Wintergrasp Changes, Blue posts

[Boubouille]

It's maintenance day! I figured it might be the time to do a small recap of the patch 3.2 posts to keep you busy while the servers are down. I probably forgot a few of them but most of the important stuff is here. (Oh and just in case, this is just a recap, the patch is obviously NOT deployed this week)

Patch 3.2

• Patch Notes
• Patch 3.2 - PTR Build 10083
• Patch 3.2 - PTR Build 10072
• Patch 3.2 - PTR Build 10048 Items
• Patch 3.2 - PTR Build 10048
• Patch 3.2 - PTR Initial Release
• Cold Weather Flying Changes in 3.2
• Patch 3.2 Mounts
• Patch 3.2 Companion Pets
• Patch 3.2 Chest Heirlooms and Patch 3.2 Professions Changes
• Patch 3.2 Weapon Models HD Preview

PvE

• Tier 9 Models Preview + Stats
• Trial of the Crusader Raid Loot (25-Man Hard Mode Included)
• Trial of the Crusader - Northrend Beast + Loot
• Trial of the Crusader - Twin Valkyrs + Loot
• Trial of the Champion (5-Man) Loot Table
• Val'anyr Stats changes in 3.2

PvP

• Season 7 Armor Sets Model Preview
• Season 7 Weapons
• Season 7 Cloth Armor
• Season 7 Leather Armor
• Season 7 Mail Armor
• Season 7 Plate Armor
• Season 7 Misc.

Upcoming changes to Wintergrasp on Test Realms

In the next PTR build we will be implementing several changes to how the Wintergrasp queue and group formations will work.

• While in the queue for Wintergrasp, you will have an icon on your mini map that will allow you to leave the queue. This will function much like the current battleground queue button that is present on the mini map.
• Players that queue for the Wintergrasp battle and are selected to join will be placed into raid groups upon entering the zone. These raid groups will function similarly to the battleground raid groups with a few exceptions. Players can leave it at any time, the leader can issue invites, etc. The only restriction is that if a player leaves Wintergrasp while the battle is active, they will be removed from the raid (to make room for the player that will take their place).
• If the battle is not active this does not happen.

Thank you all for your feedback and bugs so far, it is incredibly helpful to us.

Blue posts

The future of Block
I feel like we've been pretty candid about its future. You can probably find my previous comments relatively easily. We think block needs to mitigate much more incoming damage per hit, but to make that change we would also need to lower tank avoidance across the board and prevent every hit from being blocked (especially in situations with more than one target beating on you). To make Prot tanking more interesting, we have allowed block to become too much of a dps stat. In retrospect, we'd rather it remained a mitigation stat and that Strength was pushed up as the big warrior and paladin dps stat.

You shouldn't overly worry about outscaling content. We said from the beginning that there would be three major patches to Wrath of the Lich King. We aren't setting up a system that is going to remain on autopilot for 10 more tiers of content without our intervention. It's totally valid for players to worry about scaling, and all things considered, we'd rather have mechanics that scale well. But if those scaling problems aren't going to manifest themselves until you have item level 500 items, then you're worried prematurely.

We would like to get Prot warriors into PvP in a legitimate way, but our first priority is making sure every class has at least one viable PvP spec first. By "legitimate" I do NOT mean that you sometimes can do a 19K Shield Slam when all the stars align. That's not acceptable even if it is rare. Also consider that tanks do have a legit role acting like actual tanks when running flags or tanking AV-style NPCs. That may not be enough of a role, but I did want to point out that emphasizing BGs more and Arenas less also helps to carve out a niche for PvP tanks.

I know there are plenty of Prot warriors out there who couldn't care less about PvP. Sorry. We have to.

We want Prot warriors to do decent damage in PvE. We don't want them to do as good damage as actual dps specs -- there needs to be a trade-off for such high survivability. This means we need threat multipliers or you won't be able to actually hold aggro. It's okay if Shield Slam can make big (yet not absurd) numbers, since you don't Shield Slam all that much. That's fun. As I said above though, it would probably work better if Shield Slam hit hard because your Strength was high, not because you built a gimmicky set. (Source)

Avoidance changes in 3.2
The main goal of the change was to make parry not so much less attractive than dodge as an avoidance stat. Since tank avoidance is so high already, we wanted to do that by nerfing dodge a little, not by buffing parry.

This hurts druids slightly more than other tanks, but the emphasis is on "slightly." This is not the big druid nerf that some forum posters have predicted. We will continue to evaluate tank survivability and threat generation based on PTR tests with "Patchwerk" to decide if druids need to be nerfed or DKs buffed or look at Prot warrior dps or anything else.

This is also not the big avoidance "come to Naaru" that some posters predicted. Overall, we think avoidance is too high and the game would work better with lower tank avoidance, but suddenly dropping everyone's avoidance by 20 or 30% would be a very big change with many ramifications for healing and gear among other things. It would also feel like a big nerf to the many players who didn't understand why it would be better for the game in the long term. But I still expect it is coming at some point. (Source)

Tanking - Threat Generation / DPS
There has been a lot of discussion about +threat moves being a crutch and tanks should just be able to hold aggro based on their dps. But that implies that your dps is as high or higher than a class or spec who can only dps. There will probably be +threat added to stances and abilities for the foreseeable future. That does not mean your dps needs to be 10% of a dps raid member. (Source)

[Aranc]

Nice changes for tanking I guess

[Samin]

Mh I don't get it. When I'm tanking I don't care for dps.. I want as much threat as possible and I don't care how. If it is the tanks dps that is missing to kill a boss, maybe the dps spec dps should be buffed instead (you know, thats why it is called "dps spec")

[Baelzibub]

While I understand that some players, who have access to alot of gear have found a way to stack massive amounts of +SBV and possibly gem full Str in that set and in doing so have found a way to have a bit of fun in PvP.

But how many are we talking about here? And how effective is it really? In such a build there is nothing majorly offensive, if you are not hitting that warrior he'll gain marginal rage, he is hard to kill, but easy to keep at bay.

[Gawrhshshsh]

If a warrior is doing 500 less dps than the other tanks, and similar threat and survivability why let them tank?

That is 500 less dps the raid is missing, and I know pretty much everyone out there has missed an enrage timer/similar time limit by a few seconds. Baked in threat is just a gimmick and leaves us in a terrible spot if we are the only one alive with the healer.

Yes, those aren't ideal raid fights but not many are. Asking for higher dps to bring us on line with other tanks isn't too much to ask for, and don't even bring up the bastardized UA/revenge spam spec. It's a disgrace for anyone who values playing their warrior.

I for one, am all for the scaling by strength though.

[Hoofmade]

Stop avoidance changing, Blizzard...
Or add to tanking item a lot of +AP without avoidance nerf.

[Avatar]

First of all:

Why must it be possible for a prot Warri to do PvP ? I don´t get the point...
We have already dual specc. Every Warri who wants to do PvP can use it.

Block is fine as it is. We can tank all encounters in the game easily. NP.
It would be better to change other things.
Remove Respawn in an Ini. That would be a big change!

But after all we know Blizzard will change it.

[Tamara]

Well, I don't play prot warrior to pvp. But maybe it would be nice to have a pvp prot spec to do some arena as an alternative to raiding. I'd appreciate it with some gear added for arena rating then xD

[Beelzebubs]

The thing that grabbed me about this post was full confirmation Icecrown will be 3.3. Next expansion has to be getting announced at Blizzcon.

We said from the beginning that there would be three major patches to Wrath of the Lich King.

Also this new WG raid system I'm hoping raid leaders will not be able to kick people from raids as it will really mess up the queue system.

[Ramis]

The things that grabbed me about this post was full confirmation Icecrown will be 3.3. Next expansion has to be getting announced at Blizzcon.

Well no big suprise there I think 3.2 will get live 1 week before Blizzcon

[Biernot]

There are a few things I don't get:

1. They said they want to buff tank damage a bit (at least for warriors), but a few days ago they nerfed SS damage.

2. They nerfed SS damage because of pvp? Is pvprot op at the moment? And the reference to the slim chance of an 19k SS crit: Other classes can do equally or higher crits on a consistent basis (arcane mage anyone?)

3. Tanking with damage vs. tanking with threat: All "tanking stances" (bear form, frost presence, righteous fury, defensive stance) have a threat multiplyer in it. So extra threat additions on abilities are kind of unnesseccary . If we have a system like "tank dps x2 = tank threat" then there is no need for extra threat on certain moves.

But there is one thing I totally agree on: I would be stupid if a tank had the same dps as a dps-spec (or even near them). I think some players (and maybe some devs too) misunderstand the demands of certain (warrior-)tanks for more dps:
a) they want similar dps as the other tanks. (prot warrior has inferior dps to other tanks)
b) they want the extra threat removed from certain abilities and instead a little bit more dps to offset the change...

[Travkin]

Well, I don't play prot warrior to pvp. But maybe it would be nice to have a pvp prot spec to do some arena as an alternative to raiding. I'd appreciate it with some gear added for arena rating then xD

It's called " /spec Arms or Fury" , ive been playing a prot warrior since vanilla and this is just getting worse and worse for us, might as well just remove prot warriors from the game itself blizz.

[AK_47]

Most of those are just reminder , we knew about all those changes.

[Deleted]

We are really talking about 18-20k crits about ~3/4 times each match with good procs up

[bbr]

The main goal of the change was to make parry not so much less attractive than dodge as an avoidance stat. Since tank avoidance is so high already, we wanted to do that by nerfing dodge a little, not by buffing parry.

Shame though, parry is a very nice stat due to improving damage and thus threat as well.

Also, nerfing dodge affects rogues and druids very hard as well.

[Vladislavius]

Shame though, parry is a very nice stat due to improving damage and thus threat as well.

good joke man.

[Deleted]

Block is fine as it is. We can tank all encounters in the game easily. NP.

Ignorance is Bliss

[AK_47]

Now that you've post a recap of all the patch changes , my first post doesn't make much sense

However seeing it like this this patch feels more and more like a time holder.

[Deleted]

Shame though, parry is a very nice stat due to improving damage and thus threat as well.

Also, nerfing dodge affects rogues and druids very hard as well.

I am more concerned about that one, too. Tanks with less dodge, okay, they can compensate with plenty other stuff. Rogues with less dodge = more pain D:

[bbr]

good joke man.

Never heard of parry haste i see?