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Has WoW removed the speed limits?
Are we approaching a Solo Raid WoW Experience?
Patch 1.0.5 on Live Servers Tomorrow (Recap)Heroic Will of the Emperor 25 Man Video
Blood Legion released their video of the Heroic Will of the Emperor 25 Man Heroic fight. There are now 14 guilds that have defeated all 6 bosses, 12 of them in 25 man and two in 10 man. The other 10 man guild is Интервенция. The next set of normal raids open in two weeks on October 30.
Patch 5.1 PvP Announcer Audio
Patch 5.1 is adding voice announcements for Battlegrounds and Arenas.
Patch 5.1 Factions
Patch 5.1 brings us a few new factions. All are associated with the Horde/Alliance forces landing in Pandaria or the Brawler's Guild, except for Akama's Trust.
Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
- Brawl'gar Arena - The warchief has gathered creatures from all over Azeroth and Outland to participate in bloody arena deathmatches with heroes of the Horde.
- Dominance Offensive - Horde forces in Pandaria, stationed at Domination Point in Krasarang Wilds.
- Operation: Shieldwall - Alliance forces in Pandaria, stationed at Lion's Landing in Krasarang Wilds.
- Akama's Trust - Akama is distrustful of Warlocks after witnessing Illidan's fall to his own corruption, followed by the ransacking of the Black Temple by Warlocks after the Cataclysm.
- Bizmo's Brawlpub - A group of battle-hungry fighters has gathered creatures from all over Azeroth and Outland to participate in bloody arena deathmatches with heroes of the Alliance.
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Windsong and Elemental Force Information
But now can you explain why Black Magic still procs from just targeting enemies?
This isn't really related to this topic, but we'll look into it.
Is it intended that these enchants can be better than the Sha Crystal equivalents, ie: Jade Spirit?
It's intended that they're very viable enchants, but the top tier (Sha Crystal) enchants should usually win, on average. But there may be exceptions in certain situations.
Thanks for the info Daxx, but could you clarify a little more on Windsong - is it 2RPPM PER effect (haste proc, Crit Proc, Mastery Proc) - thus essentially 6RPPM among the 3 different buffs it can proc, or 2RPPM to get A proc at random?
Windsong is 2 RPPM total and the buff applied is totally random. Each time it procs, you randomly get 1 of 3 buffs.
How does this apply to Guardians and Ferals?
The same way it applies to everyone else. Swing speed is not a factor in this proc mechanic.
As a dual wielding melee, I would frequently see double and sometimes even a triple proc of Windsong rolling at once, if only for a few brief seconds. And even outside of getting double procs, it was up quite often. Does this new proc design for Windsong mean I'm going to see a decrease in procs, and thus a decrease in stacked up procs?
It should proc roughly as frequently as it did before for a rogue, and this change has no impact on its ability to stack. It is fully intended that Windsong’s 3 different buffs can stack with each other, but each is a result of a separate proc event.
My only question about the "Real PPM" is if the new system ONLY applies to...
This new proc mechanic is only used for Windsong and Elemental Force currently. Depending on how it works, we may use it for more procs going forward, but are unlikely to apply it to previous procs. We chose to apply it to Windsong and Elemental Force because their existing proc mechanic was problematic and significantly underperforming for a many of its intended users, so the change was almost universally a buff.
Windsong procs on my Recuperate tics and breaks me out of stealth. Quite troublesome in PVE and PVP situations.
This sounds like a bug. We'll investigate and fix if necessary. These sort of procs should not break stealth.
So what you are saying is that we are penalized if our class does not favor haste over mastery and crit? How is this in any way a good idea?
No, we're saying that one of haste's benefits is giving you more procs, which has always been the case, and we wanted to preserve that.
So after 10 seconds, it takes Around 3-4 swings, Ticks, casts, etc should proc it, baring any RNG God Hate. Since The buff is 12 Seconds, its close to 100% uptime?
I think you're misreading 'time since the last chance to proc' as 'time since the last proc'. That's a very important distinction.
How does this interact with swapping weapons with different enchants? I'd hope TSLP is reset on weapon swap, so that weapon swapping is not promoted.
Equipping a weapon resets the time since the last chance to proc in this case, so a weapon swap does not gain you additional procs.
The question for comes up for dual wielders with it on both weapons. Does it count each weapon's enchant only for attacks made with that weapon or does having it on both weapons cause every attack to reset the counter?
Both weapons' attacks can proc both enchants. You can think of dual wielding Windsong enchanted weapons as having a second chance (at the same proc chance) at each damage event. And yes, both can proc from the same event; you could indeed have two Windsong procs from one attack.
By haste, do you guys mean haste rating, total haste effects, or attack speed?
Ah, that’s a good thing to clarify. Thanks for bringing that up. In this case, it refers to the highest of your casting speed multiplier, or your attack speed multiplier. So, haste rating, increased attack speed effects (such as the attack speed raid buff), pure haste (such as Heroism or Bloodlust), or even Mind-Numbing Poison will all affect it.
Also, a minor clarification from the original post:
Windsong is now a useful enchant for all classes and specs
*Except Hunters, since they use scopes instead of weapon enchants. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Mogu'shan Vaults LFR Part 2
470 minimum i-lvl?
The second half of Mogu'shan Vaults is the same as the first half. The required item level players must have is 460.
Once Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Spring open up, they will have a required item level of 470, with both raid dungeons dropping improved gear. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Cross-Realm Zones Feedback
If you find a persistent group of players giving you trouble, there should be a few friendly level 90 players of your own faction willing to help out.
With respect, how is that a reliable plan A?
With equal respect, I'd say it's at the very least plan B. Plan A is when you select a PvP realm to level on in the first place, knowing full-well that members of the opposing faction will be able to attack you at any point, but being okay with that (else, why would you make a character there?).
It was purely my suggestion on how to combat gankers. Another idea might be to call in some friends or guild members, or go make a cup of tea and leave them to get bored. Maybe go and log your main, come back and dish out some revenge? These are all tactics that have been around forever on how to deal with gankers. I realise it's frustrating, I've been there myself many a time, but I knew what I was getting into when I rolled there. Some people love the danger of levelling on a PvP server. If it's not for you, there are plenty of alternative options.
I want to stress that I'm not dismissing your thoughts on this at all, I'm just getting into the conversation as a player myself. We do want to hear your continued feedback. But please be aware that ganking, having to wait for mobs to spawn and sharing mineral nodes are all things that figure into an MMO, and they've been factors to consider in WoW from the start. Obviously, having said that, we are of course monitoring the situation and will keep you posted if we decide to tweak anything further. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Bag space issue
Wow, really impressed with some of these ideas! I still see people suggesting bigger banks and bags though. That's only going to resolve the problem for a little while. We'd be back in exactly the same position once everyone got used to the extra space, which is kinda what's happening each time bigger bags are introduced.
But yeah, loving some of the things you're all coming up with! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Warrior and Hunter Changes
There have already been a number of changes made and issues fixed with hunters and warriors. Hunters have had a couple of bug fixes, a nerf and some other changes happen to their class, this should tone down their burst and healing done through Spirit Mend from Stampede. Warriors have had their Charge and Warbringer stuns changed so that they now correctly apply diminishing returns which should help with lowering their ability to lock down a target in stuns.
We are watching to see how these and other hotfixes will play out on the live realms and hope to see a positive effect from them. There are also several changes that we want to test out on the PTR, but they may be deployed earlier than patch 5.1. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Garajal Heroic Adds
Doesn't matter wether or not its doable, rather how much harder it is compared to 25 man, yet again, speaking through numbers. The adds in the spirit totem has about 200k health more than the 10 man ones, and spawn as much as on 10 man, only that already is enough to say that 10 man is overtuned seeing as the mobs health isnt even duplicated.
Adds on 10-man heroic spawn at a slower rate than 25-man normal.
On 10-man, however, when several Shadowy Minions are active, there's more potential for busrt damage from then than on 25-man. That's something the devs are evaluating and may adjust. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
But now can you explain why Black Magic still procs from just targeting enemies?
This isn't really related to this topic, but we'll look into it.
Is it intended that these enchants can be better than the Sha Crystal equivalents, ie: Jade Spirit?
It's intended that they're very viable enchants, but the top tier (Sha Crystal) enchants should usually win, on average. But there may be exceptions in certain situations.
Thanks for the info Daxx, but could you clarify a little more on Windsong - is it 2RPPM PER effect (haste proc, Crit Proc, Mastery Proc) - thus essentially 6RPPM among the 3 different buffs it can proc, or 2RPPM to get A proc at random?
Windsong is 2 RPPM total and the buff applied is totally random. Each time it procs, you randomly get 1 of 3 buffs.
How does this apply to Guardians and Ferals?
The same way it applies to everyone else. Swing speed is not a factor in this proc mechanic.
As a dual wielding melee, I would frequently see double and sometimes even a triple proc of Windsong rolling at once, if only for a few brief seconds. And even outside of getting double procs, it was up quite often. Does this new proc design for Windsong mean I'm going to see a decrease in procs, and thus a decrease in stacked up procs?
It should proc roughly as frequently as it did before for a rogue, and this change has no impact on its ability to stack. It is fully intended that Windsong’s 3 different buffs can stack with each other, but each is a result of a separate proc event.
My only question about the "Real PPM" is if the new system ONLY applies to...
This new proc mechanic is only used for Windsong and Elemental Force currently. Depending on how it works, we may use it for more procs going forward, but are unlikely to apply it to previous procs. We chose to apply it to Windsong and Elemental Force because their existing proc mechanic was problematic and significantly underperforming for a many of its intended users, so the change was almost universally a buff.
Windsong procs on my Recuperate tics and breaks me out of stealth. Quite troublesome in PVE and PVP situations.
This sounds like a bug. We'll investigate and fix if necessary. These sort of procs should not break stealth.
So what you are saying is that we are penalized if our class does not favor haste over mastery and crit? How is this in any way a good idea?
No, we're saying that one of haste's benefits is giving you more procs, which has always been the case, and we wanted to preserve that.
So after 10 seconds, it takes Around 3-4 swings, Ticks, casts, etc should proc it, baring any RNG God Hate. Since The buff is 12 Seconds, its close to 100% uptime?
I think you're misreading 'time since the last chance to proc' as 'time since the last proc'. That's a very important distinction.
How does this interact with swapping weapons with different enchants? I'd hope TSLP is reset on weapon swap, so that weapon swapping is not promoted.
Equipping a weapon resets the time since the last chance to proc in this case, so a weapon swap does not gain you additional procs.
The question for comes up for dual wielders with it on both weapons. Does it count each weapon's enchant only for attacks made with that weapon or does having it on both weapons cause every attack to reset the counter?
Both weapons' attacks can proc both enchants. You can think of dual wielding Windsong enchanted weapons as having a second chance (at the same proc chance) at each damage event. And yes, both can proc from the same event; you could indeed have two Windsong procs from one attack.
By haste, do you guys mean haste rating, total haste effects, or attack speed?
Ah, that’s a good thing to clarify. Thanks for bringing that up. In this case, it refers to the highest of your casting speed multiplier, or your attack speed multiplier. So, haste rating, increased attack speed effects (such as the attack speed raid buff), pure haste (such as Heroism or Bloodlust), or even Mind-Numbing Poison will all affect it.
Also, a minor clarification from the original post:
Windsong is now a useful enchant for all classes and specs
*Except Hunters, since they use scopes instead of weapon enchants. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Mogu'shan Vaults LFR Part 2
470 minimum i-lvl?
The second half of Mogu'shan Vaults is the same as the first half. The required item level players must have is 460.
Once Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Spring open up, they will have a required item level of 470, with both raid dungeons dropping improved gear. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Cross-Realm Zones Feedback
If you find a persistent group of players giving you trouble, there should be a few friendly level 90 players of your own faction willing to help out.
With respect, how is that a reliable plan A?
With equal respect, I'd say it's at the very least plan B. Plan A is when you select a PvP realm to level on in the first place, knowing full-well that members of the opposing faction will be able to attack you at any point, but being okay with that (else, why would you make a character there?).
It was purely my suggestion on how to combat gankers. Another idea might be to call in some friends or guild members, or go make a cup of tea and leave them to get bored. Maybe go and log your main, come back and dish out some revenge? These are all tactics that have been around forever on how to deal with gankers. I realise it's frustrating, I've been there myself many a time, but I knew what I was getting into when I rolled there. Some people love the danger of levelling on a PvP server. If it's not for you, there are plenty of alternative options.
I want to stress that I'm not dismissing your thoughts on this at all, I'm just getting into the conversation as a player myself. We do want to hear your continued feedback. But please be aware that ganking, having to wait for mobs to spawn and sharing mineral nodes are all things that figure into an MMO, and they've been factors to consider in WoW from the start. Obviously, having said that, we are of course monitoring the situation and will keep you posted if we decide to tweak anything further. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Bag space issue
Wow, really impressed with some of these ideas! I still see people suggesting bigger banks and bags though. That's only going to resolve the problem for a little while. We'd be back in exactly the same position once everyone got used to the extra space, which is kinda what's happening each time bigger bags are introduced.
But yeah, loving some of the things you're all coming up with! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Warrior and Hunter Changes
There have already been a number of changes made and issues fixed with hunters and warriors. Hunters have had a couple of bug fixes, a nerf and some other changes happen to their class, this should tone down their burst and healing done through Spirit Mend from Stampede. Warriors have had their Charge and Warbringer stuns changed so that they now correctly apply diminishing returns which should help with lowering their ability to lock down a target in stuns.
We are watching to see how these and other hotfixes will play out on the live realms and hope to see a positive effect from them. There are also several changes that we want to test out on the PTR, but they may be deployed earlier than patch 5.1. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Garajal Heroic Adds
Doesn't matter wether or not its doable, rather how much harder it is compared to 25 man, yet again, speaking through numbers. The adds in the spirit totem has about 200k health more than the 10 man ones, and spawn as much as on 10 man, only that already is enough to say that 10 man is overtuned seeing as the mobs health isnt even duplicated.
Adds on 10-man heroic spawn at a slower rate than 25-man normal.
On 10-man, however, when several Shadowy Minions are active, there's more potential for busrt damage from then than on 25-man. That's something the devs are evaluating and may adjust. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Patch 5.1
Does the Brawler's Guild allow non-level 90?
Pretty sure it is for 90s.
PvE
What if you never do normal 5 mans and you need gear for heroics?
Gearing for heroics: Dread Waste blues, JP or HP items, crafted blues, scen items (esp Arena). We also lowered required ilevel.
Is racing to tag the 'Sha of Anger' the intended way of doing the encounter? It just feels so.. frustrating.
We've made many Sha changes lately to help. Competition: good. Competition over who spams AE for a first tap: less good.
Wouldn't this be the same as Galleon. Doesn't seem like World Bosses are fulfilling their role all that well.
Galleon is targeted more at organized groups. Sha of Anger is more for everyone, sort of like Archavon. Sort of.
Do away with tagging entirely, give loot rights to anyone contributing. World bosses should promote cooperation, not griefing.
Quest bosses do let you contribute. We want world bosses to be competitive though - that's what makes them not pinatas.
Mob tagging on regular mobs feels outdated in MMO design and makes players hate other players.
Agree, but the counterpoint is that zerging every mob in a zone doesn't feel very heroic either. The group tap mobs evaporate.
Why is LFR the best way to get valor points? 45 for the clear + the bosses beats out even doing them on normal/heroic
I have seen very few raiders have trouble capping valor for the week.
Will valor rewards be tied to rep grinds in future patches? It doesn't seem very optional for raiders, and isn't fun for many.
Raiders run out of Valor purchases quickly and other players are probably progressing at a much slower pace than you expect.
Running dungeons as a windwalker I swear LFD puts me with a rogue every time. Didn't it use to look outside your armor class?
It tries to, but we emphasize faster queues over perfect groups (esp when queues aren't so fast). Many monks right now.
I hear 90s can't queue for normal 5mans. Pity, because that's what I used to learn a new spec that was tank or healer
Players only tended to run the normals once or twice though. The heroics are pretty forgiving.
Was there something prohibitive with the feature in Cata? Because 85s in Cata could queue for normals....
It would have been nice for 90s to be able to queue for Mogu'shan. Wish we had done that.
Scenarios appear to be the best idea you guys have ever had. So great for quick playing, also tons of fun to chain queue.
They work well for DPS because you can queue for dungeons and hopefully it will be ready by the time the scenario is done.
Have you guys considered replacing the Holiday dungeon bosses and some of the outdated events with Scenarios?
That's a great idea! Have only scratched surface of what scenarios can do - will do more with them in future.
Scenarios in Mists use only 3 players, but the tech is capable of more. We will definitely experiment. 40-player missions? It's possible!
Does the Brawler's Guild allow non-level 90?
Pretty sure it is for 90s.
PvE
What if you never do normal 5 mans and you need gear for heroics?
Gearing for heroics: Dread Waste blues, JP or HP items, crafted blues, scen items (esp Arena). We also lowered required ilevel.
Is racing to tag the 'Sha of Anger' the intended way of doing the encounter? It just feels so.. frustrating.
We've made many Sha changes lately to help. Competition: good. Competition over who spams AE for a first tap: less good.
Wouldn't this be the same as Galleon. Doesn't seem like World Bosses are fulfilling their role all that well.
Galleon is targeted more at organized groups. Sha of Anger is more for everyone, sort of like Archavon. Sort of.
Do away with tagging entirely, give loot rights to anyone contributing. World bosses should promote cooperation, not griefing.
Quest bosses do let you contribute. We want world bosses to be competitive though - that's what makes them not pinatas.
Mob tagging on regular mobs feels outdated in MMO design and makes players hate other players.
Agree, but the counterpoint is that zerging every mob in a zone doesn't feel very heroic either. The group tap mobs evaporate.
Why is LFR the best way to get valor points? 45 for the clear + the bosses beats out even doing them on normal/heroic
I have seen very few raiders have trouble capping valor for the week.
Will valor rewards be tied to rep grinds in future patches? It doesn't seem very optional for raiders, and isn't fun for many.
Raiders run out of Valor purchases quickly and other players are probably progressing at a much slower pace than you expect.
Running dungeons as a windwalker I swear LFD puts me with a rogue every time. Didn't it use to look outside your armor class?
It tries to, but we emphasize faster queues over perfect groups (esp when queues aren't so fast). Many monks right now.
I hear 90s can't queue for normal 5mans. Pity, because that's what I used to learn a new spec that was tank or healer
Players only tended to run the normals once or twice though. The heroics are pretty forgiving.
Was there something prohibitive with the feature in Cata? Because 85s in Cata could queue for normals....
It would have been nice for 90s to be able to queue for Mogu'shan. Wish we had done that.
Scenarios appear to be the best idea you guys have ever had. So great for quick playing, also tons of fun to chain queue.
They work well for DPS because you can queue for dungeons and hopefully it will be ready by the time the scenario is done.
Have you guys considered replacing the Holiday dungeon bosses and some of the outdated events with Scenarios?
That's a great idea! Have only scratched surface of what scenarios can do - will do more with them in future.
Scenarios in Mists use only 3 players, but the tech is capable of more. We will definitely experiment. 40-player missions? It's possible!
TCG Art Update
Blizzard has updated the Trading Card Game art gallery to feature ten new pieces.
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