Upcoming Shards of Domination Set Bonus Buffs
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Hotfixes - July 30, 2021

Items and Rewards

  • Shards of Domination
    • [With weekly maintenance in each region] Blood Link – The damage and healing amount has been increased at all ranks by 20%.
    • [With weekly maintenance in each region] Winds of Winter – The amount of damage and healing stored by the Winds has been increased at all ranks by ~45%.
      • Developers’ note: The difference between the three Rune Words for the Shards of Domination system is bigger than we want it to be. We have identified and fixed a bug in Winds of Winter which was preventing some damaging and healing abilities from counting towards its total, and we have retuned Winds of Winter and Blood Link so that the relative power between Rune Word bonuses is more balanced.
  • Jotungeirr, Destiny’s Call will now reset its cooldown at the end of boss encounters.
  • Fixed an issue where Ticking Sack of Terror could trigger more than intended in the presence of multiple trinkets.

Spit Emote Removed on TBC Classic PTR
The /spit emote has been removed on the Burning Crusade Classic PTR. Players can no longer target others with the emote, however they can still spit on the ground.

It is speculated that this change is a result of people spamming /spit on players riding the Reawakened Phase-Hunter mount, the reward for purchasing the Burning Crusade Deluxe Edition.



Lead Game Designer Jeremy Feasel tweeted that he's having a look at cleaning up toxicity in the game, so this could be one of many changes to come.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Upcoming Shards of Domination Set Bonus Buffs, Spit Emote Removed on TBC Classic PTR started by Lumy View original post
Comments 563 Comments
  1. TheRevenantHero's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nimin View Post
    Aaah yes, the most classic of the pro-censorship rethorics to normalize it.

    Freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences(but we're never gonna define exactly what we mean by consequences so when you get ostracized, canceled, banned, doxxed, death threated, fired and all your business leeways destroyed we can just shrug saying you deserved it for saying a mere word or opinion our party didn't like)

    What, you don't want that? Then don't be super toxic(and by that it means never say something we disalign with or defend your position too strongly for our tastes again since this is another term left intentionally vague so it can cover literally anything we don't like).

    This doesn't even deserve a spit, it's less than that.
    If you get fired from your job for saying hateful/racist/sexist/homophobic/etc comments then you literally have nobody to blame but yourself. Sure you have the right to say whatever you want and an employer is within their rights to fire you for toxic comments. You're not upset about censorship. You are clearly just upset you can't get away with saying incredibly toxic things anymore.
  1. rrayy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Voidwielder View Post
    Reason is the whales started complaining and bean counters freaked out. That's the only target audience they care about. I've seen it twice. Two times. While having playing on average 3-4 hours every day, more on off days.

    What I do see is people laughing at obvious boosters in HFR XP run groups. As they should. What are they going to do about that? Remove all chat functionality? Might as well at this point.
    Repeating a claim that you still cannot prove does not make it fact.


    He and his fan base are not representative. Once again, you are moving goal posts. I quoted a specific example, very specific and said it does not happen. It does not.
    LOL Blizzard says it's happens and is why the /spit emote was changed, a specific exam[ple was given that proves it happens yet you continue to claim it does not happen. You can stop lying now. It is very blatant at this point.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Nutri View Post
    So uhm... the spit emote is gone then, but then you can still do '/e spits on <name>' for the same effect. Right?
    /spit emote is not gone. You can still use it on npcs.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Voidism View Post
    Ah yes, only remove it when it might impact sales. Classy.

    While I support the removal of targeted spits, this is yet more performative shallow nonsense where only profits are the motivator behind the change - not the abuse.

    Not to mention, it paint us players as the main problem of their internal issues.
    LOL thisa is completely and utterly false. It isn't impacting sales and profits have zero to do with it. And "paints players as the main problem oif their internal issues"? That is beyond ludicrous. They are simply trying to clean out harassment in game, Nothing more. Sounds like someone who was harrassing others in game with the emote and is mad he can't do it anymore.
  1. Flaadhun's Avatar
    Ok, that's it, after reading the "A Message from the World of Warcraft Team" in the Battle Net Launcher this morning, I immediately cancelled my WoW subscription. Corporate wokeness is really the cancer of our time, I wonder when people will start to realize that to censor different opinions is the actual toxic act, and not the different opinion itself. Also the removal of /spit, holy shit, if you can't handle that, then you should not use the internet at all.

    /target Blizzard
    /spit
  1. rrayy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Flaadhun View Post
    Ok, that's it, after reading the "A Message from the World of Warcraft Team" in the Battle Net Launcher this morning, I immediately cancelled my WoW subscription. Corporate wokeness is really the cancer of our time, I wonder when people will start to realize that to censor different opinions is the actual toxic act, and not the different opinion itself. Also the removal of /spit, holy shit, if you can't handle that, then you should not use the internet at all.

    /target Blizzard
    /spit
    Harrassing other players does not = giving your opinion. You also just provided an example of why Blizzard was right to do what they did. Harrassment is never OK and neither is victim blaming.
  1. Delever's Avatar
    Sexual harassment in the work space
    Fake stock value reports
    Dwindling playerbase
    Cash shop whales upset over orange text

    Guess which group of people blizzard prioritizes to protect first in the stupidest manner possible. Meanwhile you can still say the N word in TBC.
  1. rrayy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Delever View Post
    Sexual harassment in the work space
    Fake stock value reports
    Dwindling playerbase
    Cash shop whales upset over orange text

    Guess which group of people blizzard prioritizes to protect first in the stupidest manner possible. Meanwhile you can still say the N word in TBC.
    Yo do know that the people who mae the /spit decision a re a completely different group from who are tasked to take care of the first 3 things right?
  1. Cosmic Janitor's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Voidwielder View Post

    Insulting someone is not the same as harassing someone and people do not spam it and it isn't as prevalent as you imagine it to be.
    You've never done PvP if you think people don't spam it. It serves no purpose othter than to insult someone, not sure why people have such a hard-on for an emote that is mostly used by sore losers.
  1. Delever's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by rrayy View Post
    Yo do know that the people who mae the /spit decision a re a completely different group from who are tasked to take care of the first 3 things right?
    They still represent blizzard. And the person making the announcement that they were going to double down on cleaning up toxicity also represents blizzard. At the end of the day people don't give a rats ass if they are from different departments. It's still a decision made by the company.
    Otherwise using the same logic we could excuse the insanely contradicting nature of the different statements made after the investigation went public where one statement was apologetic towards the victims and the other one was trying to cover up saying that the investigation claims are not true and were done in an unprofessional way. I guess they are from different departments right? So it doesn't count as one blizzard.
    Lastly, removing the /spit changes nothing. People who adamantly used it to this day will default to another emote like /rude or /lol. The impact will be the same once it becomes widely known that this is the new default.
    What are they going to do then? Remove every emote one by one? Instead of giving an easy tool for the players that felt uncomfortable (a mute emotes tickbox) they instead decide to censor an emote.
  1. rrayy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Delever View Post
    They still represent blizzard. And the person making the announcement that they were going to double down on cleaning up toxicity also represents blizzard. At the end of the day people don't give a rats ass if they are from different departments. It's still a decision made by the company.
    Otherwise using the same logic we could excuse the insanely contradicting nature of the different statements made after the investigation went public where one statement was apologetic towards the victims and the other one was trying to cover up saying that the investigation claims are not true and were done in an unprofessional way. I guess they are from different departments right? So it doesn't count as one blizzard.
    Lastly, removing the /spit changes nothing. People who adamantly used it to this day will default to another emote like /rude or /lol. The impact will be the same once it becomes widely known that this is the new default.
    What are they going to do then? Remove every emote one by one? Instead of giving an easy tool for the players that felt uncomfortable (a mute emotes tickbox) they instead decide to censor an emote.
    So? The people cleasning up the game are not the ones making the decisions on who is cleaning up the company. Two completely separate groups. Also, your argument fails because you act like they can only do one thing at a time and that the WoW deve shouldn't be working on the game in any way until the company is cleaned up. The devs still have their job to do. They are continuing to do their job while bosses ay anbove them take care of cleaning up the company,. IN no way are they making removing the emote a higher priority than cleaning up the company.

    ps They haven't removed the emotes. You can still use them on any NPC you want. They just removed the ability to target other players. Saying they are removed is to be disingenuous.
  1. MrPaladinGuy's Avatar
    inb4 this game becomes such a safe space that unrequested linking of damage meters in any type of chat = harassment.
  1. Voidism's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by rrayy View Post
    Repeating a claim that you still cannot prove does not make it fact.


    LOL Blizzard says it's happens and is why the /spit emote was changed, a specific exam[ple was given that proves it happens yet you continue to claim it does not happen. You can stop lying now. It is very blatant at this point.

    - - - Updated - - -

    /spit emote is not gone. You can still use it on npcs.

    - - - Updated - - -

    LOL thisa is completely and utterly false. It isn't impacting sales and profits have zero to do with it. And "paints players as the main problem oif their internal issues"? That is beyond ludicrous. They are simply trying to clean out harassment in game, Nothing more. Sounds like someone who was harrassing others in game with the emote and is mad he can't do it anymore.
    "While I support the removal of targeted spits"

    Hmm... yes... I'm totally am against removing it. 🙄

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by rrayy View Post
    Repeating a claim that you still cannot prove does not make it fact.


    LOL Blizzard says it's happens and is why the /spit emote was changed, a specific exam[ple was given that proves it happens yet you continue to claim it does not happen. You can stop lying now. It is very blatant at this point.

    - - - Updated - - -

    /spit emote is not gone. You can still use it on npcs.

    - - - Updated - - -

    LOL thisa is completely and utterly false. It isn't impacting sales and profits have zero to do with it. And "paints players as the main problem oif their internal issues"? That is beyond ludicrous. They are simply trying to clean out harassment in game, Nothing more. Sounds like someone who was harrassing others in game with the emote and is mad he can't do it anymore.
    "While I support the removal of targeted spits"

    Hmm... yes... I'm totally am against removing it.
  1. Scorched2Black's Avatar
    emote removal will help female Blizzard staff from being molested.
    "anti toxicity tech" in-game will create equal treatment for female employees at Blizzard.

    It's the toxic player base, that's totally the priority. Point the fingers away from who signs your paycheck and back at the players, bravo white male developers.
  1. Alkizon's Avatar
    In other words, controlled interactive individual self moderation by "mature" player is worse solution than ban emotes and put stupid automatic counter on reports with distribution of auto-mute... oh, yes! You're moving in a very "right" direction
    Quote Originally Posted by Alkizon View Post
    Naturally, hype around Classic and its “survival conditions” may help a little in favorable outcome, but everything will depend on how much devs succeed in authenticating experience = playing conditions. All conversations and work will be empty without them. Moreover, these aren't just loud words, because even such trifle as chat moderation rules (you can decide only for yourself and shouldn't for others) can be important, since is main mechanism of communication = valid condition (illogical/cheat-able/brutal conditions leads to desire for attackers to take advantage of them, and - to avoid of using for respectable people).
    This isn't even sarcasm already, but rather ordinary laugh of person tired of being surprised. I hasten to upset you, but toxicity of your audience is not so much in words as in behavior, and ability to "correct" it is often prohibited by your "newfangled innovations". Your design is hindrance to that, and your feigned "decency" is its inspiration. Good luck, of course, but I'm afraid, that you have no idea how wrong you are in choosing of impact's direction

    ps. However, they may not consider their audience "mature", adequate and capable of making independent decisions.
    I can "spit" on people without using emotes, how are you going to deal with this?
  1. Celebhil's Avatar
    yall want to care about "toxicity", how about botters, how about asshatts dominating the public group forum promising mythic dungeon and raid clears for gold and/or money (at this point with the wow token, whats the difference?) What about botters in general hogging mineral and herb nodes? All those things undermine the quality of the gaming experience and blizzard hasnt done anything realistically to squash this kind of bad sportsmanship.
  1. rrayy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Scorched2Black View Post
    emote removal will help female Blizzard staff from being molested.
    "anti toxicity tech" in-game will create equal treatment for female employees at Blizzard.

    It's the toxic player base, that's totally the priority. Point the fingers away from who signs your paycheck and back at the players, bravo white male developers.
    One has nothing to do with the other. the devs are cleaning up the toxicity in their game. It is not their job to clean up the company. That is for their bosses to handle. People need to stop with this dishonest BS,

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Haidaes View Post
    You've never done PvP if you think people don't spam it. It serves no purpose othter than to insult someone, not sure why people have such a hard-on for an emote that is mostly used by sore losers.
    IN PvP that is role play. Using it to harrass players who bought a mount is not. You not being able to see the difference is on you.
  1. mbit's Avatar
    This is just trying to ban social shaming for bad behaviour. Its hilarious how some now try to twist it and pretend the shaming is the bad and not the behaviour initiating it.
  1. justandulas's Avatar
    No, spitting on players isn’t toxic. It’s a tale as old as vanilla

    What IS toxic is introducing mtx into a 15 year old game, what IS toxic is paying for mtx in a 15 year old game which only encourages more.

    Imagine turning on ocarina of time and being hit with mtx. Imagine turning on Mario kart 64 and needing cash to buy another character. It’s like that

    Mtx have 0 place in tbc and that’s what’s toxic, Blizz adding it and then whales supporting that. Shameful
  1. Lady Atia's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Flaadhun View Post
    Ok, that's it, after reading the "A Message from the World of Warcraft Team" in the Battle Net Launcher this morning, I immediately cancelled my WoW subscription. Corporate wokeness is really the cancer of our time, I wonder when people will start to realize that to censor different opinions is the actual toxic act, and not the different opinion itself. Also the removal of /spit, holy shit, if you can't handle that, then you should not use the internet at all.

    /target Blizzard
    /spit
    We won't miss you at all
  1. HitRefresh's Avatar
    Won't people just go to other emotes instead? Even one that's positive can be turned into something negative, it's really about context. Laughing for example.
  1. rrayy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by mbit View Post
    This is just trying to ban social shaming for bad behaviour. Its hilarious how some now try to twist it and pretend the shaming is the bad and not the behaviour initiating it.
    Not nearly as hilarious as people trying to dictate what is bad behavior to justify harassment.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by justandulas View Post
    No, spitting on players isn’t toxic. It’s a tale as old as vanilla

    What IS toxic is introducing mtx into a 15 year old game, what IS toxic is paying for mtx in a 15 year old game which only encourages more.

    Imagine turning on ocarina of time and being hit with mtx. Imagine turning on Mario kart 64 and needing cash to buy another character. It’s like that

    Mtx have 0 place in tbc and that’s what’s toxic, Blizz adding it and then whales supporting that. Shameful
    Mtx are not toxic. What is toxic is players who try to dictate what should or should not be in the game and then harass other players who don't follow in lock step with their dictations.That is what is shameful.

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