Council of Elders Preview, PTR Class Balance, Weekend LFR Testing, Blue Posts

Meta-gems and Trinkets

• All of the PvE Legendary meta-gems, the Unerring Vision of Lei-Shen and Rune of Re-Origination now have a reduced chance to proc against players. We're not crazy about hidden penalties like this, but we don't want PvP players to feel obligated to pursue these raid items in order to stay competitive.

Do the spirits from the DK 2-piece DPS set "snapshot" your stats like the Ghoul do upon summoning?
Neither the 2T15 Zandalari or your Ghoul “shapshot” stats (and hasn’t since 5.0).

GC, when dealing with the Rune [of Re-Origination] trinkets, will the only difference be between the three trinkets be the agility on the three or will there be a further adjustment of stat allocation.
The proc frequency changes based on the ilvl of the trinket:

541 ilevel = 112.88% proc multiplier
535 ilevel = 106.74% proc multiplier
528 ilevel = 100.00% proc multiplier
522 ilevel = 94.56% proc multiplier
502 ilevel = 78.49% proc multiplier
463 ilevel = 54.57% proc multiplier

This counts for both Unerring Vision and Rune of Re-Origination.

Are there any plans in 5.2 for changing or removing the ability to build up Tigereye Brew stacks before a pull and use them as a pre-pot? I grow tired of casting Spinning Fire Blossom.
Yes. The charges and buff are cleared upon beginning raid boss combat. Ultimately we'd like to remove the burden from players for any behavior like this, such as using Holy Shock to stack up 5 Holy Power prepull. We just have to be clever about it to distinguish between this annoying use and a legit use, such as pulling a boss quickly after trash, the way you might in Challenge Modes.

DPS Tuning

• We overshot the mark on DKs and hunters a little, and we think warriors need that Execute nerf after all. All of this may change tomorrow as we look at different situations, so don't overly freak out about anything.

Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

• The Symbiosis version of Dispersion is now 3 min.

Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

• Dismiss Pet now has a 3 sec cast time (up from 2 sec). This is to discourage swapping pets in the middle of PvP to get a different form of CC.
• Powershot now cancels Camo when the cast begins rather than the shot landing. Powershot is much more effective in 5.2 since it is so reliable now.
• Chimera Shot damage +25% (was +50%).
• Black Arrow and Explosive Shot damage +10% (was +15%).

Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

• Incanter's Ward can now be dispelled. We agree with the concerns that the 30% damage buff is a significant contributor to mage PvP burst and often one not recognized by the recipient of said burst.

Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

• Spear Hand Strike Silence has been reduced to 2 sec.

Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

• Might of the Frozen Wastes to 15% melee damage (down from 20%).
• Icy Talons increases attack speed by 25% (down from 30%).
• Blood Plague and Frost Fever damage +15% (down from +30%).
• Howling Blast damage to primary target +8% (down from +23%).
• Scourge Strike damage +3.8% (down from 7.7%).

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

• Execute damage -25%.

The first LFR wing (Last Stand of the Zandalari) is open for testing all weekend long. When sharing any feedback, please make sure to note how many stacks of Determination your group had when defeating a given boss. Thanks for testing!

So, anyone actually ventured out to the Isle of Giants with an organized raid group and taken a crack at him?

The ample feedback about the conceptual design is noted. As some posters noted, one of the major flaws with Galleon (the "rare" boss) was that he was far too easy, such that the main challenge with him is being there when he spawns and getting the initial tap on him. Oondasta is challenging, and he's pretty far out of the way (as opposed to Galleon, who is mere seconds away from Halfhill), so we think he'll be active for longer periods of time before a group takes him down. And we'll be keeping a close eye on how things like faction tapping, potential griefing, and related issues play out, and making adjustments as are warranted.

But I'd love to hear some discussion about the actual boss fight from people who have done it. You can even be immortalized in Blue-trackers everywhere if you manage to kill him.

Difficult Solo Content
However, it's a different story at max level. I would enjoy the occasional, challenging, max-level, multi-zone, elongated, epic lore, single-player quest.
I should point out that we agree that they're worthwhile occasionally, particularly when they're hooked up to a grandiose purpose. The upcoming Warlock quest for fel-green fire should present a significant challenge. The 5.2 leg of the legendary quest line should also present some nice challenges.

As for bringing loners together? I have a feeling that the Isle of Giants will prompt at least some erstwhile soloers to seek out groups for a bit of the 'ol ultra dino slaying. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

PvP Catch Up
How is this any different for PvE players who have to complete raids each week in order to remain competitive and at the top of the raiding scene?

You are far from forced to compete in PvP each week, however if you want to be at the very top of the competitive PvP scene, then it's definitely recommended. The same goes for PvE players, in order to obtain optimal gear for their raid members and as such remain competitive with other top guilds, they need to do their raids each week.

We are addressing the difficulties that players have with entering PvP mid-season in patch 5.3. When patch 5.3 is released the catch-up system will be implemented, which is designed to help out if you were not able to cap your arena points on a regular basis. The system for gearing is also being changed in patch 5.2 to try and assist with the issue of gear disparity in PvP. If you want to find out more about these changes, check out the following blogs:

• PvP Gear in 5.2 and Beyond
• Preparing for PvP In 5.2

Actually it is quite different. A lot of top-end raiding guilds raid a TON the first few weeks, then go on farm a little bit later, and then they might start doing alt-runs of boost-runs in the end but at that point there is no expectations that you show up if you don't want to.
In order for every player in a 25 player raid group to get their BiS gear, in an ideal situation where a each of the 6 items dropped by a boss were a BiS upgrade someone needed, PvE players need to kill 63 bosses in a 25 man raid. This is under ideal circumstances too, where everyone only needs one weapon and not a main-hand and off-hand as well as as well as the previously mentioned BiS drops situation, quite regularly drops will appear that have no use to anyone or go to an off-spec.

So all in all, if there are 13 bosses in Throne of Thunder, it will take a 25 man raid of the exact same players every week, 5 weeks of full clearing Heroic mode to gear perfectly under optimal conditions. Don't forget as well that Heroic mode is not easily accessible, or even easy to clear and as such takes some time to get on farm, so that number goes a LOT higher if you account for these reasons as well as those mentioned above. Ii is safe to assume that the time required for gearing a PvE character in BiS items would be about equal to the time needed to do the same for a PvP character.

Given all of this, to be saying that a PvE player doesn't need to clear content every week in order to remain competitive with other top players, is incorrect.

This isn't PvE vs PvP topic. I don't care if PvE players need to work more or less than I do but what I care about the insane gear imbalances atm. How fun is it to fight versus players who don't need to care about anything because they can't be killed and they kill you in matter of seconds?
I recommend that you take a look at my previous post in the thread that mentions how we are addressing gear disparity and mid-season catch-up issues players have in patch 5.2.

Besides, 5 weeks gearing in PvE against 4 months of gearing in PvP which is "minigame" in this game is a joke.
It will take you a lot longer to get fully geared in PvE than just five weeks. In PvP gear upgrades to BiS are assured simply by earning your points, whereas in PvE it is mostly about the luck of the drop, in which you can sometimes go weeks without an upgrade.

After the raid has been cleared by 1 guild in the world, what's there to compete about? Server firsts, what a joke. Most servers have 1-3 PvE guilds that "compete".
And on each server there are generally only a few teams that are competing to get rank one on the Battlegroup. There are many guilds out there that compete to simply climb in the world rankings, much like there are Arena Teams that compete every week pushing themselves to try and reach rank one.

The main difference between PvP competition and PvE competition is that PvP gearing happens at the start of the patch and the competition ends at its conclusion, for PvE players it is the competition and the race that comes first and the gearing that happens afterwards in preparation for the next tier.

With PvE, you get the kill and rewards every week. PvP doesn't have just that.
It kind of does, your cap resets each week allowing you beat more players in arena to get more Conquest points and as such, new gear.

Secondly, theoretically you can earn a reward from every boss if you are lucky enough. So gearing in raids is million times faster than for pvp where you have weekly cap.
However gearing and playing in a raid is not just about the individual. Sure, it's possible for one player to get fully geared out in a couple of runs, but what about everyone else? Their performance will be under par. Gearing an individual from a raid in PvE might be reasonably quick, but gearing an entire raid so they perform at an adequate level, isn't.

I am getting tired of people waving PvP problems away with the fallacy but in PvE you...
I am not dismissing it, I am simply stating that it's not required or forced upon you to participate in PvP every week. However if you are wanting to compete at the very top against all others in the game, no matter whether you PvE or PvP, it is definitely a bonus to participate and compete weekly in order to improve your character as much as possible. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Patch 5.2 Reputation Items
I've updated my previous posts as part of the information I posted wasn't completely accurate:

There won't be a Grand Commendation for the Shado-Pan Assault (that is the raid faction) on Patch 5.2, although there's currently one available on the PTR, which is a mistake.

Also, please note that the item level 496 rings from the Kirin Tor Offensive / Sunreavers Onslaught do cost Valor Points (only level 476 items cost gold). (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Soloing Old Raids
Then could they please "Hotfix" the whole of ICC25hc and Ulduar 25hc so it can be soloed too?
The changes the developers made were mostly on some TBC and Vanilla bosses. They didn't modify anything from Naxxramas (although you have 3 pets there). But just to make it clear, the intent they had at the time when making these changes wasn't to make all the raid content from WoW/TBC/Wrath soloable.

Just as an example, although it's TBC content, Rage Winterchill will still give you a run for your money if you are not careful avoiding Death & Decay (since it's % HP based) (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)