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In-game Store Preview - User Interface, StringsPatch 5.4 - Tier 16 Warrior Set
Keep in mind that this is just a preview and the final sets may be different! This is especially true for this set, as it is still a little buggy.
Patch 5.4 - Flex Raid Queue UI
The Flex Raid queue has been added to the PvE finder UI.
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Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Arena Skirmishes
Really? Must have missed that in the Patch Notes.
They are not planned to return with patch 5.4 at this time, this is why you didn't see it in the patch notes. We do plan on bringing them back in the future, we simply don't have a set date for when that will be, though.
If I may; why not? It's not hard to implement.
From an outside perspective, I can see why you would assume that. To the outside observer, bringing skirmishes back into the game should be as simple as flicking a switch to reactivate the old system. The issue is that it's sadly not that simple because while it may have functioned just fine with a previous version of the game, that doesn't guarantee that it will work now.
We hope to have skirmishes back soon, but we cannot make any promises on when that will be for the moment. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Patch 5.4 Arena Changes
1. You cant play with random bad friends if you are serious because you will lose alot of rating
If you don't want to or cannot play with you're friends because your afraid of them ruining your rating, then there is unfortunately nothing that can be changed with the game to help with your particular dilemma. Even the old system didn't allow for this because you would also be afraid of them tanking your team and personal ratings.
2. seen what happend rbgs? wintrade wintrade wintrade someone will find a way to abuse it
We do take actions against cheating players, as has been seen in the past. Just because these actions are not made visible to the public does not change the fact that we take cheating very seriously. If you would like to report information regarding cheats or hacks, you can send it directly to hacks@blizzard.com. We will be keeping an eye out for any abuse of the new system and take action where necessary.
If you want, jump onto the PTR to test the system once it's up and running. If you find any ways in which it can be abused, then please feel free to report it to us so that we can look into it.
3. this is only good for casuals or pve'ers that want to do pvp, not for the real pvpers its just gonna ruin it.
Please elaborate on why you think that this is so bad for the "real PvP'ers". In the long run this increases the pool of potential players greatly. This means that queue times will drop, the number of end of season rewards will increase and there will also be a larger competition for those rewards as well.
Not only for the above reasons is this good for high-end PvP'ers, but the people you deem as "casual PvP'ers" may end up finding a greater interest in arena if they are able to play against a greater pool of players and are able to queue with friends from other realms. This may mean that they end up becoming new high-end PvP'ers to add to that competition.
1. i just hope they implement something so that not every random i group up with for a quest or something can just queue up and ruin my rating.
That's a valid concern. I would assume (read; this isn't validated by actual facts, it's a personal thought) that there will be a prompt to enter the arena to prevent such action, declining it would mean that your personal statistics are not damaged. I will look into this and find out what kind of safeguards are in place to prevent abuse of people trying to damage ratings by queuing you up unexpectedly.
Or we need a skirmish mode.
We understand that there are lots of people that want skirmish arena back. We have plans for it to return, but unfortunately we aren't able to say when it will be back at this time. When we have more information about skirmishes coming back, we'll let you all know about it
I feel that even though this new system looks great, the feel of accomplishment of playing together as a team to reach that high rating or for some players even rank one, will be gone.
We understood that there would be some losses from introducing this new system but felt that more would be gained from it. We know that there are players that really enjoy the customization of teams and the comradery that came from them. We are still looking into options to help with preserving this feeling. Don't forget that these changes are still in early development, so keep your eyes open for new information about them.
That's very nice! Still, when you get thrown off, getting back will take approx 10 seconds it self.
The duration of the immunity may change in future iterations of the PTR, but feel free to test it out and give your feedback. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Warrior Shield Requirements
Drede makes a lot of good points, much of which is in line with our thinking. We don't feel that looking up a macro on a website equates to player skill. He brings up a few other points (such as the HP loss) that make the current system less than ideal as well. Allowing the abilities to be usable at any time and strapping on a shield as a visual effect lets us clean up the way the ability is used while also keeping the original flavor.
The current system also has an interesting effect on balance. When you have an ability as useful as Shield Wall or Spell Reflect, but only a handful of players actually know how to use it, how do you balance that class? If you assume (probably correctly) that the average player won't bother swapping to a shield, you risk making the players who do swap too powerful. On the other hand, if you balance around the players using macros, you risk leaving everyone else behind.
It's a fascinating problem (from a design perspective) that is, ultimately, best resolved by just cleaning up how the abilities work to begin with. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Patch 5.4 Paladin Burden of Guilt Change
A few points of clarification:
First off, we don't feel that this change is adding more crowd control to the game. As several posters in this thread have pointed out, taking Evil is a Point of View means you aren't taking Fist of Justice (which the vast majority of PvP Paladins are using in 5.3) or Repentance. You're sacrificing (or significantly weakening) one form of CC in order to gain another.
That said, it does allow access to a different form of CC. We feel it will open up some more options for Paladins in different Arena compositions. Though it may be less desirable if you're running with, for example, a Warlock or Priest, you may prefer it if you're with, say, a Rogue or Feral Druid.
We're also seeing very, very little usage out of Burden of Guilt. Right now, as I mentioned, the vast majority of PvP Paladins are using Fist of Justice. Of the remainder, most are taking Repentance. In fact, the majority of players taking Burden of Guilt are using it as Protection in PvE, and even then it's a very small percentage.
That said, we are still monitoring feedback very closely (that's what the PTR is for, after all). Hopefully this helps clear up our thinking a bit so that the discussion can continue!
The fact that there are so many forms of cc with different DRs available to different classes is exactly why so many people feel cc is out of control in pvp right now, why the heck would you intentionally make the problem worse?
This change doesn't add any more CC to the teams that are already heavily stacking it -- those teams will likely continue using Fist of Justice (or in some cases Repentance) as they are currently. It just allows the Paladin more options when they're on a team that doesn't synergize quite as well with another stun or incapacitate.
The diminishing returns issue is one we've talked about a few times. It's definitely a concern, but not one that we can really effectively address mid-expansion.
Even further, by taking the talent you can no longer use Turn Evil against Undead/Demons which I'm using now more than ever before due to the prevalence of Priests/Warlocks/DKs where it's very useful.
To clarify: you will still be able to cast Turn Evil against Undead and Demons with the talent selected. Not sure if that's what you were suggesting or not (I can see why you wouldn't want to) but wanted to make sure. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Patch 5.4 Hunter Changes
As I've mentioned before, we're still discussing Hunter concerns. When we have an update, we will share it.
Please do not mistake silence for ignorance; we're following the discussion closely, and your constructive feedback is extremely valuable as part of the testing process. If we didn't want to hear it, we wouldn't have a PTR Discussion Forum (or even a PTR) in the first place. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Really? Must have missed that in the Patch Notes.
They are not planned to return with patch 5.4 at this time, this is why you didn't see it in the patch notes. We do plan on bringing them back in the future, we simply don't have a set date for when that will be, though.
If I may; why not? It's not hard to implement.
From an outside perspective, I can see why you would assume that. To the outside observer, bringing skirmishes back into the game should be as simple as flicking a switch to reactivate the old system. The issue is that it's sadly not that simple because while it may have functioned just fine with a previous version of the game, that doesn't guarantee that it will work now.
We hope to have skirmishes back soon, but we cannot make any promises on when that will be for the moment. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Patch 5.4 Arena Changes
1. You cant play with random bad friends if you are serious because you will lose alot of rating
If you don't want to or cannot play with you're friends because your afraid of them ruining your rating, then there is unfortunately nothing that can be changed with the game to help with your particular dilemma. Even the old system didn't allow for this because you would also be afraid of them tanking your team and personal ratings.
2. seen what happend rbgs? wintrade wintrade wintrade someone will find a way to abuse it
We do take actions against cheating players, as has been seen in the past. Just because these actions are not made visible to the public does not change the fact that we take cheating very seriously. If you would like to report information regarding cheats or hacks, you can send it directly to hacks@blizzard.com. We will be keeping an eye out for any abuse of the new system and take action where necessary.
If you want, jump onto the PTR to test the system once it's up and running. If you find any ways in which it can be abused, then please feel free to report it to us so that we can look into it.
3. this is only good for casuals or pve'ers that want to do pvp, not for the real pvpers its just gonna ruin it.
Please elaborate on why you think that this is so bad for the "real PvP'ers". In the long run this increases the pool of potential players greatly. This means that queue times will drop, the number of end of season rewards will increase and there will also be a larger competition for those rewards as well.
Not only for the above reasons is this good for high-end PvP'ers, but the people you deem as "casual PvP'ers" may end up finding a greater interest in arena if they are able to play against a greater pool of players and are able to queue with friends from other realms. This may mean that they end up becoming new high-end PvP'ers to add to that competition.
1. i just hope they implement something so that not every random i group up with for a quest or something can just queue up and ruin my rating.
That's a valid concern. I would assume (read; this isn't validated by actual facts, it's a personal thought) that there will be a prompt to enter the arena to prevent such action, declining it would mean that your personal statistics are not damaged. I will look into this and find out what kind of safeguards are in place to prevent abuse of people trying to damage ratings by queuing you up unexpectedly.
Or we need a skirmish mode.
We understand that there are lots of people that want skirmish arena back. We have plans for it to return, but unfortunately we aren't able to say when it will be back at this time. When we have more information about skirmishes coming back, we'll let you all know about it
I feel that even though this new system looks great, the feel of accomplishment of playing together as a team to reach that high rating or for some players even rank one, will be gone.
We understood that there would be some losses from introducing this new system but felt that more would be gained from it. We know that there are players that really enjoy the customization of teams and the comradery that came from them. We are still looking into options to help with preserving this feeling. Don't forget that these changes are still in early development, so keep your eyes open for new information about them.
That's very nice! Still, when you get thrown off, getting back will take approx 10 seconds it self.
The duration of the immunity may change in future iterations of the PTR, but feel free to test it out and give your feedback. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Warrior Shield Requirements
Drede makes a lot of good points, much of which is in line with our thinking. We don't feel that looking up a macro on a website equates to player skill. He brings up a few other points (such as the HP loss) that make the current system less than ideal as well. Allowing the abilities to be usable at any time and strapping on a shield as a visual effect lets us clean up the way the ability is used while also keeping the original flavor.
The current system also has an interesting effect on balance. When you have an ability as useful as Shield Wall or Spell Reflect, but only a handful of players actually know how to use it, how do you balance that class? If you assume (probably correctly) that the average player won't bother swapping to a shield, you risk making the players who do swap too powerful. On the other hand, if you balance around the players using macros, you risk leaving everyone else behind.
It's a fascinating problem (from a design perspective) that is, ultimately, best resolved by just cleaning up how the abilities work to begin with. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Patch 5.4 Paladin Burden of Guilt Change
A few points of clarification:
First off, we don't feel that this change is adding more crowd control to the game. As several posters in this thread have pointed out, taking Evil is a Point of View means you aren't taking Fist of Justice (which the vast majority of PvP Paladins are using in 5.3) or Repentance. You're sacrificing (or significantly weakening) one form of CC in order to gain another.
That said, it does allow access to a different form of CC. We feel it will open up some more options for Paladins in different Arena compositions. Though it may be less desirable if you're running with, for example, a Warlock or Priest, you may prefer it if you're with, say, a Rogue or Feral Druid.
We're also seeing very, very little usage out of Burden of Guilt. Right now, as I mentioned, the vast majority of PvP Paladins are using Fist of Justice. Of the remainder, most are taking Repentance. In fact, the majority of players taking Burden of Guilt are using it as Protection in PvE, and even then it's a very small percentage.
That said, we are still monitoring feedback very closely (that's what the PTR is for, after all). Hopefully this helps clear up our thinking a bit so that the discussion can continue!
The fact that there are so many forms of cc with different DRs available to different classes is exactly why so many people feel cc is out of control in pvp right now, why the heck would you intentionally make the problem worse?
This change doesn't add any more CC to the teams that are already heavily stacking it -- those teams will likely continue using Fist of Justice (or in some cases Repentance) as they are currently. It just allows the Paladin more options when they're on a team that doesn't synergize quite as well with another stun or incapacitate.
The diminishing returns issue is one we've talked about a few times. It's definitely a concern, but not one that we can really effectively address mid-expansion.
Even further, by taking the talent you can no longer use Turn Evil against Undead/Demons which I'm using now more than ever before due to the prevalence of Priests/Warlocks/DKs where it's very useful.
To clarify: you will still be able to cast Turn Evil against Undead and Demons with the talent selected. Not sure if that's what you were suggesting or not (I can see why you wouldn't want to) but wanted to make sure. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Patch 5.4 Hunter Changes
As I've mentioned before, we're still discussing Hunter concerns. When we have an update, we will share it.
Please do not mistake silence for ignorance; we're following the discussion closely, and your constructive feedback is extremely valuable as part of the testing process. If we didn't want to hear it, we wouldn't have a PTR Discussion Forum (or even a PTR) in the first place. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
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