Patch 3.0.8 Notes and current PTR Build
The PTR is a build, much like an actual patch. It represents the data at a moment in time. Since the PTR went out we have fixed other bugs and changed class spells and abilities, some based on feedback coming out of the PTR. If we think we are close to releasing a live build, we won't update the PTR. Otherwise, we will keep refreshing the data.
I am unable to tell you when we plan for the patch to go live for the same reasons we usually don't announce when we think a patch will go live. (
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Tanking in Ulduar
Most of the heated tank debates seem to involve if one class is better than another or missing a critical skill or something. Those are all totally valid issues and the kind of thing we monitor.
Specifically on BoSanc, we understand the concern. We're not ready to make any changes yet because we aren't convinced it's going to end up slanting things much one way or the other. But Ulduar is coming. It's going to be harder and it's going to have bosses no one has tanked before. There will be a lot more to discuss, and unfortunately I also suspect a lot more consternation about who doesn't feel like they have the abilities to tank Ulduar. (
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Naxxramas and Ulduar raid difficulty
I think some of the other players have answered this the way I would. The idea is not that you can bring 25 prot warriors because they are all excellent players and expect to clear Naxx. I exaggerate, but you get the point. The idea is that you have enough coverage over "critical" areas with fewer players so that you have enough free spots to bring who you want. I put critical in quotes, because it varies depending on groups. Some players think Heroism is mandatory. It probably isn't for Naxx but it probably was for Sunwell. Some kind of poison dispel is probably mandatory for Naxx. Innervate isn't mandatory. Battle rez is useful while learning the encounters. And so on.
Having two priests is currently mandatory for heroic Naxx to do one encounter (that gates some others). We knew we were pushing the envelope with what we could expect of of raids with that design. I think most 25-player groups have 2 priests, but I'm sure not all of them do. If we had asked you to have say 2 Survival hunters, that would clearly be over the line. If we had asked you to have a death knight MT for Saph, that would have gone against the design. Perhaps we should have left up one crystal so you only needed one priest.
I think expecting one of each class isn't too much to ask for a 25-player group, provided we aren't asking for a particular spec or a particular role (like a druid tank or a paladin healer). But this is the kind of thing we're going to have to explore a little more to see how it feels.
Ulduar is going to be more difficult than Naxx, and we expect to see a lot more concerns or complaints about specific classes, specs or buffs being mandatory. We're not designing the encounters that way, but with tougher tuning, I wouldn't be surprised to see more given how much we've seen about relatively easy raiding content. We will deal with those problems if and when they arise. (
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25 Players raids composition and effects of the upcoming Wild Growth / Circle of Healing changes
Seriously though, I recently addressed this in a healer thread. We knew heroic Razuvious was pushing the envelope asking for 2 priests, but we also wanted to explore a little of how much we could push the envelope. One of the nice things about Naxx is you can make progress on other wings while you wait for priests to log on or whatever.
I'd say in general we might make the assumption in a 25-player raid that you have every class available, but not every spec available. We might assume you have a paladin, but not a Prot paladin. We might require you to spellsteal but not deep freeze. In a 10-player raid you should be able to roll with 1-2 tanks and 2-3 healers of any kind. At most you might have unconventional solutions to some fights that benefit more from not having too many melee (KT) or instant hots (Malygos).
We haven't nerfed Malygos' Vortex yet because frankly people have beaten him with every combination of healers possible (including 3 Holy paladins). We are prepared to nerf Vortex however if a lot of groups suddenly can't handle the encounter any longer. Once you get a certain amount of health, which many guilds are starting to acquire, Vortex becomes a lot less deadly. I won't offer too many more tips because I think it rubbed some players the wrong way when I gave suggestions for Loken, but rest assured, it can totally be done.
[...] I don't think heroic Raz is anything close to that scale, and in any event, I would not anticipate many encounters like that. We hate to rule them out completely, just because we design a lot of boss fights and frankly the diversity is nice. One of the things that is cool about the encounter is that priests get to tank for one fight -- something they never get to do (the MT can just do the control on the 10-player version) and Mind Control, which often doesn't work in instances, gets to shine. (
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Changing classes / specs between encounters
The best guilds in the world already send people to respec between fights or swap out classes between fights. We don't want this to be the standard way everyone raids, but we don't think it's worth implementing a lot of punitive measure to prevent either. So dual-spec won't affect those guilds much.
So then it comes down to what is most likely *your* guild (unless you are in one of those cutting-edge guilds, in which case I salute you). In your guild are all the players such amazing players that they can always hit the theortetical max dps predicted by spreadsheets and combat dummy tests? If so, then the pure classes should still be on top. If not, then you still don't have much to worry about. If you are an amazing mage and can out dps the shamans and druids, then you'll probably get a spot. If you aren't an amazing mage, but you have good friends in the guild and they like having you along then you'll probably get a spot.
The groups that might get caught are those that struggle with content and feel like stacking classes is the solution to get them through. But in nearly every case I see this, the group would do far better to just get better gear, talent builds, or learn how to handle the encounters or which buttons to push. The exception are the cutting-edge guilds that ARE struggling with cutting-edge content, but they are going to stack classes per encounter anyway (and 99% of us aren't in those guilds). (
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Death Knight (
Skills List / Talent + Glyph Calc.)
Dual Wield
There are talents that benefit DW more than 2H. We think that is more interesting than every talent always giving you the same benefit no matter what your gear choices. BCB, Killing Machine and Necrosis, among others, should benefit DW.
If DW is too strong now, as some players think, then these are talents we might change.
The most logical place to look for DW nerfs is Killing Machine.
Yeah, we agree with Sawney. A proc per minute on Killing Machine would nerf DW a little while making an expensive talent more attractive for 2H Frost.
We would also like to buff Necrosis a little since it just doesn't pay for itself right now, but that could end up buffing DW too. (
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Gargoyle nerf
Mr. Gargoyle is overpowered. His damage will be going down. (
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Druid (
Skills List / Talent + Glyph Calc.)
Polearms trainable by druids in 3.0.8
We think this was a problem with the PTR build. Druids will be able to train and use polearms in the next patch (3.0.8 ). (
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Hunter (
Skills List / Talent + Glyph Calc.)
Aspects off the GCD
Initially we removed the GCD. Then the more we thought about it, what we were asking hunters to do was quickly swap aspects as needed (and more likely just macro them). We thought hunters had a lot of buttons to push already especially when melee get on you and intead just made a new aspect so you could get the benefits of both defense and ranged and wouldn't have to swap as much. If you are just swapping to Viper, the cooldown doesn't seem like a big imposition. (
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Steady shot changes in 3.0.8
I don't think I ever said the nerfs are a bit much. Plenty of hunters may have said that. Steady Shot got a massive buff in LK when it started using ammo. We thought it was doing too much damage. If hunter damage is low, and I don't really think it is going to be from the tests we've done and some of the raiding groups we've talked to, we'll likely adjust hunters in other ways. (
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Patch 3.1 and hunters
I said: we think these changes will put all 3 specs close together for PvE dps rather than BM (or on the PTR Survival) being way out in front. I anticipated some players saying "Yeah but we won't scale" because players often say that when they think nerfs are too severe (though I don't mean to imply it isn't a legit concern in general). I said we have a plan for that in the Ulduar patch (we hope) so how Steady Shot stacks up at some future date isn't productive for you guys to worry about because by the time you get there the numbers will be pretty different. It would be like comparing LK's Steady Shot to BC's or to the hunter class before Steady existed.
Now I will say again that you should not interpret our telling you that we have some future plans for your class to mean that we think your class is just a quivering mess and needs to be totally rebuilt. We are always looking a few months ahead toward the next thing we want to work on. Car manufacturers release new models all the time and other companies announce expansions or future initiatives. That doesn't mean their current models are utter failures. It just means they have an eye on the future. WoW isn't the kind of game you ever finish designing. (
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Patch 3.1 and damage scaling
In our most recent testing BM and MM were neck and neck and Survival was probably a little high. We might tone down Explosive Shot before it goes out the door.
We think with these changes, hunter PvE damage will be in line with other dps classes. We're not concerned about scaling at higher gear levels because we are changing hunter damage enough for 3.1 that we will have to rebalance them anyway.
[...] I mentioned Ulduar because I suspected hunters would say "Our dps may be okay now but it won't scale." That may be true, but we are planning making some other changes to hunters so we will have a chance to reevaluate scaling before Ulduar ships. We're not ready to share these other change with you, in part because if we end up not going through with the changes players will be "sad" (which I use as a euphamism). Many of the changes we're talking about are designed to make hunters more fun to play, so you shouldn't be scared of them.
Blizzard has always had long term plans for every class and we still do. Perhaps we haven't always been as forthcoming about those plans as I have been lately. But you shouldn't intrepret the fact that we have long term plans to mean that we think your class is horribly broken and shipped it in a horribly broken state. (
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Spirit and Cat DPS in 3.0.8
Here are the cat and scorpid numbers for anyone who wants to theorycraft them. These will be in the next patch (3.0.8 ) even though they were not on the PTR.
We also did fix several pet families not getting their correct stat adjustment: Wasps, Spirit Beasts, Rhinos and Silithids were affected I believe.
Spirit Strike should work with Longevity now and has an initial damage component that can crit.
Not sure why it wouldn't work with Kill Command, but I'll look into that.
Rank 6 Scorpid Poison - 20 base Nature damage per tick, ticks every 2 sec for 10 sec, 0.04 coefficient, 1 stack max
Rank 6 Rake - 29 base physical damage, plus 21 base damage per tick, ticks every 3 sec for 9 sec, 0.06 coefficient
Rank 6 Spirit Strike - 50 base Arcane damage, plus 50 damage per tick, ticks every 6 sec for 6 sec (it ticks twice), 0.049 coefficient
My comment about many hunters caring about what their pets look like was just that, not that 51 BM was intended to be a cosmetic talent point. If you just hate dinosaurs and core hounds, I'm not sure what more we can do in the short term, but show me other exotics than don't stack up and perhaps we can adjust their numbers. Longer-term we'd like to explore just letting you be able to increase damage with the bonus talent points. (
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