Build of the Month
Recent Blue Posts
Currency Conversions Coming with Patch 4.4.0 on 1 May
Currency Conversions Coming with Patch 4.4.0 on April 30
Recent Forum Posts
Currency Conversions Coming with Patch 4.4.0 on April 30
Information on Bul Kathos's Glory's Proc, Cafe Tristram, Blizzard NewsPatch 5.0.5 Hotfixes - September 12
Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 5.0.5. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below went live the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. We will continue to update this list in the days to come as additional hotfixes are applied.
General
Classes
Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Dungeons and Raids
General
- The Ethereal Soul-Trader pet is now immune to player abilities.
- We've made numerous fixes to the behavior of various systems in Cross-Realm Zones.
Classes
Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)- Dash again provides the intended speed bonus when reactivated after shifting out of and back into Cat Form.
- Feral stealth has been made more effective.
Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)- Camouflage should no longer be cancelled on the hunter when an effect causes it to be cancelled on the hunter's pet. Cancelling a hunter's Camouflage should always cancel it on the pet.
- It should no longer be possible to spell reflect Narrow Escape.
Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)- Combustion should no longer ignore target damage multipliers when calculating the damage of the Pyroblast DoT on the target.
Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)- Divine Purpose should only have one chance to activate once per finisher (which must land on at least one target).<
Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)- Lightwell charges are no longer consumed and wasted if a player rapidly clicks on the Lightwell.
Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)- Stealth has been made more effective.
Dungeons and Raids
- The Glory of the Cataclysm Hero meta achievement no longer improperly requires a Mists of Pandaria dungeon achievement.
- Karazhan
- The Chess encounter should once again proceed at its former, more leisurely pace.
- The Chess encounter should once again proceed at its former, more leisurely pace.
- The Eye
- Kael’thas Sunstrider’s Gravity Lapse should once again function properly.
- Kael’thas Sunstrider’s Gravity Lapse should once again function properly.
- The Ruby Sanctum
- Halion should no longer despawn shortly after entering combat.
- Halion should no longer despawn shortly after entering combat.
Patch 5.0.5 Build 16057
Patch 5.0.5 Build 16057 is headed our way at some point in the near future. It contains no significant changes, making it likely just bugfixes and changes that couldn't be hotfixed.
Mists of Pandaria Mage Class Guide
Our friends over at Fatboss made a nice long video guide to the different Mage talents, spells, and glyphs. Let them know if you liked it and want to see more!
Upcoming Developer Chat
If you were not able to get your questions answered during the Reddit Q&A, you will have another chance! The developers are doing another chat over at BestBuy on Tuesday, September 18th at 6 PM CST. This time the format will be a moderated text based chat.
Welcome Your Friends (Old and New) to Azeroth
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Challenge Mode Difficulty and Nerfs
Seriously blizzard, if CHALLENGE modes are ever nerfed to the point say like the cataclysm heroic dungeons were, what would be the point in calling them CHALLENGE mode runs?
That isn't the intention. Now, there could be times were a particular dungeon has a specific mechanic, pull, or encounter that is more difficult than we intended in all difficulties. In cases like that you may see us make adjustments to the dungeon across the board.
But, to be clear, our intent isn't to make Challenge Mode dungeons more accessible or easier over time. In part this is also why, as you acquire more powerful gear over the course of the expansion, it will be scaled down in this setting so that the challenge remains roughly equivalent from the start of the expansion to the end. We also don't allow matchmaking for them, as they're intended to be difficult for organized groups.
I can totally see you guys nerfing a previous set when a new set comes out however. Seems to be par the course. Nerf it when it's not current content.
The Challenge Mode dungeon structure is really closely bound up with the leaderboards we’re going to have. It isn’t really possible to “nerf” the content meaningfully without invalidating those leaderboards. It may be helpful to think of the Gold medal armor sets as analogous to Gladiator mounts. We may have a new “season” of Challenges, with new dungeons to race through, but that doesn’t mean that past seasons’ rewards will suddenly become more attainable.
Hey if challenge modes are cool and go well, will we get challenge raids like AQ40 and MC??? If so you guys should have challenge mode raid achievements for each raid and dungeon just basically saying you did em cause I think that would be cool and well worth my time to play.
If players really like Challenges and we see a lot of interest in the leaderboards, there's definitely the potential there for extending the system to raid content in some form. We've already seen a lot of interest in raid speed runs -- from our very own BlizzCon Live Raid to other events that fansites have hosted with streamed races between top guilds -- and it’s compelling to us. We'd love to explore formalizing that system!
Wouldn't it defeat the point of them? Normals for leveling, heroics for that initial gearing for T14 (and they are much easier than Cata's were on launch, I've tested them), and Challenge modes for those who want a challenge. I get it, some people can spend more time on and in WoW than others, but isn't it ok to have something like this for those who want to be challenged?
Not only that, a good, organized Challenge Mode group will likely find farming Valor in Challenge dungeons to be more efficient. They're not set on a lockout like Heroic dungeons are, and the bosses reward more Valor than on Heroic, plus there's a daily quest to complete a specific Challenge Mode dungeon each day for a Valor bonus.
Conversely, a player who doesn't readily have four friends online at regular intervals will probably find running Heroic Dungeon Finder to be more efficient for obtaining Valor. Challenge dungeons are at least on par with the most difficult Burning Crusade Heroics, and death will still cost ya.
Now, in this thread I've been sharing a lot of information I've learned from Ion Hazzikostas, an awesome man, so I just want to throw in my own copper (psst, I have more than two!).
I've never been more impressed with a World of Warcraft endgame design model than I am with Mists. I think the way various prestige, vanity, fun, diverse, and power-increasing progression systems are designed shows such a commitment to the creation of gameplay with broad appeal, while preserving the philosophy that prestige can be earned through a combination of effort and exceptional performance.
Did I just go full fanboy on our devs? I'm sorry.
You never go full fanboy. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
No Nerfs For Challenge Modes
If at all feasible, we're not going to be adjusting the content itself. Persistent leaderboards are the backbone of the system, and if we make the dungeon easier, then your 14:13 time last week might actually be more impressive than my 14:05 clear today, but there would be no way of knowing that. It's conceivable that we might adjust the actual Gold/Silver/Bronze cutoff times slightly if it turns out we were badly off the mark with the tuning, but we're pretty confident in our numbers.
As far as composition goes, I can't promise that every possible composition will be able to get Gold. (Apologies in advance to the prospective monk/monk/monk/monk/monk groups out there.) Every composition will be able to get Silver (subject to some fairly basic ground rules such as "you have a healer"), and every class should have multiple viable group makeups in which it can obtain Gold, assuming masterful play.
Can I do Temple of the Jade Serpent as many times as I want in challange mode per day? Or does it have a lock system?
You can run the same challenge mode dungeon as many times per day as you like.
It'll be a bit before we hear an answer on that one, as I suspect Watcher reacted to it with a "hmm, good question". I'm sure a dev somewhere has at least considered the question, but they might not have settled on their final answer yet.
We like the gameplay of adjusting talents to suit the situation. We don't like the gameplay of cycling through power cooldown talents to effectively benefit from an entire tier of choices simultaneously. Our plan is to allow the former while disallowing the latter.
Does this mean you have a workaround for the dreaded "You have entered too many instances recently" or will this be popping up during challenge modes?
I am specifically thinking of running in engaging boss 1, failing somehow and resetting. Rinse and repeat that 5x on the current system (Assuming reseting a challenge mode works like resetting a normal instance) and you'll be locked out for an hour minus however long it took you to wipe those 5x.
Challenge modes have a special reset system. The party leader can instantly reset a challenge run from inside the instance via a menu dropdown from his or her unitframe. The group gets ported back to the entrance, and everything in the instance reverts to its original state. There's no limit on how often you can do that. You may still want to finish a somewhat botched run though, if you aren't capped on Valor for the week, since each completed run will award Valor.
What's the word on profession items and weird items such as Nifty Stopwatch, Potions of Speed, Swift Boots, Rocket Boots, netherweave nets, flasks, food and other "creative items"
There are no restrictions on items or consumables. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Beta Class Balance Analysis
Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Currently by taking "Glyph of Shred", when Tiger's Fury or Berserk is active, "Shred" is replaced by "Shred!" There are a few errors (exists on both Live and Beta).
Fixed.
Druid / Rogue
Just wondering GC, have you found out why stealth level was reduced yet?
No, we're not sure how it happened, but it was indeed lowered so we raised it back up for rogue and Feral druids, restoring the same effectiveness they had in 4.3.
Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
How is this not counter your often-stated goal of increasing the clarity of game mechanics to new players? I know I'd be confused if my DS magically hit harder when I switched specs, just like I was when CS magically changed its cooldown when I first specced my paladin Prot last expansion.
I sympathize with what you're saying, but it takes a fairly sophisticated player (and certainly not a new one) to notice that Death Strike is or is not doing 308% weapon damage + 2079. Put another way, the tooltips have never been as remotely accurate as they are in 5.0. In previous expansions they often out and out lied because the damage was affected by so many considerations that the tooltips weren't sophisticated enough to catch. Spell tooltips are pretty smart now, smarter than ever anyway, but they still have limitations. We try to get them as accurate as possible, but there are plenty of situations when that is not the case.
It's hitting for 280% in blood. The tooltip is just wrong, they forgot to reduce it to 200% in the tooltip before adding the 1.4x modifier for blood. They just added the 1.4x modifier, and left it the same according to the tooltip. It still doing 280% + whatever.
This is likely the case. We have to manually build tooltips a lot these days and the tooltip may not have been updated, but the damage was. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
PvP Power and Resilience Effects on Gear Strength
PvP power and resilience is an undeniably great stat for PvP and you will definately be wanting more of it. If you would like to know more about how PvP power/resilience works in MoP, Vanguards guide is a great read, although very long and complex. You can find it here: http://www.arenajunkies.com/news/525...ilience-guide/
i wouldn't worry, for pvp, pvp gear is now the best gear you can wear, if you wear pve gear you'll do less damage and take far more This is very true. In the above guide if you check some of the graphs, you will see the large disparity between the damage done with and without the PvP stats.
Pvp power and pvp defense doesnt work on like outside of sw while you duel other people??
Whenever you are attacking another player, PvP power will boost your damage done. Whereas PvP power only increases your healing done if you are not in a dungeon or raid. So in duels and world PvP, PvP gear will be better (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Seriously blizzard, if CHALLENGE modes are ever nerfed to the point say like the cataclysm heroic dungeons were, what would be the point in calling them CHALLENGE mode runs?
That isn't the intention. Now, there could be times were a particular dungeon has a specific mechanic, pull, or encounter that is more difficult than we intended in all difficulties. In cases like that you may see us make adjustments to the dungeon across the board.
But, to be clear, our intent isn't to make Challenge Mode dungeons more accessible or easier over time. In part this is also why, as you acquire more powerful gear over the course of the expansion, it will be scaled down in this setting so that the challenge remains roughly equivalent from the start of the expansion to the end. We also don't allow matchmaking for them, as they're intended to be difficult for organized groups.
I can totally see you guys nerfing a previous set when a new set comes out however. Seems to be par the course. Nerf it when it's not current content.
The Challenge Mode dungeon structure is really closely bound up with the leaderboards we’re going to have. It isn’t really possible to “nerf” the content meaningfully without invalidating those leaderboards. It may be helpful to think of the Gold medal armor sets as analogous to Gladiator mounts. We may have a new “season” of Challenges, with new dungeons to race through, but that doesn’t mean that past seasons’ rewards will suddenly become more attainable.
Hey if challenge modes are cool and go well, will we get challenge raids like AQ40 and MC??? If so you guys should have challenge mode raid achievements for each raid and dungeon just basically saying you did em cause I think that would be cool and well worth my time to play.
If players really like Challenges and we see a lot of interest in the leaderboards, there's definitely the potential there for extending the system to raid content in some form. We've already seen a lot of interest in raid speed runs -- from our very own BlizzCon Live Raid to other events that fansites have hosted with streamed races between top guilds -- and it’s compelling to us. We'd love to explore formalizing that system!
Wouldn't it defeat the point of them? Normals for leveling, heroics for that initial gearing for T14 (and they are much easier than Cata's were on launch, I've tested them), and Challenge modes for those who want a challenge. I get it, some people can spend more time on and in WoW than others, but isn't it ok to have something like this for those who want to be challenged?
Not only that, a good, organized Challenge Mode group will likely find farming Valor in Challenge dungeons to be more efficient. They're not set on a lockout like Heroic dungeons are, and the bosses reward more Valor than on Heroic, plus there's a daily quest to complete a specific Challenge Mode dungeon each day for a Valor bonus.
Conversely, a player who doesn't readily have four friends online at regular intervals will probably find running Heroic Dungeon Finder to be more efficient for obtaining Valor. Challenge dungeons are at least on par with the most difficult Burning Crusade Heroics, and death will still cost ya.
Now, in this thread I've been sharing a lot of information I've learned from Ion Hazzikostas, an awesome man, so I just want to throw in my own copper (psst, I have more than two!).
I've never been more impressed with a World of Warcraft endgame design model than I am with Mists. I think the way various prestige, vanity, fun, diverse, and power-increasing progression systems are designed shows such a commitment to the creation of gameplay with broad appeal, while preserving the philosophy that prestige can be earned through a combination of effort and exceptional performance.
Did I just go full fanboy on our devs? I'm sorry.
You never go full fanboy. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
No Nerfs For Challenge Modes
If at all feasible, we're not going to be adjusting the content itself. Persistent leaderboards are the backbone of the system, and if we make the dungeon easier, then your 14:13 time last week might actually be more impressive than my 14:05 clear today, but there would be no way of knowing that. It's conceivable that we might adjust the actual Gold/Silver/Bronze cutoff times slightly if it turns out we were badly off the mark with the tuning, but we're pretty confident in our numbers.
As far as composition goes, I can't promise that every possible composition will be able to get Gold. (Apologies in advance to the prospective monk/monk/monk/monk/monk groups out there.) Every composition will be able to get Silver (subject to some fairly basic ground rules such as "you have a healer"), and every class should have multiple viable group makeups in which it can obtain Gold, assuming masterful play.
Can I do Temple of the Jade Serpent as many times as I want in challange mode per day? Or does it have a lock system?
You can run the same challenge mode dungeon as many times per day as you like.
It'll be a bit before we hear an answer on that one, as I suspect Watcher reacted to it with a "hmm, good question". I'm sure a dev somewhere has at least considered the question, but they might not have settled on their final answer yet.
We like the gameplay of adjusting talents to suit the situation. We don't like the gameplay of cycling through power cooldown talents to effectively benefit from an entire tier of choices simultaneously. Our plan is to allow the former while disallowing the latter.
Does this mean you have a workaround for the dreaded "You have entered too many instances recently" or will this be popping up during challenge modes?
I am specifically thinking of running in engaging boss 1, failing somehow and resetting. Rinse and repeat that 5x on the current system (Assuming reseting a challenge mode works like resetting a normal instance) and you'll be locked out for an hour minus however long it took you to wipe those 5x.
Challenge modes have a special reset system. The party leader can instantly reset a challenge run from inside the instance via a menu dropdown from his or her unitframe. The group gets ported back to the entrance, and everything in the instance reverts to its original state. There's no limit on how often you can do that. You may still want to finish a somewhat botched run though, if you aren't capped on Valor for the week, since each completed run will award Valor.
What's the word on profession items and weird items such as Nifty Stopwatch, Potions of Speed, Swift Boots, Rocket Boots, netherweave nets, flasks, food and other "creative items"
There are no restrictions on items or consumables. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Beta Class Balance Analysis
Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Currently by taking "Glyph of Shred", when Tiger's Fury or Berserk is active, "Shred" is replaced by "Shred!" There are a few errors (exists on both Live and Beta).
Fixed.
Druid / RogueJust wondering GC, have you found out why stealth level was reduced yet?
No, we're not sure how it happened, but it was indeed lowered so we raised it back up for rogue and Feral druids, restoring the same effectiveness they had in 4.3.
Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)How is this not counter your often-stated goal of increasing the clarity of game mechanics to new players? I know I'd be confused if my DS magically hit harder when I switched specs, just like I was when CS magically changed its cooldown when I first specced my paladin Prot last expansion.
I sympathize with what you're saying, but it takes a fairly sophisticated player (and certainly not a new one) to notice that Death Strike is or is not doing 308% weapon damage + 2079. Put another way, the tooltips have never been as remotely accurate as they are in 5.0. In previous expansions they often out and out lied because the damage was affected by so many considerations that the tooltips weren't sophisticated enough to catch. Spell tooltips are pretty smart now, smarter than ever anyway, but they still have limitations. We try to get them as accurate as possible, but there are plenty of situations when that is not the case.
It's hitting for 280% in blood. The tooltip is just wrong, they forgot to reduce it to 200% in the tooltip before adding the 1.4x modifier for blood. They just added the 1.4x modifier, and left it the same according to the tooltip. It still doing 280% + whatever.
This is likely the case. We have to manually build tooltips a lot these days and the tooltip may not have been updated, but the damage was. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
PvP Power and Resilience Effects on Gear Strength
PvP power and resilience is an undeniably great stat for PvP and you will definately be wanting more of it. If you would like to know more about how PvP power/resilience works in MoP, Vanguards guide is a great read, although very long and complex. You can find it here: http://www.arenajunkies.com/news/525...ilience-guide/
i wouldn't worry, for pvp, pvp gear is now the best gear you can wear, if you wear pve gear you'll do less damage and take far more This is very true. In the above guide if you check some of the graphs, you will see the large disparity between the damage done with and without the PvP stats.
Pvp power and pvp defense doesnt work on like outside of sw while you duel other people??
Whenever you are attacking another player, PvP power will boost your damage done. Whereas PvP power only increases your healing done if you are not in a dungeon or raid. So in duels and world PvP, PvP gear will be better (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Curse is Hiring! - Senior .NET Web Developer
Due to continuing growth, Curse is looking to fill another position in the near future! If you're looking for a chance to get into the industry, this may be the opportunity you've been seeking.
Senior .NET Web Developer
- Interested in working on some of the most popular .NET-based sites in the world? Curse.com, WowStead.com and DarthHater.com are just a few of our cutting edge .NET sites you’ll be working on as a Senior .NET Web Developer. In this role, you’ll rely on significant experience in web application development to create cutting edge web properties.
- Please note, this is not an entry level position, and requires prior professional experience as a .NET developer.
- Location: Huntsville (On site only)
For more information on working at Curse, please head to our Jobs page.
Blizzard Games News
Mists of Pandaria beta is ending very soon, top arena players that win-traded might lose their spot in future tournaments, Starcraft Europeon finals are right around the corner, and Diablo 3 changes up the crowd control in this week's Blizzard News.
Site Navigation
vBulletin Message