Paragon Finished Raiding, Soft Foam Sword, Water Striders, Tweets, Fan Art Update

[chaud]

Cleric Class Fanart, Li Ming Drawing

PGL Spring Tavern Tales 2016 Starts Today, Value Town #63

Upcoming Balance Changes, Sneak Peek at New Features, Town Hall Heroes Ep. 97

Overwatch Funkos - May 2016, Jeff Kaplan on Maps, Music, Upcoming Fixes, Spectator Mode, Symmetra

Paragon Finished Raiding
Paragon has decided that they are done raiding. You can find the full article and list of kills on their site. Congratulations to them for many years of World First kills!

We have decided to stop raiding which obviously means we will not be a part of the world first race in Legion. In the end it came between going international, playing with suboptimal Finnish roster or quitting. For a while I was seriously considering going the international route, but in the end decided it was not worth the trouble for me. This question has been looming over our heads for a long time as it has always been a challenge to get a solid Finnish 20-25man roster together and this time there was no 10man option to bail us out.

Going forward I have no idea if we will be playing WoW in any capacity in the future, we will have to see what is the situation when Legion launches. In the meantime you might see some of us in the fields of Overwatch.

I would like to thank everyone who played in progress raids with us and made this all possible.

Legion - Soft Foam Sword
A recent Legion build added the Soft Foam Sword. It currently kills most mobs rather than reducing their health, but it does appear to work on critters. The current max level for creatures you can use it on is 20 levels below your character level, meaning it will work for Mists of Pandaria and older content once you are Level 110 in Legion.

Legion - Water Striders

Thanks for the feedback, and I apologize for alarm caused by a seemingly random change. What you see in our weekly Alpha builds is a snapshot of thinking that is often actively evolving, including experiments that we’re about to discard, or solutions to problems that are overly crude just because it’s our first iteration and we simply haven’t come up with anything better yet.

I’d like to shed some light on our thought process in exploring this change. No, we’re not trying to stamp out fun, or destroy the value of hard-won rewards arbitrarily. The concern that drives this process is that mounts are primarily cosmetic choices, and are one of the most visible ways of showing off an aesthetic you enjoy, or an achievement of which you are proud. But water-walking makes Water Striders mechanically superior to other ground mounts in a way that risks removing a feeling of choice. Even if you want to show off that Invincible that you finally managed to farm up, or your Grove Warden, you may end up feeling foolish for using anything other than the Water Strider in areas where you can’t fly, just because it offers that mechanical advantage.

Our initial change was aimed at letting people feel more free to choose the mount that they felt looked coolest, whether in new content or while leveling alts. But as we’ve clearly heard from your feedback, removing the water-walking functionality from pre-existing content feels like we’re taking away something that you have worked hard to earn, and that cost outweighs any benefit from potentially broadened cosmetic options.

So, in the next Alpha build, we’re restoring the ability of Water Striders to walk on water in all pre-Legion content (Azeroth, Outland, Northrend, etc.). The restriction on the mounts’ water-walking ability will now only apply to the Broken Isles and future content beyond that.

Blue Tweets

Legion
is there any point at all in the EU alpha forums? just let us in the US instead?
Yes, absolutely. We read it all. Just easier to respond on US forums. Assume you'll see responses, regardless of where they are? (Celestalon)

Lore
Then we have other Blizzard employees denying that Fel would be a form of life magic, like Matt.
So now I'm just wondering if Sean Copeland lied to me and others.
I think I just wasn't clear tbh Nature spells use life energy, fel spells burn/consume life energy/souls, ya? (Muffinus)
that's more of a semantic discussion than a lie, if something burns life, is it "life magic?" IDK "life magic" isnt (Muffinus)
really all that well-defined, not sure it's been mentioned in-game, outside of maybe chi? (Muffinus)
bottom line is: no one is telling you lies, there isn't a conspiracy or anything, it seems to be mostly word choice (Muffinus)

Ghostcrawler Tweets
Ghostcrawler still occasionally talks about WoW. Remember that he no longer works for or speaks for Blizzard.

If I may ask, what do you think makes MOBAs such a popular genre for e-sports?
Easy to understand the action. Good stories both on and off the field. You can be a fan at lots of different levels of intensity. (OccupyGStreet)
By the latter I mean you can see your favorite champ get played or get into nuance of individual player preferences and history. (OccupyGStreet)

Character Transfer Gold Cap Increase
The transfer gold cap increase was delayed yesterday, but should be going live tonight!

Looks like it should be going live now

Fan Art Update
The World of Warcraft Fan Art Section has been updated with twelve new pieces of fan artwork.

[Arvandor]

the water strider solution is not enough!

the battle continues..

[Deleted]

Paragon quitting means it's time to congratulate Serenity for getting all the legion world first kills until they also stop playing!

[GMZohar1]

Heh Legion must have some important water zones.. Without water walking it will take some people a little longer to finish the water parts, therefor making the expansion seem longer than what it is..

[akse]

It's all water and you have to swim.. feels like you had a lot content but it only took a huge amount of time.

[Grimalkin of Old]

Leave it to Blizzard to suck the fun out even from tiniest things.

[Danuel]

"Our initial change was aimed at letting people feel more free to choose the mount that they felt looked coolest, whether in new content or while leveling alts."
Oh yeah I totally believe in that.

[Deleted]

20 Man raiding has killed it all. Reintroduce the 10 man bracket.

[Nutri]

So... Until people acquire their Jesus-ring (and the tedious job of (un)equiping it every time), DK's, Locks and Shaman will have an advantage over other classes?

- - - Updated - - -

20 Man raiding has killed it all. Reintroduce the 10 man bracket.

Yes please!

[seeltas92]

It is like a legend has died. R.I.P Paragon and the non-mainstream-raiding.

[Tenjen]

Heh Legion must have some important water zones.. Without water walking it will take some people a little longer to finish the water parts, therefor making the expansion seem longer than what it is..

is this sarcasm? the way you've gone out to get every bit of it wrong and incorrect seems to convince me it is.

[thebdc]

Our initial change was aimed at letting people feel more free to choose the mount that they felt looked coolest, whether in new content or while leveling alts.

That'd mean they have to make ground mounts be able to fly, too. Also, did anybody really exclusively use the water strider because he might want to cross water? I always just used my favourite mount and only switched to a water strider when I actually needed it.

[Deleted]

Removing water striders because it gives people an unfair advantage, but DK's and Warlocks can still walk on water, so surely by removing the water striders you are giving those two classes an advantage? Keeping them in balances it out for other classes

[xrayEU]

With Paragon done raiding means there will not be a race for the world first, which is really sad
Congrats Serenity.

[Williamgood]

So... Until people acquire their Jesus-ring (and the tedious job of (un)equiping it every time), DK's, Locks and Shaman will have an advantage over other classes?

Don't forget hunters with a certain pet =p.

[Deleted]

I use the strider when there’s water, use my actual favorites everywhere else. I thought that was the point of the strider?

Another convenience item butchered as a result of some misplaced judgment on how we the players decide/choose what mount we used.

By this logic: My Zulian Tiger can’t fly and I want to use/show it off, therefore please remove the ability to fly from all flying mounts please.

Where the f**k do they get this info?... utter nonsense.

[Deleted]

should make the strider slower on land

[Uncle]

Paragon over? GOOD NEW. It's time to remove those sick guilds from the game, they are toxic.

[Tenjen]

The only time time i mount the strider is if i could to a large enough body of water i need to be ontop of or to cross. Other times i use my fave mounts and even switch back to it when i no longer need it.

this is a needless change to counter act something for a reason that just isnt significant enough to justify the change and rather than bring "choice" back, it reduces utility and takes meaningful choices out of the game.

[Baelic]

Paragon over? GOOD NEW. It's time to remove those sick guilds from the game, they are toxic.

As far as I can recall, Paragon was quite respectable in the community in terms of conduct, so how exactly are they toxic?