Update #2 - Yes, Patch 4.0.6 is next week, stop asking.




Luck of the Draw Buff
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
In case you aren't already aware, Luck of the Draw is the name of the buff you get for grouping with random people using Dungeon Finder. It currently provides a 5% buff to damage, healing, and health if you have at least one random player in your group. With patch 4.0.6, we are increasing this buff to 5% damage, healing, and health per random player, up to a maximum of 15%.

In the process of working on this change we actually discovered that the Luck of the Draw buff has not been working in Cataclysm at all, save for a few specific dungeons. This means that the difficulty in almost all normal and Heroic dungeons for those using the Dungeon Finder tool was higher than expected. Still, with that issue corrected in 4.0.6, we feel the bump up to 15% for three or more random players found through the Dungeon Finder is a necessary change.

The intent of Luck of the Draw is to help make up for the lack of coordination, communication, and familiarity that pick up groups suffer relative to organized groups of guild members and friends. Cataclysm dungeons, especially on Heroic mode, are quite challenging and ask for more group organization than the Wrath of the Lich King dungeons did. Therefore, Luck of the Draw became relatively weaker in Cataclysm. I'm painting the picture with unfairly large brush strokes here, but in general, Heroic dungeons are of appropriate difficulty for organized groups, but just brutal on Dungeon Finder groups. Players wonder, and rightly so, why Dungeon Finder supports Cataclysm Heroic dungeons at all when the chance of success is so low.

We think buffing Luck of the Draw is a good way to go about correcting the difficulty differences because it makes things slightly easier on PUGs without depriving the organized groups of a fun challenge. We also think the bonus is modest enough that it won't encourage organized groups to split up and just PUG instead - - the success rate for PUGs relative to organized groups is just that far behind. We still think you'll have more fun and a greater chance of success running dungeons with friends, but when that isn’t possible, we hope this change will make Dungeon Finder a more pleasant experience. Also remember that patch 4.0.6 is adjusting the difficulty of some bosses that are particularly unforgiving, such as Ozruk in Heroic Stonecore, though to be fair, we are buffing some underperforming encounters as well. In addition, we are offering larger Justice Point rewards for players who just prefer the faster pace and greater success rate of normal dungeons, and by the time 4.1 comes out everyone will have access to more powerful gear, making the older content even easier. But then there'll be new challenges to face!

We'd like to thank everyone who has provided us with feedback. We do listen, even if we don't immediately deploy every design change suggested by the player community. Our intent is to make the game fun for a wide variety of players, which can be quite a challenge when you have a community this large and this varied. We hope you continue to enjoy the game, and look forward to sharing more changes (and a few surprises) in the months ahead.

-Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street is the lead systems designer for World of Warcraft and was attacked by a coati as a child. (True story.)

All Rated Battleground Weeks Now 10v10
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
We’re in the process of developing a hotfix to push before next Tuesday that will change all 15vs15 rated battleground weeks into 10vs10 weeks.

Looking at participation, the 10vs10 rated battleground weeks have been far and away more popular than the 15vs15 weeks. The difference in organizational requirements as well as battleground map popularity have been a couple big factors that have led to the 10vs10 weeks seeing a great deal more action. By making this change and supporting the popular option we hope to encourage even more players and teams to participate, as they won’t have to wait out every other week, or struggle to beef up to 15 players to match the requirement.

We also have plans to adapt additional battleground maps in the future to work in the 10 player bracket to increase the variety of maps available.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Luck of the Draw Buff started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 559 Comments
  1. skylla05's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Prez- View Post
    They eventually went the way the QQ wanted them to go, make stuff easier because they're too lazy to organize a semi-decent group, its funny to be honest.
    You seem to be (hilariously) implying that there is "organization" in the LFD system, which is what the change is aimed for. It's not being done for guilds that form their own handpicked groups.

    What does a 10% increased buff value really do to your enjoyment of the game?

    I simply find it hilarious that people think this change is "not good", when they are obviously above and beyond the current difficulty requirements. Good for you, print yourself off a gold star because you can handle the Heroics perfectly fine as is. It's not the case for everyone, and increasing the buff for those people will do nothing but ease the expectations and ridicule by people like you. I mean, if this change is unnecessary, why are there so many threads calling out healers for being bad, DPS for being bad? These people are not going to be in your raid groups, holding your progression back in important content because they can't handle the healing requirements because they were "babied in heroics". They will never meet your standards, so why do you even give a shit what they can, or can't do in this game? If you want to be an arrogant jerk, calling people out that simply want less emphasis on the difficulty then by all means, do it. But stop acting personally offended because your ever so amazing self as a player doesn't need the buff.

    This change for those people, has absolutely no effect whatsoever on the people that are deeming themselves great players that don't need it. The only change it might provide, is you can do your so called trivial content for 70VP 10% faster.

    Seriously, get over yourselves.
  1. Sabbie's Avatar
    It'll help those who are having issues with heroics but will not fix people who can't play correctly. I would rather have dungeons stay how they are so that more casual players can learn mechanics and their class. It's so easy to just jump into 85 with only using 2 buttons, and when players are required to start using a full bar of abilities they tend to be very dumb and bad players.
  1. The Glitch's Avatar
    Great change to the Luck of the Draw Buff
  1. Blackburn's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Gahgoots View Post
    Good news. Finally cut down on the time it takes to run instances, since I work full time and can't play 8 hours a day like all the "hardcore" players.
    I work 9hrs a day, workout for 1hr every day, and spend ~1hr commuting. So I spend 11+hrs every day out of house. I also raid 3/nights a week, do my daily heroic/quests/auctions every day, and also go out with gf/friends or see family on weekends. QQ more?
  1. skylla05's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Sabbie View Post
    It'll help those who are having issues with heroics but will not fix people who can't play correctly. I would rather have dungeons stay how they are so that more casual players can learn mechanics and their class. It's so easy to just jump into 85 with only using 2 buttons, and when players are required to start using a full bar of abilities they tend to be very dumb and bad players.
    Please. Most classes don't need to hit any more than a few buttons to be effective in heroic dungeons.

    Honestly, I don't believe people that are considering Heroic dungeons as a serious, strict progression path to be warranted to have such opinions on how other people play, or lack of play. More hardcore raiders like myself could also apply the same logic to those people. Go take your amazing self into raids, and forget about what the "casuals that I will never associate my awesome self with" are doing in Heroic dungeons. It's of really no concern to you because you're amazing, remember? The average skill level of the "casual" playerbase has no effect on individual players raid progression, or anything else.

    It's pretty obvious by all the threads and hate mongering in the WoW boards, that people need help, and the current system is discouraging for those people. Blizzard sitting around telling them to suck it up, is a worse business move than annoying a bunch of people that can't get over their ego. Enjoy your bigger numbers and fast runs through content you are implying as "trivial", because again, you're amazing remember?
  1. Pepitobenito's Avatar
    This smells a whole lot like the ICC 30% buff. I am concerned.

    I do not approve.
  1. Hellfrog's Avatar
    Wotlk 2.0 incoming!

    Enough for me, quitting my account, cya!
  1. garion55's Avatar
    what wrecked this whole thing was forcing minor league players like the ones in my guild into heroics for no reason. you didnt need heroics to start raiding Kara or naxx. heroics were just something extra. something hard for the hardcores.

    If they had just left it where regular dungeons lead to regular 10/25 mans, like they did in BC and LK, there would be no reason for the scrubs (like me) to even step foot into heroic 5 mans. the heroics could have remained the exclusive playground for hardcores. their own tier of content.

    but if you share the dungeons with the pros and the minor leaguers you have to make it so the minor leaguers have a chance of finishing it or its no fair to send them in there.

    meanwhile if you make hardmode 5 mans easy enough for the minor leaguers, the hardcores are falling asleep during the run.

    So yeah changing the progression path has seriously hurt both camps this time around.
  1. Histidine's Avatar
    An excellent idea. Make it easier for pugs while maintaining the challenge for groups with coordination. Deftly done.
  1. Buckwald's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Blackburn View Post
    I work 9hrs a day, workout for 1hr every day, and spend ~1hr commuting. So I spend 11+hrs every day out of house. I also raid 3/nights a week, do my daily heroic/quests/auctions every day, and also go out with gf/friends or see family on weekends.
    It doesn't matter how many times this is posted (I've done it before as well) people will still say that their day is WAY more busy than yours or completely ignore the fact some one who has a similar schedule pulls off raiding. I play for 3 hours a night 3 days a week. Log in>Raid>Log Out (We're only 9/12 normal btw, so no I'm not super elite). On the weekends I spend maybe an hour here and there and my gear score ... *ehem* ilvl is 352. All in all I think I play a total of 15 hours a week, maybe. It's not hard.
  1. Dch48's Avatar
    Wotlk 2.0 incoming!
    One can only hope. :-)

    An excellent idea. Make it easier for pugs while maintaining the challenge for groups with coordination. Deftly done.
    Well said and I totally agree.
  1. mazinga's Avatar
    So...aside from tanking i started playing boomkin cause it is funny and dpssing is a lot less stressful than tanking in HC. Not because of the difficulty of the encounters, but for the difficulty of making players working correctly together, making them listen to tactics when they don't know an encounter but can just say "Just go! ur wasting our queue time!" Time is not refundable i agree, and i prefer taking 2 minutes on explaining rather than 10 on wiping.
    Last 2 LFD i went in as boomkin were into a wiping group: yesterday the group already wiped 18 times (!!!!!!!!) on Ozruk and they were going for the 19th. Tried to explain, offered to tank, but they just pulled and started to wipe.
    Today i joined on wiping group on Baron Ashbury in SFK... i asked if they sorted out the interrupts and if i had to go feral to take one on me since there were not enough classes with off gcd interrupts.... they pulled without having even care... i left.
    So 30+30 min of my life tiime wasted.

    I hope this buff could make our experience a little more smooth, but i would be gratefull if we coul apply +15% buff on being clever instead than buffing stats. I fear that buffing stats will make stupid people only more stupid and making them feel that the communty endorse their kind of attitude.
  1. Kujja's Avatar
    I'm a hardcore player, but I honestly think this change was needed - heroic 5 mans were too difficult in a PuG and it was just stressful for people... and it's ONLY affecting random groups, not guild groups which you still get guild rep/xp from so they are still very much worth doing as a guild.
    Another reason why this is good is because the genuinely good players, that for whatever reason couldn't get in a premade heroic 5 man group, can now PuG easier without wiping constantly on the first boss because he/she is just carrying the rest of the group... sure, it's still gonna be hard for bads, which it should be, but the good players won't have such a horrible time with those bad players anymore.
  1. mmoc653be429b6's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by skylla05 View Post
    Please. Most classes don't need to hit any more than a few buttons to be effective in heroic dungeons.

    Honestly, I don't believe people that are considering Heroic dungeons as a serious, strict progression path to be warranted to have such opinions on how other people play, or lack of play. More hardcore raiders like myself could also apply the same logic to those people. Go take your amazing self into raids, and forget about what the "casuals that I will never associate my awesome self with" are doing in Heroic dungeons. It's of really no concern to you because you're amazing, remember? The average skill level of the "casual" playerbase has no effect on individual players raid progression, or anything else.

    It's pretty obvious by all the threads and hate mongering in the WoW boards, that people need help, and the current system is discouraging for those people. Blizzard sitting around telling them to suck it up, is a worse business move than annoying a bunch of people that can't get over their ego. Enjoy your bigger numbers and fast runs through content you are implying as "trivial", because again, you're amazing remember?
    this would be true, but my worry is that it is the vocal minority that have called for these buffs, before cata release there was a general feel around these forums that harder content would be well accepted and that we needed to distance the game from wrath, my opinion is that while we have all been enjoying the new content in our millions the people crying to blizz have been on there forums moanong for nerfs

    and i really am considering if theres any point in keeping my subscription active, i can work now with my guild to go through the content or i can cancel , save my money for a year come back in a few patches, get all my achs and gear for alot less effort.
  1. wildemu's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Blackburn View Post
    I work 9hrs a day, workout for 1hr every day, and spend ~1hr commuting. So I spend 11+hrs every day out of house. I also raid 3/nights a week, do my daily heroic/quests/auctions every day, and also go out with gf/friends or see family on weekends. QQ more?
    no, you don't. But good try sir.
  1. mmoc653be429b6's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Buckwald View Post
    It doesn't matter how many times this is posted (I've done it before as well) people will still say that their day is WAY more busy than yours or completely ignore the fact some one who has a similar schedule pulls off raiding. I play for 3 hours a night 3 days a week. Log in>Raid>Log Out (We're only 9/12 normal btw, so no I'm not super elite). On the weekends I spend maybe an hour here and there and my gear score ... *ehem* ilvl is 352. All in all I think I play a total of 15 hours a week, maybe. It's not hard.
    whats annoying is there are people that play all day everyday consider themself hardcore and have less progress than you :P
  1. Dch48's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by undercovergnome View Post
    this would be true, but my worry is that it is the vocal minority that have called for these buffs, before cata release there was a general feel around these forums that harder content would be well accepted and that we needed to distance the game from wrath, .
    Wrong on every count. The people wanting nerfs are the majority, the ones protesting are the minority and I never saw anything anywhere suggesting that the game needed to be "distanced from Wrath" and Blizzard certainly never made any such statement. Total nonsense.
  1. Not A Cat's Avatar
    WHAT!!! They're nerfing the heroics I do ONCE a day with my GUILD, and really only mean something to bad PUGs who this nerf is for anyway?!?!?!

    THIS IS NONSENSE! In order for my Heroic raid progression to remain difficult ALL CONTENT must be difficult for EVERYONE. EVEN if I run it ONCE a day without this buff!

    I guess this would mean something if you only ran heroic dungeons for your fix of difficulty, and you only pugged. It's not like making heroics easier for pugs is nerfing the difficulty of raids. I'm sure Billy getting through heroics easier won't make you get that H Nef kill any time soon.

    The point I'm getting at here in a dickish way is, that some may not have trouble getting through their daily, but Blizzard is noticing a plethora of people are having issues running heroics to get gear so they can see the content. That's who this change is aimed at, not the hardcore players. They can't focus on one group of players, especially since the hardcore players are vastly outnumbered by casuals, and bads (take note I'm not saying casuals = bad).

    Hell if anything it just makes the daily take less time, and I'm all for convenience!
  1. slackjawsix's Avatar
    i think were all over looking the fact that 10% more everything does not = easier mechanics
  1. Spammeister's Avatar
    Whatever, let's see if the tanks come back to LFD queue or not.

    I didn't mind failing if it meant another 5 minutes of downtime. 30+ minutes in the queue and if it's an instafail (more often than not) then it's another 10 or so minutes + another 30 to get into another random heroic. Ya ok, whatever, see ya later.

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