sucked hard.

I guess it depends how lucky you are =) "RNG server performance happens"

[rimmer]

That u.i change seems weird making it were theres no groups but u see all 25 people.

imagine =/= gonna happen. he's saying a 25 man raid should feel like a 25 man group, not 5x5man groups like the ui shows, and making buffs go from group wide to raid wide helps accomplish this

[Bigblueox]

It like a ball player who scores 50+ points in basketball but his team still loses. So you top the damage meter but we still didnt beat the boss.

that's why meters are for finding the people scoring 6 points and telling them to shape up or ship out. a smart raid group knows what is and what isn't important, which fights favor which classes, etc. any retard can have a damage meter, but none of those retards know how to interpret the data beyond which colored bar is higher than the next.

[Sephirah]

Any chance they'll fix the lag in Dalalag too?
Or in the whole world?
Sunday evening took me more than 10 seconds to be dismounted after entering water...

[frester]

that's why meters are for finding the people scoring 6 points and telling them to shape up or ship out. a smart raid group knows what is and what isn't important, which fights favor which classes, etc. any retard can have a damage meter, but none of those retards know how to interpret the data beyond which colored bar is higher than the next.

this man speaks truth, the problem is always interpretation!

[Kenark]

naxx sure was better last weak. but for some unknown reason, whenever we wiped (in the twinked 10men version : ) and had to fly back from venom spite, it was sooo horribly laggy we barely made it ;D

and for the paladin/warlock pvp issue. come on, it isn't like you can't stay away from that one button if you see a pally in the enemy team. (I think this is related to the demon form mini-illidan, isn't it?)

[Xerxes]

Blue posts

Mana Pool
The problem is that there should not be infinite mana classes currently in the game. You should not run OOM every single fight (if you play well). But you should not be able to ignore it either.

For what it's worth, Resto shamans are often listed as the healer that can run out of mana. Paladins, priests and druids should ideally play a lot more like that. They do seem to run OOM in PvP, but not really in PvE. (Source)

[/quote]

Well, in raids I rarely tend to run out of mana (resto druid here). However, in heroics its a different story. With replenish there isnt any problem, but if there is no, then I actually have to use innervate at times. Not to mention raids without replenish, they are a pain in the *** :P Both healers and dps running low on mana makes the fights alot harder and longer.

[Rabidine]

There will always be a notion of groups in raids, until all totems and buffs are truely raid wide.

Blizzard logic strikes again.

[bbr]

i like the idea of getting rid of the 5-5 group idea for raiding and just have 1 big stack of players.
UI wise it would still be nice to be able to "assign" players to a certain task however.
As currently most people use groups to send them to north/south/east/west directions.

As for the naxx optimisations. We'll see.....

[eRAZOR]

I don't know if its a good idea to get rid of the notion of groups in raids. I think it helps to take a squad based approach on certain encounters.

[bbr]

Perhaps the squads idea could be what blizzard is trying to do though, so you can assign 2 groups rather than "always" be stuck with groups of at most 5 players.

[Wierdo]

I Dont understand this with the Hunters your saying that MM specifys in Shots and Damage and Surv specifys in Trap yet Surv Spec is doing more DPS in PvE(Raiding) them MM >

[insidelane]

Love the "lolwut" comment haha

[MuTe]

I Dont understand this with the Hunters your saying that MM specifys in Shots and Damage and Surv specifys in Trap yet Surv Spec is doing more DPS in PvE(Raiding) them MM >

This is true. MM seems more like a gimped version of Surv atm. Surv is all about shots, stings and traps, while MM is only about shots and stings. Especially now that theyve nerfed the draining (wich is good). I just rly hope they change surv hunters a bit so we actually survive a bit more. This new deterence thing rly sucks since paladin seals and dots still kill you when u cant do shit against it.

[Exhorder]

Naxxramas performance was worse than ever this week for me (Draenor EU)

[Deleted]

I Dont understand this with the Hunters your saying that MM specifys in Shots and Damage and Surv specifys in Trap yet Surv Spec is doing more DPS in PvE(Raiding) them MM >

Because it's about the philosophy behind the trees and not the reality of the implementation.

Regarding lag in Nax, i think i already saw that message one week ago :/ No change for us on wednesday and thursday (actually it was worse than before), even though sunday worked well.