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Dark Heart PTR Development Notes
Dark Heart PTR Development Notes
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The War Within Alpha - The Isle of Dorn Zone Preview
Public Games in 1.0.8, Blue Posts, BlizzCon Ticket Reminder, ChromeOnRust's Stats and Affixes Guide, Diablo Fan ArtPatch 5.3 - Brawler's Guild Changes
Patch 5.3 adds several new bosses to the Brawler's Guild, as well as some other things:
- Card Trader Ami will sell you cards that allow you to fight bosses from ranks you have already defeated.
- Defeating some of the new bosses will give you access to some of the new Brawler's Guild shirts.
- Defeating all of the new bosses will give you the
Wraps of the Blood-Soaked Brawler. - A new VIP lounge has been added on the zeppelin circling the arena for Rank 8 players. The Alliance also have a VIP lounge in the balcony.
- Reaching Rank 9 will give you another invite to the brawler's guild.
- Reaching Rank 10 rewards access to purchase the
Brawler's Burly Mushan Beast. - Spectator totems and consoles have been added to give you a better view of the fight.
- The Alliance fight pit floor has been raised to make it easier to view the fight.
The boss in the video preview image above is Hexos. You must constantly turn so that he does not hit any of the incoming rectangles, while doing ~100K DPS.
Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Classes
Talking a lot about class cooldowns. We could lower CDs or lower magnitude and buff sustained. (Source)
This could have both PvE and PvP benefits. The CD effects would be harder to notice though. Thoughts? (Source)
Imagine Recklessness as a 10% crit buff or a nerfed GoaK on a 2-3 min timer along with sustained DPS buff. (Source)
Curious: what do you feel is the best crit %, from a "fun to play" perspective? Assume dps is normalized.
Assuming nothing procs from crit? I'd say something like 15-20%. If you're depending on procs etc. then much higher. (Source)
Do you feel hunters need the most work out of all the pures for spec differences and dmg output as of now for 6.0?
We think rogues and hunters need more spec differentiation. (Source)
Do you feel warlocks are generally behind most other pure dps classes in terms of damage and cc (especially mages, rogues)?
Warlocks? No. Hunters are the only pure that feel a little low, and we are buffing them slightly in 5.3. (Source)
Hey GC. How do you feel about DoT snapshotting being an important part of some specs DPS? Seems opaque and complex imo.
It can be opaque and complex. It can also be one of those things to let really skilled players stand out. (Source)
I've said a few times lately that we're cool with difficult hoops for marginal gains. (Source)
But if the gains aren't marginal then the hoops feel mandatory. (Source)
Is there any way to win there? Or is this just another knife's-edge situation?
We just need to make sure that players who want to skip those complications still have fun. (Source)
so why does shape shifting as a druid clear movement impaires but not shaman's ghost wolf? + the additional 10% speed increase
That's just a druid class benefit. We try not to have every class mechanic work the exact same way. (Source)
Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
are you happy with how the current dk resource system works? Or do you feel the rune system was better in wrath?
Honestly not sure. Current model solves the orphaned rune and GCD lock problems better, but it is complicated. (Source)
Why weren't DK dots nerfed to refresh their strength instead of messing with the numbers on FeS, SS, and UM?
We wanted the Festerblight style to be optional, not mandatory. (Source)
It doesn't look like much of an option anymore as it now relies on getting tricks + unrealistic execution to be optimal
The problem might be Tricks. We may have overnerfed the FB damage. (Source)
Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
any though on makeing more glyphs baseline like glyph of lifebloom for resto druids?
When it makes sense. If we make every good glyph baseline then we need to make more glyphs (and hope they aren't too good). (Source)
Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Many hunters want a MM completely re-design. Possible?
I would use that word with caution. It would not be at the warlock level. Are there things we can do? Yes. (Source)
Marks/Surv feel less developed now that most of their appeals were made into talents. They feel less flavorful now
We want the spec choice to come down to kit or specific rotation. (Agree that hunters need work on both.) (Source)
Marks rotation feels like the most rewarding. BS baseline will be nice. BM is more survivable than survival though
My perception (which could be wrong) is SV hunters are the most likely to be sad when they can't play their spec. (Source)
So what's the verdict on Scater/Trap DR GC?
We aren't changing it for 5.3 (meaning it will be as on live). We nerfed some BM pet CC instead. (Source)
Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Can you give any insight as to why the Cata version of Sacred Shield was removed from Ret? And is it possible it will return?
Honestly, it's because in Cata so many paladins asked for the LK version back. I guess we could alternate every expansion. (Source)
Is it not possible to have the Cata version of Sacred Shield baseline for Ret while also having the talent choice?
One of the issues is that Ret mostly takes SH while Prot only takes SS. Maybe both Ret and Prot would want (Cata) SS as a talent. (Source)
Could replace current talent with the Cataclysm Sacred Shield and give the current one to Prot baseline I guess. (Source)
Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Why did u diceded to decrease amount of armor ignored on Find Weakness?
PvE buff and PvP nerf. (Source)
Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Will enhancement get a overhaul/ new resource system anytime soon? Feels old and clunky and enhance got so much potential!
Overall, we don't foresee adding new resources (like Holy Power or Embers) to any existing classes or specs soon. (Source)
We're pretty happy with Enhance's cooldown-driven rotation. Major changes aren't likely soon. (Source)
Could we at least ask for options to modify ascendance damage and move it to outside the cooldown?
The concern is that shifting too much DPS out of CDs makes the CDs feel meh. It's nice when you can really feel them. (Source)
This may be true but it changes the pvp meta game. Some may like it but I don't and some of my mates quit.
That's the concern and why we're floating the idea out there rather than just doing it for 5.3. (Source
Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Are you done with affliction pvp for 5.3? I am not playing ptr so i would love to know how do you think its performing atm.
We don't get a ton of PvP testing on smaller patches like this so most of our information is just player feedback. (Source)
We like Aff rotation in PvE, but we're worried that MG and SB:SS hold them back in PvP. Would rather just have strong dots. (Source)
Currently, RoF feels really clunky for Warlocks to use in single target fights, but it's required. Any plans to change this? To which I mean, doesn't feel like it belongs there in the single target rotation. Just feels clunky and annoying. Thoughts?
We agree. We didn't remove it for 5.3 because we'd want to buff ember generation to compensate. (Source)
When would we see the change to increase ember generation (without relying on RoF to generate embers)?
My guess is 5.4. (Source)
Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
How come arms warriors lost shield slam/shield block if you want to do more with them?
Because shield macros suck. You will see quite often our dev style is one step back, two steps forward. (Source)
We make short-term changes that are good for the game but against our long-term goals, which understandably confuses players. (Source)
Warriors are just HORRIBLE on PTR. Dead in three seconds, dominated by ranged classes. Enough already.
What changed from live? We buffed warrior defenses and no caster should have gotten large DPS buffs. (Source)
So you are saying you can't just put down a blocking volume around your Battlegrounds edges to stop that?
If the solutions are that obvious, chances are they've already been considered and rejected. (Source)
Toxic Behavior
What did you think of Riot's Toxic Player Behavior presentation at GDC? Any lessons that can be applied to WoW?
I think it's awesome. A lot of lessons that can be applied to WoW (or any game) but hard to go into via twitter. (Source)
What do you think Blizz can do better, if anything, to combat toxic attitudes within the WoW community?
Interesting Q. We removed the need for friends in order to see content, which is awesome, but we didn't insert anything in place. (Source)
With friends, you are happy somebody got loot. In LFR, other players are tools to get what you want. (Source)
Providing more info to players so they didn't have to know all the tribal secrets would help. (Source)
Letting you care a little more about the group would help. (Source)
But honestly, I find most players I interact with are helpful and generally pretty nice. I understand there are always bad apples. (Source)
Player Subscription Losses
You have lost 1.3 million subscribers because the game is to time consuming for us casuals. Bring back tabards. Dailies suck
We heard from A LOT of players in Cataclysm that they didn't have enough to do and got bored. It's a tough sweet spot to hit. (Source)
I hope you folks realize your sub drop cannot continue
I can't imagine the original devs expected the game to go on as long as it has. Keep playing and we'll keep developing. (Source)
Activision Q1: 1.3M lost subs, how much was PVE & PVP? Can you hear player feedback now? Class balance & cut time sinks!
The losses were mostly in Asia. China's game market has matured amazingly in only a few years. They release many MMOs a year. (Source)
LFR has cut into raiders avail for normals. Low motivation since end boss killed on release. Led to sub-unsub cycle?
Most of the losses were in Asia, where the raiding culture is pretty different. Recall, they have 3 lockouts already. (Source)
Another 1.3 million subscribers gone. Can we start agreeing that maybe pushing out new dailies every patch is not great?
Players come for new expansions and then drift away. This is nothing new and why we are trying to release expansions faster. (Source)
Misc
You may be releasing patches fast but most of them are bare bones. 2 major patches = 2 daily hubs and a raid. The end.
What is a patch that you thought offered a reasonable amount of content? (Source)
5.2 was good but would have been better with a 5 man or 2. But least you aknowledge no 5 mans was a mistake.
Not a mistake, in that we wouldn't change it if we could do it all again. (Source)
More of a compass heading that we'd like to figure out a way to do it all in the future. Dungeons are cool. We get that. (Source)
Why is it a problem if I like to repeatedly run dungeons? Am I doing it wrong if that's what I find fun?
Nope, and we try to support it. We just don't make that the most rewarding way because we think it's good for the long term game. (Source)
We have found that making things too convenient and letting players focus too much on small parts of the game leads to burn out. (Source)
I know it might seem a paradox that a more convenient game is less compelling, but our data supports it. (Source)
Yet your two most succesful expansions had it as the most rewarding way. What you are doing is WRONG
Our two most successful expansions had terrible class balance too. I'm not sure that's why they were successful. (Source)
You forced me to do what I don't like or even hate: scenarios, dailies, pet battles, brawler guild and etc.
I can understand scenarios and dailies. Why would you do pet battles and brawler's guild if you don't enjoy them? (Source)
There are achievements for pet battles? You have to gain them even if you hate it.Just so others can see big numbers
Achievements are the epitome of optional. If you're saying you are forced to do achievements then... I don't know. More gin. (Source)
Just to play devils advocate. I would like 1 raid + Silvermoon, please. Then you will say "The majority would not".
I don't know what the majority would say. But we don't design around majorities. (Source)
The majority would say buff paladins because they are often the most popular class. (Source)
Is the Black market AH successful in takeing gold out of the economy? What sort of adjustments would you make?
Not sure. Pretty happy with it overall. (Source)
The vast majority of the playerbase enjoy slower patches so we can enjoy one's content longer. ICC was great.
Look, if I'm not comfortable speaking on behalf of "the vast majority of the playerbase" I don't see how you can be... (Source)
I'll buy that you and maybe a lot of your friends feel that way, which is totally legit. (Source)
But we also have a lot of data about how players spend their time and when various players tire of a certain patch. (Source)
Your a multimillion dollar company, Hire a new artist. Do not say we are picky about who we hire. (Multimillion)
I don't think hiring anyone who walked through the door would give you the quality of art your are looking for. (Source)
I'd take that over more broken pvp, or fast raid releases. If hardcore raiders are the minority, why cater to them?
If we don't care about small minorities, then we should stop supporting trolls and dwarves. (Source)
well we all thought that Cataclysm was going to include the BC starting zones since they are in fact in Azeroth!
We thought the BE and Draenei start zones had aged much better than the older ones. (Source)
Talking a lot about class cooldowns. We could lower CDs or lower magnitude and buff sustained. (Source)
This could have both PvE and PvP benefits. The CD effects would be harder to notice though. Thoughts? (Source)
Imagine Recklessness as a 10% crit buff or a nerfed GoaK on a 2-3 min timer along with sustained DPS buff. (Source)
Curious: what do you feel is the best crit %, from a "fun to play" perspective? Assume dps is normalized.
Assuming nothing procs from crit? I'd say something like 15-20%. If you're depending on procs etc. then much higher. (Source)
Do you feel hunters need the most work out of all the pures for spec differences and dmg output as of now for 6.0?
We think rogues and hunters need more spec differentiation. (Source)
Do you feel warlocks are generally behind most other pure dps classes in terms of damage and cc (especially mages, rogues)?
Warlocks? No. Hunters are the only pure that feel a little low, and we are buffing them slightly in 5.3. (Source)
Hey GC. How do you feel about DoT snapshotting being an important part of some specs DPS? Seems opaque and complex imo.
It can be opaque and complex. It can also be one of those things to let really skilled players stand out. (Source)
I've said a few times lately that we're cool with difficult hoops for marginal gains. (Source)
But if the gains aren't marginal then the hoops feel mandatory. (Source)
Is there any way to win there? Or is this just another knife's-edge situation?
We just need to make sure that players who want to skip those complications still have fun. (Source)
so why does shape shifting as a druid clear movement impaires but not shaman's ghost wolf? + the additional 10% speed increase
That's just a druid class benefit. We try not to have every class mechanic work the exact same way. (Source)
Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)are you happy with how the current dk resource system works? Or do you feel the rune system was better in wrath?
Honestly not sure. Current model solves the orphaned rune and GCD lock problems better, but it is complicated. (Source)
Why weren't DK dots nerfed to refresh their strength instead of messing with the numbers on FeS, SS, and UM?
We wanted the Festerblight style to be optional, not mandatory. (Source)
It doesn't look like much of an option anymore as it now relies on getting tricks + unrealistic execution to be optimal
The problem might be Tricks. We may have overnerfed the FB damage. (Source)
Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)any though on makeing more glyphs baseline like glyph of lifebloom for resto druids?
When it makes sense. If we make every good glyph baseline then we need to make more glyphs (and hope they aren't too good). (Source)
Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Many hunters want a MM completely re-design. Possible?
I would use that word with caution. It would not be at the warlock level. Are there things we can do? Yes. (Source)
Marks/Surv feel less developed now that most of their appeals were made into talents. They feel less flavorful now
We want the spec choice to come down to kit or specific rotation. (Agree that hunters need work on both.) (Source)
Marks rotation feels like the most rewarding. BS baseline will be nice. BM is more survivable than survival though
My perception (which could be wrong) is SV hunters are the most likely to be sad when they can't play their spec. (Source)
So what's the verdict on Scater/Trap DR GC?
We aren't changing it for 5.3 (meaning it will be as on live). We nerfed some BM pet CC instead. (Source)
Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Can you give any insight as to why the Cata version of Sacred Shield was removed from Ret? And is it possible it will return?
Honestly, it's because in Cata so many paladins asked for the LK version back. I guess we could alternate every expansion. (Source)
Is it not possible to have the Cata version of Sacred Shield baseline for Ret while also having the talent choice?
One of the issues is that Ret mostly takes SH while Prot only takes SS. Maybe both Ret and Prot would want (Cata) SS as a talent. (Source)
Could replace current talent with the Cataclysm Sacred Shield and give the current one to Prot baseline I guess. (Source)
Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Why did u diceded to decrease amount of armor ignored on Find Weakness?
PvE buff and PvP nerf. (Source)
Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Will enhancement get a overhaul/ new resource system anytime soon? Feels old and clunky and enhance got so much potential!
Overall, we don't foresee adding new resources (like Holy Power or Embers) to any existing classes or specs soon. (Source)
We're pretty happy with Enhance's cooldown-driven rotation. Major changes aren't likely soon. (Source)
Could we at least ask for options to modify ascendance damage and move it to outside the cooldown?
The concern is that shifting too much DPS out of CDs makes the CDs feel meh. It's nice when you can really feel them. (Source)
This may be true but it changes the pvp meta game. Some may like it but I don't and some of my mates quit.
That's the concern and why we're floating the idea out there rather than just doing it for 5.3. (Source
Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Are you done with affliction pvp for 5.3? I am not playing ptr so i would love to know how do you think its performing atm.
We don't get a ton of PvP testing on smaller patches like this so most of our information is just player feedback. (Source)
We like Aff rotation in PvE, but we're worried that MG and SB:SS hold them back in PvP. Would rather just have strong dots. (Source)
Currently, RoF feels really clunky for Warlocks to use in single target fights, but it's required. Any plans to change this? To which I mean, doesn't feel like it belongs there in the single target rotation. Just feels clunky and annoying. Thoughts?
We agree. We didn't remove it for 5.3 because we'd want to buff ember generation to compensate. (Source)
When would we see the change to increase ember generation (without relying on RoF to generate embers)?
My guess is 5.4. (Source)
Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)How come arms warriors lost shield slam/shield block if you want to do more with them?
Because shield macros suck. You will see quite often our dev style is one step back, two steps forward. (Source)
We make short-term changes that are good for the game but against our long-term goals, which understandably confuses players. (Source)
Warriors are just HORRIBLE on PTR. Dead in three seconds, dominated by ranged classes. Enough already.
What changed from live? We buffed warrior defenses and no caster should have gotten large DPS buffs. (Source)
So you are saying you can't just put down a blocking volume around your Battlegrounds edges to stop that?
If the solutions are that obvious, chances are they've already been considered and rejected. (Source)
Toxic Behavior
What did you think of Riot's Toxic Player Behavior presentation at GDC? Any lessons that can be applied to WoW?
I think it's awesome. A lot of lessons that can be applied to WoW (or any game) but hard to go into via twitter. (Source)
What do you think Blizz can do better, if anything, to combat toxic attitudes within the WoW community?
Interesting Q. We removed the need for friends in order to see content, which is awesome, but we didn't insert anything in place. (Source)
With friends, you are happy somebody got loot. In LFR, other players are tools to get what you want. (Source)
Providing more info to players so they didn't have to know all the tribal secrets would help. (Source)
Letting you care a little more about the group would help. (Source)
But honestly, I find most players I interact with are helpful and generally pretty nice. I understand there are always bad apples. (Source)
Player Subscription Losses
You have lost 1.3 million subscribers because the game is to time consuming for us casuals. Bring back tabards. Dailies suck
We heard from A LOT of players in Cataclysm that they didn't have enough to do and got bored. It's a tough sweet spot to hit. (Source)
I hope you folks realize your sub drop cannot continue
I can't imagine the original devs expected the game to go on as long as it has. Keep playing and we'll keep developing. (Source)
Activision Q1: 1.3M lost subs, how much was PVE & PVP? Can you hear player feedback now? Class balance & cut time sinks!
The losses were mostly in Asia. China's game market has matured amazingly in only a few years. They release many MMOs a year. (Source)
LFR has cut into raiders avail for normals. Low motivation since end boss killed on release. Led to sub-unsub cycle?
Most of the losses were in Asia, where the raiding culture is pretty different. Recall, they have 3 lockouts already. (Source)
Another 1.3 million subscribers gone. Can we start agreeing that maybe pushing out new dailies every patch is not great?
Players come for new expansions and then drift away. This is nothing new and why we are trying to release expansions faster. (Source)
Misc
You may be releasing patches fast but most of them are bare bones. 2 major patches = 2 daily hubs and a raid. The end.
What is a patch that you thought offered a reasonable amount of content? (Source)
5.2 was good but would have been better with a 5 man or 2. But least you aknowledge no 5 mans was a mistake.
Not a mistake, in that we wouldn't change it if we could do it all again. (Source)
More of a compass heading that we'd like to figure out a way to do it all in the future. Dungeons are cool. We get that. (Source)
Why is it a problem if I like to repeatedly run dungeons? Am I doing it wrong if that's what I find fun?
Nope, and we try to support it. We just don't make that the most rewarding way because we think it's good for the long term game. (Source)
We have found that making things too convenient and letting players focus too much on small parts of the game leads to burn out. (Source)
I know it might seem a paradox that a more convenient game is less compelling, but our data supports it. (Source)
Yet your two most succesful expansions had it as the most rewarding way. What you are doing is WRONG
Our two most successful expansions had terrible class balance too. I'm not sure that's why they were successful. (Source)
You forced me to do what I don't like or even hate: scenarios, dailies, pet battles, brawler guild and etc.
I can understand scenarios and dailies. Why would you do pet battles and brawler's guild if you don't enjoy them? (Source)
There are achievements for pet battles? You have to gain them even if you hate it.Just so others can see big numbers
Achievements are the epitome of optional. If you're saying you are forced to do achievements then... I don't know. More gin. (Source)
Just to play devils advocate. I would like 1 raid + Silvermoon, please. Then you will say "The majority would not".
I don't know what the majority would say. But we don't design around majorities. (Source)
The majority would say buff paladins because they are often the most popular class. (Source)
Is the Black market AH successful in takeing gold out of the economy? What sort of adjustments would you make?
Not sure. Pretty happy with it overall. (Source)
The vast majority of the playerbase enjoy slower patches so we can enjoy one's content longer. ICC was great.
Look, if I'm not comfortable speaking on behalf of "the vast majority of the playerbase" I don't see how you can be... (Source)
I'll buy that you and maybe a lot of your friends feel that way, which is totally legit. (Source)
But we also have a lot of data about how players spend their time and when various players tire of a certain patch. (Source)
Your a multimillion dollar company, Hire a new artist. Do not say we are picky about who we hire. (Multimillion)
I don't think hiring anyone who walked through the door would give you the quality of art your are looking for. (Source)
I'd take that over more broken pvp, or fast raid releases. If hardcore raiders are the minority, why cater to them?
If we don't care about small minorities, then we should stop supporting trolls and dwarves. (Source)
well we all thought that Cataclysm was going to include the BC starting zones since they are in fact in Azeroth!
We thought the BE and Draenei start zones had aged much better than the older ones. (Source)
Weekly News Recap
Here is your chance to catch up if you missed a day of news this week!
- May 5
- We looked at some quality of life Dungeon Journal UI Changes and the Otis addon.
- May's Setup of the Month was posted.
- May 6
- We summarized Riot's GDC presentation on Toxic Player Behavior.
- We looked at how Pet Battle Spectating appears to other players.
- The WoWkemon addon also gives your battle status and lets you spectate from anywhere with other players on your realm.
- May 7
- Patch 5.3 PTR Build 16924 appeared with a few small changes and the official Patch 5.3 PTR notes were updated.
- May 8
- WoW dropped to 8.3 million subscribers, a loss of 1.3 million in the first quarter.
- Most of the decline in subscribers came from China, where there have been many other MMOs launched recently.
- Heart of the Swarm was the #1 PC game of the quarter, selling 1.1 million copies in two days.
- May 9
- Patch 5.3 is going to reduce the cost for the upgrade heirlooms added in Patch 5.2 by 60%.
- There was a Hearthstone Fireside Duel and Q&A session.
- May 10
- We looked at the new Tiger's Peak Arena coming in Patch 5.3.
Dark Legacy Comics #388
DLC #388 has been released!
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