Should Blizzard Announce Features Well in Advance?, Blue Posts, What Inspired Your Diablo 3 Character Name?, Curse Weekly Roundup

Isle of Thunder US - ~80-90% Unlocked (Stage 1) - US realms are no longer all unlocking at the same rate

Patch 5.2 Dev Interviews
Today we continue our interviews recap with an interview with Tom Chilton by Blizzplanet!

Blizzplanet
  • Ghostcrawler's unannounced feature might be in Patch 5.4 if it is complete in time. As far as a hint goes, "A lot of players have suggested that they be able to do older content, so it is something along those lines".
  • If Mists of Pandaria could be done over, there isn't much that would be changed, other than how mandatory daily quests felt.
  • Hopefully this is as slow as new content will ever be delivered from now on!
  • Part of the team has been split off to work on the odd number patches, Patch 5.1, 5.3, and maybe even Patch 5.5!
  • The rest of the team works on the even numbed patches with raids, Patch 5.0, 5.2, and Patch 5.4.
  • The team working on WoW has also been enlarged, and is now bigger than ever before. The team size will be increased as time goes on.
  • The tech used for Sunsong Ranch moves the tech closer to the possibility of player housing, but defining what it is, why it would be cool, and how it would work is still not there yet.
  • The changes made to the Patch 5.0 raid failbags were smaller, but should be more significant with the Patch 5.2 bonus roll improvements. Even when you don't win loot, you should have a chance to win something cool like old mounts or things that were used to incentivize tanks in dungeon finder. Another option mentioned for bonus rolls or failbags is some Valor Points or increased amount of gold.
  • Challenge modes are still working out well, but it isn't expected that most players will take part due to the difficulty. There aren't any major changes planned and the feature will continue to be used in the future.
  • Thunderforged items are less about getting 10 man raid groups to switch to 25 man than they are about rewarding 25 man groups for the increased complexity.


Thunderforged Items Drop Rate
WoWProgress took a look at the gear worn by guilds that have killed Jin'rokh the Breaker and found that there is roughly a 10% drop chance in 10 man and 25% drop chance in 25 man.

Congratulations to Rehabilitation Clinic and Exodus for finishing up Lei Shen first last week. Good luck to everyone this week!



Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
10 Player Raids and Tier Tokens
Then on top of that I found out about the t15 token changes, where it isn't a guaranteed drop in 10 man anymore, 0-2 tokens can drop, and in 25 2-4 tokens can drop. Which puts double RNG into tier, making it especially bad for 10 man cause they can continuously get zero tier. On top of that 10 man is tuned much tighter then 25. 1 Person messes up your likely to wipe unless you really outgear the content. It seems blizzard is trying to completely revive 25 mans and put 10 mans in its grave..
Having 0 tier tokens drop for 10 person raid groups was unintended. We're currently looking to address this in a coming hotfix similar to the one that had been implemented for 25 person raid groups.

From Patch 5.2 Hotfixes - March 7:
- The appropriate number of tier tokens should now drop for 25-player normal and heroic difficulties. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Paladin PvP Feedback
Me: So im sorry, but im a little bit confused. Firstly, what do Paladins who just go Holy have to do w/ this question? is he trying to say that all the Paladins who are in Glad range as Holy magically played Ret and then re-speced for giggles? Anyone care to explain to me what he is trying to say? As well, Holy is good, but... honestly, imba? a bit of a stretch id say, the spec is balanced.
Holy, as I understand, is one of the highest represented healers at top ratings right now. While I am not saying from this information we can conclude that holy is "imba", but they are definitely one of the strongest healers at the moment. Healers are also in a higher demand than DPS as more people want to be the one wailing away on the opponent.

I also feel that you are twisting what is being said by GC, he did not state that they magically hit glad range after respeccing, it is just that holy is such a strong spec in PvP comparatively to Ret that many highly ranked paladins may have switched to it for the competitive advantage it holds.

Me: So every Ret is in fact insane for choosing that spec in the first place? ok, im sure we all knew that, I did anyways, but what else are we getting told here? That since Holy is strong that Ret should stay broken and all Paladins should roll Holy? whats the point of a talent tree?

Once again, the success of Holy Paladins this season is getting used in a very sad way to overshadow and justify keeping Rets down

You are twisting his words again, and wouldn't the words "imba" and "OP" be meaning the same thing in the way they are both used? That Holy is above average.

The success of Holy paladins in this season is not being used as an excuse to "keep Rets down". He is just saying that the number of rets represented at higher ratings is probably low because many highly rated players want to take advantage of the benefits that lie in playing as Holy.

We have mentioned many times that we want and are attempting to improve the current state of Ret paladins, as can be seen in the patch notes. The success of one spec is not a reason to leave another in the cold, in a perfect world all specs would be equal but sadly it is not entirely plausible. We don't feel that Rets aren't viable right now or that they are bad, it's just that they simply don't perform as well as Holy and that is why their representation is lower.

Me: Ok, I can agree that Holy never rly had any offensive pressure as far as CC goes, that is if we dont count the first 1-2? seasons of Wotlk, but ok nvm. Holy was solid tons of times before, and is generally one of the strongest Healing specs. Was op a few times, but that is sorted. And imo? thats fine, if a spec works good and is not op then its fine.
Your picking at semantics with the "OP" statements now. The general idea that he is trying to get across is that Holy is a strong spec that is capable of outperforming other healers right now, it also has benefits that outweigh those given by Ret, so many of them changed to Holy.

Alright... so from what I can see, mentioning that Holy is OP and imba in 3 out of the 4 questions that are generally about Ret tells me that Holy is gonna get stuffed. As well, their constant denial of what is going on w/ Rets indicates that no real changes are going to happen. Ret will get some love in 5.2, no questions there, our dmg will go up by a nudge, but the main problem remains, we are the #1 target for zerging down due to not having a realistic PvP defensive kit for this expansion.
Holy is receiving a few changes (most notable is the nerf to their CC chain) to lower their strengths, there are not many as you can see in the patch notes and they are far from being prevented from remaining competitive. In regards to your concern of Ret paladins receiving no survivability buffs, the patch notes show that they are receiving some very beneficial changes to their survivability and utility as well as minor increase to their damage.

  • Balance, Feral, Windwalker, Retribution, Shadow, Enhancement and Elemental now gain 25% of the bonus healing provided by PvP Power (was 0). Dedicated healers will continue to gain 50% of the bonus healing, and no bonus damage, from PvP Power.
  • Sword of Light now increases Flash of Light by 100% (was 30%) and increases the Paladin's damage with two-handed melee weapons by 15% (was 10%).
  • When Hand of Sacrifice is cast by a Retribution Paladin, all harmful magic effects are removed from the party or raid member.
  • Hand of Purity now reduces all incoming damage by 10% in addition to its other effects.
  • Eternal Flame's periodic heal now provides 100% more healing when self-cast.


There are of course other changes but these are only the increases to Rets survivability. I think that is a pretty big list of buffs, and that's not including any additional changes that have been made but not announced just yet. So you can expect an increase to your survivability, damage and utility come patch 5.2, Rets are far from not getting any real changes. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Computers - Setup of the Month (by chaud)
Each month or every 2 months, depending on the hardware evolutions, the lovely chaud will work on a couple of hardware setups for those of you who are thinking of upgrading their computer!

This month
The current SSD prices seem to have bottomed out for now, with almost all SSDs under $1 per gigabyte. No new CPUs, GPUs, or SSDs worth waiting for are expected before late in the second quarter this year.

Unless you are doing a lot of video rendering or something that is similarly multithreaded, you do not need the 3770K and should spend that money elsewhere.

Make sure to keep your AMD and Nvidia drivers up to date.

Don't hesitate to post any feedback in the comments of that news post, and don't forget to visit the Computer Forum for any extra questions! If you are interested in Folding@home, take a look in our team's thread.


Peripherals/Monitors
ComponentPuppy Dolphin
MonitorAsus VS229H-P 21.5" LED IPS Monitor - $144ASUS VS248H-P 24-Inch Monitor - $170
KeyboardLogitech Media Keyboard K200 - $17Cyborg V.5 - $43
MouseLogitech G400 - $30Razer Deathadder - $45
SpeakersCreative A220 2.1 Speaker System - $27Logitech Z313 Speaker System - $40
ComponentNarwhal Unicorn
MonitorASUS VE278Q 27-Inch - $290HP ZR2440W 24-inch (IPS Panel) - $359
KeyboardLogitech G110 - $86Razer BlackWidow (Backlit)- $70 ($115)
MouseLogitech G500 - $49Razer Naga (Buttons on the Side) - $69
SpeakersLogitech Z323 2.1 Speaker System - $59Logitech Speaker System Z523 - $80


Puppy and Dolphin
Mix and match anything but the CPU/Motherboard combo between Puppy and Dolphin. Pick one of the two CPU/Motherboard combos.
ComponentPuppy Dolphin
CaseNZXT GAMMA Classic - $34NZXT GAMMA Classic - $34
Power SupplyCorsair CX500 - $58XFX Core Edition PRO 550W - $70
CPUAMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition- $105AMD FX-6300 - $130
HeatsinkCooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - $27Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - $33
MotherboardASUS M5A97 R2 AM3+ 970 - $95ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 AM3+ 990FX - $121
MemoryKingston HyperX Blu 4GB 1333 - $278GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 - $59
Graphics CardASUS 7770 - $109Gigabyte 7850 2 GB or Gigabyte GTX 660 OC 2GB - $195 / $210
Hard DriveWestern Digital Caviar Blue 500GB - $56Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB - $95
DVDAsus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $23Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $23
Total$534$760 - 775


Narwhal and Unicorn
All of these parts can be mixed and matched to create a build between Narwhal and Unicorn. SSDs are always optional.
ComponentNarwhal Unicorn
CaseCooler Master HAF 912 - $46Cooler Master HAF X - $162
Power SupplyCorsair 650TX V2 - $87Corsair 750HX - $140
CPUIntel i5-3570K - $220Intel i7-3770K - $324
HeatsinkThermaltake Frio - $57Noctua 6 NH-D14 - $79
MotherboardASUS P8Z77-V LK - $120ASUS P8Z77-V - $175
Memory8GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 - $5916GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 - $103
Graphics Card7950 OR GIGABYTE GTX 660 Ti - $280Gigabyte 7970 OR GIGABYTE GTX 670 - $400 / $370
Hard DriveWestern Digital 1TB Caviar Black - $95Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black - $95
SSDSAMSUNG 840 128GB (Review) - $101
OR
OCZ 128 GB Vertex 4 (Review) - $126
Intel 330 180GB (Review) - $130
OR
SAMSUNG 840 Pro 128GB (Review) - $138
DVDAsus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $23Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $23
Total$987 - $1113$1471 - $1639


TCG Art Update
Blizzard has updated the Trading Card Game art gallery to feature ten new pieces.

This article was originally published in forum thread: 5.2 Dev Interviews, Thunderforged Drop Rate, Blue Posts, Setup of the Month, TCG Art started by chaud View original post
Comments 40 Comments
  1. moveth's Avatar
    Yay Exodus. Jelloslock #1 :3
  1. Nevardcire's Avatar
    no geforce titan card for the unicorn?
  1. Dominian's Avatar
    Wow #1 normals, how embarrassing
  1. MrKnubbles's Avatar
    Isn't Titan like double those prices?
  1. toychristopher's Avatar
    I think the magic content is either raid finder of old raids, or every dungeon in the game scaled up to your level through dungeon finder.
  1. Nevardcire's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by MrKnubbles View Post
    Isn't Titan like double those prices?
    yup, they run about $1k a pop
  1. Alopex Major's Avatar
    "The changes made to the Patch 5.0 raid failbags were smaller, but should be more significant with the Patch 5.2 bonus roll improvements. Even when you don't win loot, you should have a chance to win something cool like old mounts or things that were used to incentivize tanks in dungeon finder. Another option mentioned for bonus rolls or failbags is some Valor Points or increased amount of gold."

    I dunno, I took my warlock through LFR Vaults and he got 1 drop out of 6 bosses, no extra gold or valor or anything. Color me skeptical :/
  1. tavalus's Avatar
    "Ghostcrawler's unannounced feature might be in Patch 5.4 if it is complete in time. As far as a hint goes, "A lot of players have suggested that they be able to do older content, so it is something along those lines"." oh ffs, please don't let them ruin soloing content for those of us that like it with this scaling crap. I don't want to have to pug mc or icc or whatever, really hope this is limited to Dungeon Finder or something with a toggle.
  1. Eliandal's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vajarra View Post
    "The changes made to the Patch 5.0 raid failbags were smaller, but should be more significant with the Patch 5.2 bonus roll improvements. Even when you don't win loot, you should have a chance to win something cool like old mounts or things that were used to incentivize tanks in dungeon finder. Another option mentioned for bonus rolls or failbags is some Valor Points or increased amount of gold."

    I dunno, I took my warlock through LFR Vaults and he got 1 drop out of 6 bosses, no extra gold or valor or anything. Color me skeptical :/


    Failbags are still....fail!

    While I did get 3 drops out of 10 eligible kills (and then 2 more on bonus rolls) - the 7 failbags I got all contained...gold. I know...random is random...but at least double the gold for the failures like me
  1. Sicarius87's Avatar
    So what I would like to see about the surprise coming in 5.4 is that all old raids scale to 90 and tier from that era be scaled up to current level tier and the set bonuses of old gear like T1-14 stay the same. So have like level 90 bloodfang. Heres bloodfang set bonuses:
    (3) Set: Increases the chance to apply poisons to your target by 5%.
    (5) Set: Improves the damage reduction of Feint by 5%.
    (8) Set: Gives the Rogue a chance to inflict 283 to 317 damage on the target and heal the Rogue for 50 health every 1 sec. for 6 sec. on a melee hit.

    Have the 8 piece set scale for the damage infliction to proper level obviously.
  1. Valala's Avatar
    New Dungeon Difficulty: Original

    When you enter the dungeon/raid, your level, stats and gear will be scaled down to the original intended values.
  1. Bubblykiss's Avatar
    Ghostcrawler's unannounced feature might be in Patch 5.4 if it is complete in time. As far as a hint goes, "A lot of players have suggested that they be able to do older content, so it is something along those lines".

    "Hey guys, we added tons of new content, we call it old content!"
  1. mmoc5352742bc3's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Valala View Post
    New Dungeon Difficulty: Original

    When you enter the dungeon/raid, your level, stats and gear will be scaled down to the original intended values.
    And that is something that wont be easy to make. Sure you can give those aforementioned things, but game mechanics have changed quite a lot since then.
    Whole healing went from reactive to pro-active and dispel having a cooldown to make priests mandatory for some fights.
    Tanking mechanics aswell from casual big ability hits which required you to use that 3-5min damage reduce CD to more active mitigation style.
    And as you might have noticed. The talents and abilities have changed big time to screw any sort of dps balance there used to be.

    Besides, i can't see much use for the whole thing. Roll blood dk if you want to make the old raids your personal playground.
  1. F-Minus's Avatar
    Well, I can't speak for everyone that's clear, but personally I've had plenty of time with all the old dungeons and raids to not ever want to re-do them again the proper way. Sure I want transmog gear, I go there solo and clear it, but that's as much as I want to be involved with those old places. If this feature really ends up being "buffed up old content dungeons and raids" it's fine and dandy, but not something I'm looking forward to.

    But I'm not complaining, some people will love it, some will ignore it (like me), so there will be stuff to do for those who want it, I just hope they leave the raids/dungeons intact and on the proper level for those who just want to go clear them solo. I don't want to be presented with only level 90 Molten Core and no option to drop it down to 60, at that point I will complain.
  1. Fortera's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by F-Minus View Post
    Well, I can't speak for everyone that's clear, but personally I've had plenty of time with all the old dungeons and raids to not ever want to re-do them again the proper way. Sure I want transmog gear, I go there solo and clear it, but that's as much as I want to be involved with those old places. If this feature really ends up being "buffed up old content dungeons and raids" it's fine and dandy, but not something I'm looking forward to.

    But I'm not complaining, some people will love it, some will ignore it (like me), so there will be stuff to do for those who want it, I just hope they leave the raids/dungeons intact and on the proper level for those who just want to go clear them solo. I don't want to be presented with only level 90 Molten Core and no option to drop it down to 60, at that point I will complain.
    What about if you have friends who are starting alts or new characters and you don't want to reroll?
  1. Bladeedge's Avatar
    I laugh that at the fact that they said 25man is harder than 10man.
  1. subanark's Avatar
    100G says that GC's new feature is the ability to temporary de-level your toon (and ilevel) in order to allow doing old content closer to as it was intended. This would make a lot of sense as without this challange modes would pretty much have to be closed off for the current dungeons once the new xpac hits. It could also allow Wintergrasp and TB to be put back to the level it was allowing players who haven't yet got to max level to try those out.

    I really don't think it's going to be a low level server.
  1. Ferrouswheel's Avatar
    I'm confused how old content is new content for players to play around with. They do realize what the word new means right?
  1. Kaiarra's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ferrouswheel View Post
    I'm confused how old content is new content for players to play around with. They do realize what the word new means right?
    Obviously not. /disappointed

    Hopefully they're not stupid enough to remove the original raids and force us to run level 90/deleveled versions for xmog/mounts/achvs.

    Had quite enough of that with the removed ZG mounts...
  1. nekobaka's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Problim View Post
    And that is something that wont be easy to make. Sure you can give those aforementioned things, but game mechanics have changed quite a lot since then.
    Whole healing went from reactive to pro-active and dispel having a cooldown to make priests mandatory for some fights.
    Tanking mechanics aswell from casual big ability hits which required you to use that 3-5min damage reduce CD to more active mitigation style.
    And as you might have noticed. The talents and abilities have changed big time to screw any sort of dps balance there used to be.

    Besides, i can't see much use for the whole thing. Roll blood dk if you want to make the old raids your personal playground.
    It is doubtful that Blizzard will get them to be tuned perfectly. You are right a lot has changed in the game including tanks that can self heal along with DPS and a plethora of class abilities that have changed game play. At the least we could hope that the relative power balance is still there even though new mechanics could make a number of them moot. A lot of the old content also has lots of trash and CC so I am not sure how that will make an impact with todays player base. The other issue would be if Blizzard is going to attach a motivational reward system to these given how much the player base has become so materialistic and its impact on the game.

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