New Website Design - Feedback Needed!
My lovely new tech team is working on a new design for the site and I figured it could be nice to ask for your opinion while things are still in development. There is a dedicated post on the Suggestions & Feedback forum where you can give your opinion and complain about the annoying things before it goes live.



Important
  • No, we're not reducing the amount of news posts on the front page to 2, it will remain the same old super-long front page.
  • I'm mostly looking for people who have good idea on how to improve things, if you really hate something try to elaborate and offer ways to do things better. (Please post in the Feedback Thread)
  • It's a 1680x1050 screenshot because this is the most used resolution on the website, it should work fine on lower res.



WoWTal.com Updated to Build 12857
Had a few hiccups with the latest build because of the server migration but the cataclysm talent calculator is now updated to the latest beta build.



New Race Introduction Cinematics
TotalBiscuit compiled all the new introduction cinematics added to the game in the latest beta build. All races character creation cinematics have been updated to reflect all the recent changes to the lore, including upcoming changes, and you might want to check them out.

Disclaimer: There are a couple of major spoilers there





Cataclysm Glyphs
Originally Posted by Ghostcrawler (Blue Tracker)
Prime glyphs aren't going to be exciting in a "change up your rotation" style. We want primes to be unambiguous dps (etc.) increases so we figured they might as well be easy to understand rather than something so convoluted that everyone would just go to a fansite to see which 3 to pick.

The majors are more interesting, because they are either not dps increases at all, or dps increases in ways that are tricky to math out. We think players will debate and geek out more about which majors to use, and with the new glyph design, swapping them out once in awhile isn't very painful.

Minors are basically convenience or fun.

We don't want glyphs to change rotations. We feel that was a mistake in LK. Talents should affect your rotations, and glyphs should just provide a little bit of customization and power. We fixed some class problems with glyphs in LK, which was an easy solution to do at the time, but now is the time to undo all of that and let the classes stand on their own without the glyphs.

I'm not sure I agree with this. I can understand wanting to keep it simple, but like someone else said, if you're going to have 3 glyphs that we're always going to have with no variation, and none of them have any effect on the rotation... couldn't we just stick with minor/major glyphs, and just remove the prime glyphs entirely?

First, it would be a weird world in which a warrior say could glyph Charge and Battle Shout but not Mortal Strike. It might make sense to savvy players who thought through it, but I'd wager you'd also see a lot of "Why don't they make glyphs that affect the buttons I care most about? Blizzard is dumb." (And to be clear, the point of that is not to defend ourselves against agitated forum posters, but that if something in the game is confusing like that in can get in the way of having fun.)

Second, gaining power when you level up is fun. Hitting a milestone where you get a noticeable damage bonus is fun. There is also some mildly interesting decisions about which prime glyph to use first. In other words, don't view everything through the lens of the maximum level player.

Third, not everything in the game needs to be a nail-biting decision. We don't for example really want Fury warriors to stress about whether to choose Raging Blow or not, nor we do we make it particularly challenging to choose your weapon enchant. Sometimes easy decisions make players feel more comfortable rather than every potential decision having a host of invisible pitfalls. This isn't an issue of catering to the dumb players -- it's more about there being a few safe places in the game. [I feel nearly certain after re-reading that paragraph that it's going to be hard to understand and I will end up having to clarify it for months to come.]

Finally, I'd argue that the popular glyphs on live today already were the no brainers because in most cases they led to a consistent dps increase (for dps specs of course). When everyone uses those glyphs, then you aren't making some interesting decision about how to use your abilities -- you're just doing what every other warrior out there is doing. The only way to deviate from that is to have two glyphs that affect your primary abilities in two totally different but equal ways. That's a very tall order, because more than likely we'll end up having to constantly adjust around that. "Encounter #4 in Grim Batol is unfair to warriors who use the Glyph of Furious Mortal Strikes instead of the Glyph of Meaty Mortal Strikes." What I mean is that we end up having to support multiple play styles within one tree. We're willing to do that to a limited extent (the TG vs. SMF Fury warrior for example, or the FFB mage), but it's hard enough to develop 1-2 viable rotations per spec. We don't want every important glyph bifurcating that rotation even more.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Your ICC gear is going away in Uldum (LVL 84-85)
What gear? Uldum has zero quest rewards and the creatures are not itemized. When Uldum is itemized every single quest should offer you an upgrade, regardless of what gear you have from ICC+. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Paladin Glyphs
That Avenging Wrath glyph no longer exists. It's far too obvious a dps increase to be a major under the new paradigm.

The Seal of Truth one is on the bubble. It's still in for now, but it's pretty much a no-brainer given the stat savings it offers. (Source)

Selfless Healer
We're fine with Selfless Healer. It's not going anywhere. We are slightly sympathetic to the concern that the opportunity cost is too high given that you're giving up a Templar's Verdict and that's the kind of thing we might mess with. However, if the idea of having a talent focused solely on healing (and not self preservation) offends you, then skip the talent. It's intended to be optional. There are paladins out there who like the concept of being able to help out healing in a 5-player dungeon or like being able to save lives once in awhile, and the talent is aimed at them. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Warrior Glyphs
Some of those glyphs don't look correct. Colossus Smash is a major. Hamstring doesn't do that anymore. Shield Wall provides 60% damage reduction but on a longer cooldown. That's just off the top of my head. (Source)
This article was originally published in forum thread: Website Design, Race Intro Cinematics, Blue Posts started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 132 Comments
  1. frier's Avatar
    Add the MMO-Champion-Guy-of-awesomeness and it's simply perfect.
  1. Sulf's Avatar
    New site design is great, I'm super jealous of all you people with 1650x1080 resolutions or higher
  1. Ithidan's Avatar
    Im so pleased they've changed the starting cinematics ^^ adds a whole new flavour for the old races.

    And the new website design is brilliant ^^ much better
  1. Daumier's Avatar
    One word: Slick! Now maybe I won't get after images from all the neon green!
  1. Harthmut's Avatar
    I don't like the new design.
    It's not that i hate the design, i just hate changing things that proved themselves to be "working".
    And the old MMO champ worked pretty good to me.
  1. Sauredfangs's Avatar
    I love the new web design, It looks more modern and more well organized. Although i'm gonna miss the old theme cause the website has had it for years but I think im gonna like the new one better
  1. scottalot's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Harthmut View Post
    I don't like the new design.
    It's not that i hate the design, i just hate changing things that proved themselves to be "working".
    And the old MMO champ worked pretty good to me.
    Meh, if everyone operated on the saying "If it's not broke, don't fix it" we'd never have any kind of innovation or creativity. I like the new design save a few small changes here and there. As long as the functionality is there like it is presently, i can see the design change going over very smoothly.
  1. Mercadi's Avatar
    @Totalbiscuit

    Get some sleep man You sound too tired
  1. Wries's Avatar
    I like it!
  1. Grayem's Avatar
    After watching these new character intros. Makes me wonder why Blizzard didn't just solicit this as WoW 2. Seems like they want everyone to start at level 1, and play through the new world order.
  1. Valdamir's Avatar
    1680x1050 is the most used resolution? What size monitor is that the native resolution for?
  1. ScorchHellfire's Avatar
    Keep the latin imo...
  1. Ghosty365's Avatar
    Less TotalBiscuit FFS the guy makers me want to kill myself -.- more OMFG CATA
  1. Russle's Avatar
    Looks good.
  1. Avendryl's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ghosty365 View Post
    Less TotalBiscuit FFS the guy makers me want to kill myself -.- more OMFG CATA
    If that makes you want to off yourself, I'm astounded you've made it this long.

    On another note, I sincerely hope the starting quests have changed more than appearances would lead one to believe. The Orc, Forsaken, and Blood Elf starting areas look almost--if not exactly--the same.
  1. courgette's Avatar
    love the new design, i'm prolly gonna sound like a retarded fan boy, but boubouille, tu roxx du poney !
  1. Alayea's Avatar
    I've got to hand it to Blizzard. I was floored when I watched the new introduction for the Tauren. I mean, Cairne issuing a duel challenge to Garrosh and then offed by that guy (whether intentionally or not)? Sorry, but I find that to be quite lame.
  1. Brittany's Avatar
    The starting quests haven't changed much from what I've heard. The "kill x wolves" quests are still there. They've just taken out quests that are no longer relevant and changed up the gnome/trolls to reflect their new starting zones.

    They aren't getting rid of every old quest, a lot of them have simply been moved. Only areas that have been really overhauled graphically (ie a lake where grass used to be) are getting a lot of new quests.
  1. Dustdevil's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kuja View Post
    What hint? The prophet's vision? I think it meant the Cataclysm and the impending battle against Deathwing
    I think they are talking about the battle against Kil'jaeden, Sargeras and the Burning Legion.
  1. Vynistra's Avatar
    Enduring Winter 1/3: Reduces the mana cost of all spells by 15000%

    Finally, frost is viable!

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