PTR 4.1 Build 13750 Strings - Weekly Daily Quest Reset
A couple of nice strings have been added to the client, I'll emphasize on the first one because I'm sure a lot of people will be happy with the change...
Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
  • LFD_RANDOM_REWARD_EXPLANATION1 = "The first seven random dungeons of this tier that you complete each week will earn you:";

Apparently, Blizzard is going to change the daily dungeon quest to a 7 daily quests/week cap instead of 1 quest/day. Obviously this change will make the life of players considerably easier, especially for those of you who have a lot of rerolls or only play on week ends. Of course, nothing confirmed yet, etc etc etc ...


The other changes are:
Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
Random Dungeons
  • INCLUDED_DUNGEONS = "Included Dungeons";
  • INCLUDED_DUNGEONS_SUBTEXT = "The following dungeons are included in your level range when queueing for a Random Dungeon:";

Interface
  • BUFFS_ON_TOP = "Buffs On Top";

Graphics
  • GXAPI = "Graphics API|TInterface\\OptionsFrame\\UI-OptionsFrame-NewFeatureIcon:0:0:0:-1|t";
  • GXAPI_D3D11 = "DirectX 11";
  • GXAPI_D3D9 = "DirectX 9";
  • GXAPI_GLL = "GLL";
  • GXAPI_OPENGL = "OpenGL";
  • OPTION_TOOLTIP_GXAPI = "Select the graphics API.";

Network (Including the lag optimization deployed in 4.0.6 and disabled shortly after)
  • OPTIMIZE_NETWORK_SPEED = "Optimize Network for Speed";
  • OPTION_TOOLTIP_OPTIMIZE_NETWORK_SPEED = "Enable this option to optimize network usage for speed in order to decrease lag.\nThis will increase your bandwidth usage, and may cause problems in some environments. Disabling this option may help resolve certain disconnection issues.";
  • OPTION_TOOLTIP_USEIPV6 = "Enables the use of IPv6, the technology behind the next-generation Internet.\nRequires IPv6 connectivity to the internet. Checking this box without IPv6 connectivity may prevent you from playing WoW.";
  • USEIPV6 = "Enable IPv6 when available";



Patch 4.0.6 Hotfixes - March 16
A new wave of hotfixes has been deployed on live servers. (Well, that's actually an update of the past 2 weeks apparently)
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
March 2 - March 16

General
  • Using macros no longer halts or delays transports.

Classes
Priest (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
  • Casting Holy Word: Chastise against bosses will cause damage, but no longer disorient them when they are immune to such effects.

Dungeons & Raids
Bastion of Twilight
  • Valiona and Theralion overall damage and health has been reduced by roughly 10% on Heroic difficulty. In addition, Twilight Zone no longer increases damage taken from Rift Blast.

Blackwing Descent
  • Atramedes will no longer sometimes snap back to his starting location as he finishes casting Sonic Breath.
  • Magmaw overall damage and health was a little too high on all difficulties and has been reduced slightly. In addition, on Heroic difficulty, Nefarian will now prefer ranged targets when spawning Blazing Bone Constructs.
  • Maloriak’s Scorching Breath should no longer incorrectly share its damage among pets. To offset what would be increased damage per player as a result of this fix, the damage dealt by the ability has been reduced on Heroic difficulty.
  • Players will move at the same speed, even when setting their normal speed to "walk" using the keybind, when Nefarian casts Dominion.
  • The Omnotron Defense System encounter has had its health reduced by 15% on Heroic difficulty, and the damage of Incineration Security Measure has been reduced.

Items
  • The Sands of Time is now a blue superior-quality item. This item can still be used to craft Vial of the Sands when combined with other required materials. The vendor price is unchanged.
  • Players are no longer able to activate Synapse Springs in conjunction with Fury of Angerforge, or vice versa, with or without a macro.

Professions
Engineering
  • Flexweave Underlay, Parachute Cloak, and various rocket boot effects can no longer be used in rated Battlegrounds.
  • Players are no longer able to activate Synapse Springs in conjunction with Fury of Angerforge, or vice versa, with or without a macro.

PvP
Battlegrounds
  • Players can no longer carry enemy flags while on the elevated graveyard in Twin Peaks. An aura will cause the flag to reset as intended if taken to the graveyard via Demonic Circle or Leap of Faith.

Quests & Creatures
Feralas
  • Shandris Feathermoon can no longer be pulled too far from her default location before resetting (i.e. she won’t be waging war from the Orgrimmar Auction House anymore).

Uldum
  • The Beserking buff obtained by killing Schnottz Supply Choppers will now be removed when a player leaves Uldum.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Optional Bosses/Heroic Halls of Origination
We'll need to weigh the value of optional dungeon and raid bosses further before we make any changes. There's good arguments on both sides. On the one hand, optional bosses can be great for keeping dungeons and raids from feeling too linear or formulaic -- and, when done right, they can also give groups a meaningful choice between getting extra loot and completing a run faster. On the other, optional bosses can sometimes create social tension, especially in Dungeon Finder groups, if players disagree whether they should invest the time to fight them.

We know there’s room for improvement, though. For example, we understand that it's probably not the best idea to have optional bosses dropping loot that's BiS. Giving those bosses side-grades (rather than strict upgrades) or similar items could make the "extra loot" vs. "quicker run" decision less stressful. We also feel that optional bosses in general might work better in raids than in dungeons because raids tend to be made up of players who know each other and/or have a strong leader who's empowered to make calls about which bosses to kill.

Heroic Halls of Origination is a good example of where optional bosses can cause conflicts. In retrospect, we feel that it may have been better to require players to kill all four of the "top" bosses -- Isiset, Ammunae, Setesh, and Rajh -- to get credit for their random Heroic dungeon rewards (instead of just Rajh). While we don't yet know if retrofitting the dungeon or the random dungeon reward requirements is the best course of action, we've learned a lot from watching groups, reading your feedback, and just playing ourselves. We’re definitely keeping those lessons in mind as we develop future content and if we do make any changes, we'll be sure to let you know. (Source)
This article was originally published in forum thread: Build 13750 Strings and Weekly Daily Quest Reset, March 16 Hotfixes, Blue Posts started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 113 Comments
  1. randysavage's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by draticus View Post
    If you want a reduction in queue times you have to get more people to play tank classes. The obvious solution to this is to make entry level tanking gear much easier to access...
    long time listener, first time caller...this is a very insightful post, imo...i've been forced down the same path, queueing as dps and hoping for offset tank loot while grinding points for gear (on a dk and war)...this makes the grind nearly twice as long because to you need to upgrade your dps gear to keep your runs going smoothly, too, unless you're ok being that 6k dps guy who's a drag on the group and makes everything painfully slow (which i'm not)...also, 525 blacksmithing provides very little help to wannabe tanks starting out unless you're in a guild that'll feed you orbs by carrying you, most likely as subpar dps...

    rep gear helps, but having to grind out dps gear, then tank gear, means it takes longer to get a viable tank up and running...and again, it is a shame that blacksmithing doesn't provide more help to fill the gap in the 333-346 range...
  1. lonedrifter's Avatar
    awww "Feralas

    * Shandris Feathermoon can no longer be pulled too far from her default location before resetting (i.e. she won’t be waging war from the Orgrimmar Auction House anymore).
    "
    Was one of the most amusing things i had ever witnessed in WoW. Followed by Murloc zombie beach in Isle of Quedanas and Gamon being kited all around org when he was lv85 elite with buffs when we were still lv80~
  1. Calene's Avatar
    This change to LDF will probably be better for all roles, even DPS.

    People today who can't do their daily random heroics every day probably only does a couple of daily heroics each week. So two heroics a week for some people.

    With this new change people can get seven heroics in each week because of how flexible this system will be. So seven heroics a week for these people.

    This equal an increase no matter what roles. More people will be doing heroics.

    For those who believe the queue times will be worse at the end of the raid-week are probably wrong. Less tanks and healers may be doing heroics at that stage.. but same will be applied to the amount of DPS:er. It is not like every DPS lives in a world where they must do all their heroics at the end of the raid-week and every tank and healer must do theirs at the start. It will balance out, just like today. Just that there will be more heroics run going every week than before because of this flexible system.

    This change won't change queue times to the worse. It may not change at all or it may get even better.
  1. YankeePhan1234's Avatar
    I am excited about the 7 dungeon change, steam roll 7 dungeons in a day and never have to do em that week? Yes please...
  1. mmoca3970446ab's Avatar
    nice hot fix on magmaul
  1. ScottsdaleHokie's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by backeby View Post
    IPv6 finally!! Best addition ever! I get a more stable connection which is not even close as full and oversaturated as the normal ipv4 connections are! GJ
    LOL, you do realize you're still going across the same wire right?
  1. damaniac82's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Calene View Post
    This change to LDF will probably be better for all roles, even DPS.

    People today who can't do their daily random heroics every day probably only does a couple of daily heroics each week. So two heroics a week for some people.

    With this new change people can get seven heroics in each week because of how flexible this system will be. So seven heroics a week for these people.

    This equal an increase no matter what roles. More people will be doing heroics.

    For those who believe the queue times will be worse at the end of the raid-week are probably wrong. Less tanks and healers may be doing heroics at that stage.. but same will be applied to the amount of DPS:er. It is not like every DPS lives in a world where they must do all their heroics at the end of the raid-week and every tank and healer must do theirs at the start. It will balance out, just like today. Just that there will be more heroics run going every week than before because of this flexible system.

    This change won't change queue times to the worse. It may not change at all or it may get even better.
    Lets assume the following...

    I'm Joe, the Casual with 5 85s... out of these: 1 tank, 1 healer, 3 dps. Now, prior to the changes, i barely had time to do all HCs all day with all my toons. So i possibily did 1-2 each day, with only a subset of my toons. Of course, queue time for tanks and healers rocks, so my tank and my healer are almost all decked out in VP/JP gear, while my other alts are possibly in 316s and 333s. Now come the changes and suddenly weeeee - i have more time to get my alts geared up finally. You see where is this going?
  1. Kabasue's Avatar
    I don't know about having to complete 7 heroics in a week. I do 3 maybe 4 in a week, and maybe 1 on a alt. If your heroic number doesn't reset that will be fine, but if the number resets every Tuesday like raids do then it's pointless for me to run heroics, as I would never reach the magic number 7. Some of us are gainfully employed, and making sure I run all 7 instances is not expenditure of my game time.
  1. Calene's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by damaniac82 View Post
    Lets assume the following...

    I'm Joe, the Casual with 5 85s... out of these: 1 tank, 1 healer, 3 dps. Now, prior to the changes, i barely had time to do all HCs all day with all my toons. So i possibily did 1-2 each day, with only a subset of my toons. Of course, queue time for tanks and healers rocks, so my tank and my healer are almost all decked out in VP/JP gear, while my other alts are possibly in 316s and 333s. Now come the changes and suddenly weeeee - i have more time to get my alts geared up finally. You see where is this going?
    You are given more time to gear up alts as the system is more flexible after the next patch. If you miss doing a random daily heroic on a Thursday and Friday because of lack of time you can in next patch catch up during the weekend or when you got more time. This will mean that people will do more heroics in general than they would have done normally. Now this won't apply to exactly everyone but probably for most players.

    Me personally got most time during weekend. I only need VP. I play on tank. Currently I do two daily heroics each week. After the next patch I will probably do seven daily heroics each week. Five more heroic runs than before. So more people will do more heroics with these changes. It saves time for people with a tight schedule, as they are not forced to run heroics when they don't really have time.. like on weekdays.. and they can just do these heroics during the weekends instead.
  1. Kirbysan's Avatar
    Simple solution to the HoO/optional boss problem - Dire Maul tribute runs. Have a chest spawn/final boss drop extra loot if optional boss is killed.
  1. pixel's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ScottsdaleHokie View Post
    LOL, you do realize you're still going across the same wire right?
    And you, do you realize you're totally wrong ?

    The IPv6 backbones are different than the IPv4 backbones currently, as the IPv4 backbone isn't going to support IPv6 yet. So the route the IPv6 packets are taking is going to be totally different than your IPv4 traffic for the time being. That WILL become the same thing, eventually, but not in the immediate future. So, at the beginning, your IPv6 packets are going to be on a route that's less overloaded than then normal IPv4 traffic.

    I hate it when people think of the internet as being a single "Wire", as if you were physically connected directly to the datacenter you're trying to reach. Try getting the big picture, folks. All's not that easy and simple.


    Moreover, routers have a default QoS that specifies that IPv6 traffic has more priority over IPv4 traffic.
  1. draticus's Avatar
    I doubt anyone's bottleneck is beyond the network of their bottom level ISP. And I would guess most IPv6 traffic would be encapsulated over IPv4 at that point still wouldn't it? If you're tunneling then you might see more of a latency loss from overhead than you gain from the stretch of Ipv6 internet. Of course if your local ISP does already support IPv6 then you should see a speed increase in the short term, until everyone else switches over
  1. anyaka21's Avatar
    I'm not sure I agree that this will help dungeon queueing. I think that since they are capping Valor Points, it's just going to leave people not doing them. There won't be a point and no reward. Most of a raiding toons points will come from raiding, as thus, running a 5 man will be pointless. Maybe some of the 4.1's for the mounts, but after that, it's not a chance in hell.

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