Season 14 Rogue Armor Set Preview, Multiple LFR Queues, Blue Posts, DLC #399

World PvP and Item Levels
World PvP is inherently imbalanced. The reality is that a "fair" fight rarely happens. Someone gets the drop on the other, or is already in combat, or not at full health, or has friends with them... the list goes on. We're not convinced that gear has a terribly significant impact in the vast majority of world PvP.

We're also not convinced that, even in the cases where you are on an even playing field, there's nothing you can do if you're constantly losing. World of Warcraft is an MMORPG -- a social game. Part of the point of playing on a PvP server is making friends and allies that can bail you out when you're in trouble. If you don't want to play that way, that's fine, but that's why we have PvE servers available.

That said, we also get why it's frustrating when you feel like you could have beaten somebody if only you had those few extra item levels. We'd like to fix that, but it's not in the cards for 5.4. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

PvP
how many season remains before the next expansion? 2? the season 15 is actually not in ptr but exist.
We haven't decided yet. Might depend on how the 5.4 season goes. (Source)

PvE
4/12. In cataclysm each raid tier was out long enough for us to slowly work through it. Faster release in mop makes that hard
Yes, this is a problem w/ faster pace. We either have to nerf content a lot or you have to move on without finishing a tier. (Source)

Why shouldn't they have faster progression? In TBC, my guild was in SSC/TK when top guilds were in BT. I was fine with that.
If you're talking about the same difficulty tier, sure. SSC/TK was all one difficulty. We have (Jeez) six now. (Source)
Honestly? That's too many. I know you're trying to cater to everyone, but it makes difficulty feel artificial.
I dunno. Halo and Civilization have a lot of difficulty levels. It's a traditional inclusive mechanic. (Source)

It's a bit complex as Heroics slid down in the order of progression with LFR. Some legit points I think.
I often wonder if harder heroic dungeons would work if there was no matchmaking, like heroic scenarios. (Source)
People are using add-ons to bypass the lack of match-making on heroic scenarios now.
Are you talking like Open Raid? We dig stuff like that overall. A pug isn't random matchmaking. (Source)
A pug has a leader who can invite or kick or make rules. You choose to live with that or find another group. (Source)
In terms of game health, social groups > pugs > random matchmaking > not grouping at all. That last bit is why LFR exists. (Source)

I just wondering, why devs are considering 25ppls as more epic? Crowd = mess, not epic.
Speaking personally, I like the fiction that the boss is so powerful that it takes a huge army of heroes to bring him or her down. (Source)

I'm split when it comes to TFgear. It's just too random and can effect progression between two guilds. Otherwise yea it's good
It doesn't affect progression that much. Not getting a weapon at all has a much bigger impact than someone getting a TF weapon. (Source)
Thats a problem in 10 man raids. TF loots dont drop so often and when they drop sometimes no one can use it.
We think that's a good thing though. Loot was more interesting when everyone didn't have the expectation of BiS every tier. (Source)
In effect what your saying is that PROGRESSION (i.e loot) was more interesting when only fewer people did it
No, it just felt more special to get loot when your 40 player raid got 2-3 items. The rates are like 4x that now. (Source)
That leads to the expectation of getting all BiS, which further makes any non BiS worth passing over instead of nice items. (Source)

will there be an easy worldboss in 5.4 as well?
Yes. We've tried to have an easy boss and a harder boss each patch, but Oondasta and Galleon ended up being too zergable. (Source)

Raid Finder
Are there any plans to help remedy the issue of rampant widespread rudeness in LFR/LFG?
What are you thinking? Some kind of +1 reward if a player is a decent human being? (Not joking.) (Source)

Do you believe making raid content accessible via LFR reduces sense of achievement, communication & social skills?
I think those are all downsides for LFR. Those aren't reasons to kill the feature, i.e. it has upsides too. (Source)

I don't think the last part is addressed by LFR in anyway. Essentially its a loot pinata with zero communication.
But players are seeing the content and spending time raiding instead of not doing that. Sans LFR they'd just log out. (Source)

Flex Difficulty
it's fun to play palatank with haste i think all agrees but what about dps stuff that tanks take away from dps? lot of times
Loot is personal in LFR and someday will be in dungeons. That just leaves organized raids, and you guys can work it out there. (Source)
so you're saying flex will use normal raid loot in future? Or will it use LFR loot system.
We don't know yet. Perhaps we'll let the raid leader decide which loot model to use. Flex uses LFR loot for 5.4 though. (Source)
I don't see there being much attraction to flex if the loot isn't even close to normal mode ilvl.
If you're capable of doing Normal, than Flex really isn't targeted at you. (Source)
Flex is for groups with erratic raid schedules, unstable rosters and so on. (Source)
That's very sad to hear. Been doing N10 since ICC, but we value friends over progress so it's a struggle. Currently 4/16.
If you value friends over progression, then you might be a good candidate for Flex. Maybe give it a shot? (Source)
Flex raid is just you throwing us the leftover bones as if we were dogs.. We wanted N raiding tuned for N raiders
Maybe we should rename Normal. I think some of you are getting hung up on the name. (Source)
In my opinion it's that the name didn't change while N. raids now are almost like H. from Wrath.
And this is where flex comes in. If you liked ICC 10s, then Flex is for you. If you liked Cataclysm 10s, then normal is for you. (Source)
That isn't really true of 25s, which are about the same as they've always been. We did make 10s harder since they drop same ilvl. (Source)
How do you feel that's worked out? Was it worth the cost? (eg. fractured community, no casual-mode until Flex, etc.).
Not sure it was the right call TBH. Maybe the ICC model was better. (Source)

How fast/slow are you planning to open Flex for SoO compared to LFR?
Not sure yet. We'd like for it to be sooner though. We want flex to seem more attractive to someone on the fence. (Source)

Dungeons
outdoor dungeons are 1 thing I miss about classic, are the dino isle and timeless island an attempt at bringing them back?
Siege was pretty much an outdoor dungeon. Or is that not what you meant? (Source)

Would need options b/c folks are used to H-Dungeons for valor. Take away speed, back to Cata
Right. That was the problem with Cata -- matchmaking and no alternatives. (Source)
But hard+organized = loot efficient with easier+matchmaking = less loot efficient could work. (Source)

you mean challenge modes?
Well, Challenge Modes with gear. Random matchmaking doesn't work when tight coordination is required. (Source)

If heroics are so simple, stop calling them heroics. Make 90 dungs base, add non-matchmaking heroic setting w/good items.
I'm not sure either the dungeon nor raid difficulty names are good ones. But renaming them all can be pretty confusing too. (Source)

I know its not popular opinion, but l loved the cata heroics. Couldn't stick to std rotations.
I liked Cata heroics (though a couple were still overtuned) but they worked for guilds not pugs. (Source)
why did you not like cata heroic randoms? You act like we just cant complete it.
The success rate overall was not good. In the absence of alternatives it meant a lot of players had no content. (Source)
I hoped players would rise to the occasion. Recall my "dungeons are hard" blog. (Source)
But that was naive of me in a world of random matchmaking for hard content. The two aren't compatible. (Source)
Now, a good pug with a strong leader isn't the same as random matchmaking mind you. (Source)