Tier 16 Priest, 5.4 Dev Interviews, 5.4 PTR Notes Update, Raid Testing, Blue Posts

Loyalty Giveaway Concluded, 9 Wins in the Hearthstone Arena, Gelbin Missing Animations

Patch 5.4 - Tier 16 Priest Armor Set
Keep in mind that this is just a preview and the final set may be different.





Patch 5.4 Developer Interviews
Horde for Life had the chance to interview Marco Koegler (Technical Director) recently. You can find information from previous interviews on our Patch 5.4 Developer Interviews page.


Technical Aspects
  • Developing WoW with countries that have poor network connectivity in mind is part of the reason why you can play WoW relatively well on a poorer connection.
  • Making the game feel like you are playing locally by compensating for latency on the client and server end has always been an important part of development.
  • Fixes that took days in the past now take a matter of hours thanks to the advancement in how patching is done.
  • Whenever new features are added, people on older hardware are kept in mind to make sure the game is playable for them still. It is a painful process to maintain that kind of compatibility, but Blizzard doesn't want people to be unable to play the game due to new features.

Gameplay
  • The BMAH has been successful at giving players that are focused on earning gold items to purchase, such as mounts, pets, transmog sets, and other things. It was also useful in phasing in access to the Brawler's Guild. There aren't any changes to the BMAH planned. It isn't decided yet if new locations will be added outside of Pandaria in the future.
  • CCP allows players to run somewhat more freely with the economy, but Blizzard is interested in making sure that no one has a severe impact on other players.

Experiments and the Economy
  • The Guardian Cub was an experiment in allowing people to sell an item purchased with real currency for gold. If it would have been hugely popular, we might have seen more things like it. Playing with an established economy is dangerous though, so the devs are careful not to do anything major.
  • There are currently no plans to directly sell gold to players. It wouldn't be popular with players or good for the game.
  • The new items added to the in game store in Patch 5.4 are really only targeted at Asia as time saving conveniences. Blizzard definitely doesn't want to venture into the pay to win territory or change the current business model. It is an experiment, similar to the Guardian Cub.

Previous Expansions
  • At one point in developing the water effects for Cataclysm the oceans were 3D, moving up and down and side to side, but it looked odd with characters swimming in it. Having the waves move players or making them less visible under waves didn't work out well, so the team went with a 2D water surface with a ripple effect.
  • Vashj'ir made it difficult to place spells in a 3D environment. There was also an underwater wave effect that gave some people motion sickness, which was addressed by making the effect less pronounced in the center of the screen.


Patch 5.4 PTR Patch Notes Update - August 20
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
General
Battlefield: Barrens
  • Vol’jin and his forces move beyond gathering supplies and into a full assault on the Horde capital. As such, the Battlefield: Barrens weekly quest will no longer be available once the invasion on Orgrimmar begins in 5.4.
  • Ravika, the Darkspear Rebellion Quartermaster, will no longer be available.
  • Latent Kor'kron armor tokens will no longer drop or be available for purchase. Players who still have a Radical Mojo will continue to be able to combine it with existing Latent Kor'kron armor tokens.
  • Gahz'rooki's Summoning Stone and Raptorhide Boxing Gloves are now available as a rare drop from Kor’kron, and other associated creatures in Northern Barrens.

Classes
Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Frost
    • Frost Strike now deals 115% weapons damage (up from 105% weapon damage).
    • Obliterate now deals 250% weapon damage (up from 230% weapon damage).

Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Glyphs
    • Major Glyphs

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • General
  • Enhancement
    • Lava Lash now deals 260% weapon damage (down from 300% weapon damage).
  • Talents
    • Echo of the Elements' spell duplication effect can no longer occur more than once every 4 seconds when used against hostile players, and their pets or guardians.

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Affliction
    • Soul Swap no longer does any damage, and now copies damage-over-time effects instead of just moving them without needing a glyph. Copied effects now once again preserve their power and duration. Duration has been reduced to 3 seconds (down from 20 seconds).

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Arms
    • Slam now deals 25% more damage, but the Rage cost has been increased by 25% as well. While Sweeping Strikes is active, Slam will deal 35% of damage dealt against the primary target to all other enemies within 2 yards, and targets affected by Colossus Smash receives 10% more damage.

General
  • Surprise Attack!: Fixed an issue where players may sometimes not receive credit for defeating Hei Feng.

Battlegrounds and Arenas
  • All non-gladiator gear in Battlegrounds, Rated Battlegrounds, and Arenas will be scaled down to an item level ceiling of 496.
    • Grievous Gladiator gear is exempt from this item level ceiling.
    • The item level ceiling will increase at a rate of 1 item level point per week until it reaches a maximum of 512.

Raid Testing Schedule - August 21
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
On Wednesday , August 21, we will continue testing raid encounters in the Siege of Orgrimmar raid.

Each encounter should be available at approximately the listed times below for all Public Test Realms.

Wednesday , August 21
  • Norushen - 25 Player Normal - 10:30 PDT (13:30 EDT, 19:30 CEST)
  • Thok the Bloodthirsty- 25 Player Normal - 13:30 PDT (16:30 EDT, 22:30 CEST)
  • Garrosh Hellscream - 25 Player Normal - 16:00 PDT (19:00 EDT, 01:00 CEST)

As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a beta environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session, change the boss being tested, or cancel a test entirely, due to bugs, server hardware issues, etc. Keep an eye on this forum for the latest information, and thank you in advance for testing and providing feedback.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Change to RPPM Mechanics
As an update to this, as part of our continued balancing, we're going to increase the "time since last proc" reset on boss pulls to 120 seconds. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Experience Increase Potions
Hold your horses. The in-game store items that you mentioned may be popular in Asia, but we have to see what pans out here in Europe and the US. They may not make it into the game at all if we don't feel it's the right thing to do. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
IMO sets that become classics are ones that embody a class in some way. T16 has coherent theme accross all sets, but doesn't -
I see what you're saying, but polls of best sets always skew towards early ones, which makes me think nostalgia plays a big role. (Source)

Please rethink this RPPM change. Fun trinkets like UVLS are now having stupid low uptimes. Better yet, go to back to ICD.
ICD trinkets just feel passive. Every 10 sec, you get 1000 stats like clockwork. With RPPM we wanted to recapture fun double procs. (Source)

quick q: do you guys nerf drop rates anywhere near as often as people think you do without telling us in patch notes?
No. (Source)

the expansion is coming to an end and for the first time in the last 3 I don't have all classes at level cap. Alts != fun atm.
Many players got so many maxed out alts during the final patch in ICC and DS. (Source)
mostly the gear hump once you ding 90. Takes so much maintenance to be current. Wish valor ot Ancients stacked
If you go Flex or Heroic Scenarios, there is no ilevel. If you want higher ilevel for that or other content try Timeless Isle (Source)
Hscenario takes ilvl I'm almost sure.
In 5.3. Not in 5.4. We concluded that premade content generally doesn't need those requirements, (Source)
You seem to miss that many heroic scenario groups are being built using the trade chat. It's infact not premade
Premade is premade. If you invite even a stranger you have a chance to vet or kick them. (Source)

will the item upgrade NPC stay with the release of 5.4?
That is what we are thinking at the moment. (Source)

So, will I be able to send heirlooms to a connected realm?
The goal of connected realms is to give you folks to play with, not to give you more alts. (Source)
I'm not saying it won't happen, but just keep the goal in mind -- that's our priority. (Source)

Also did you play pre-reforge version of WOW? believe me no one wants it back reforge became core of wow's end game style.
Can you explain why? Nobody is making interesting decisions, except possibly healers. Everyone else follows a website or calculator. (Source)
Reforging is good because it means the gap between BiS and everything else is smaller. "Interesting" isn't relevant.
Interesting decisions are much more important to the developers than the gap between BiS and not BiS. YMMV. (Source)
the only real gap exists between "interesting for developers" and "interesting for players".
They are sometimes at odds since the player mindset is typically to remove obstacles and the developers' is to add them. (Source)
It may be counter intuitive, but obstacles are fun. Curving tracks with hills and koopas > straight drag strips. (Source)

For hardcore raiders, having highly geared "Alts" is needed.
That's a choice very competitive guilds make. I don't see why we'd need to make alts easier to level and gear just for them. (Source)

Then stop adding flavor items that players can't collect. Do you expect people to farm for items then trash them?
Inventory space is a resource. It has been since vanilla. (Source)

And that's different from the current legendaries how? You created the sense of entitlement by making them readily available
The cloaks are just a different cat entirely. Nearly everyone can get them. The original question was class-specific weapons. (Source)
In some ways, we thought glaives worked better than daggers, when rogues could sort of know the date they would be completed. (Source)

25 Death Knight Mogu'shan Vaults
OpenRaid and #Acherus will be running an Alliance-US Mogu'shan Vaults this weekend with only Death Knights!

This article was originally published in forum thread: Tier 16 Priest, 5.4 Dev Interviews, 5.4 PTR Notes Update, Raid Testing, Blue Posts started by chaud View original post
Published on 2013-08-21 04:32 AM
53 Comments
Comments 53 Comments
  1. Edlarel's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Farora View Post
    That has to be the ugliest and most uninspired tier set yet.

    Also, damnit at making ele shamans less fun.
    I happen to like this set and am even considering pulling my priest out of retirement to run LFR for whichever version it has available.
  1. Sodia's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by voskopoula View Post
    Some 1-2 weeks ago some posters told me to stop whining and that changes are not final. I wrote then, that no matter what, these nerfs will happen and the community will be happy about them because just before the patch, blizzard will remove 1-2 of them. That this is their strategy, to implement nerfs without the nerfed spec community whine or stop playing by throwing many nerfs in the ptr only to remove some just before the patch goes live.
    Some posters in here said i was nuts but oh look! 1 nerf went out, all the enhancement shaman community will stop whining and boom! ptr goes live with 4 nerfs.!
    so whots your point ?? they almost destroy that clas with no big reson !! This is exacly whot take old subscribers from the game they got bored from this crap and move along and no new players ar comin But whu we ar to tel them how to do ther jobs is ther Job to begin with
  1. VanishO2's Avatar
    "For hardcore raiders, having highly geared "Alts" is needed.
    That's a choice very competitive guilds make. I don't see why we'd need to make alts easier to level and gear just for them."

    Funny how ppl use hardcore raiders as a excuse for whatever they want... not matter if it doesn't make any sense.

    When they want things nerfed or easily handed, they complain about Blizzard thinking about the "minority" hardcore raiders. Now they want even easier alts and say that Blizzard SHOULD catter to hardcore raiders, because geared alts are needed... ok.
  1. Shudder's Avatar
    "So, will I be able to send heirlooms to a connected realm?
    The goal of connected realms is to give you folks to play with, not to give you more alts."

    So that's a no. Pathetic.

    "Inventory space is a resource. It has been since vanilla."

    Stfu with this shit. Make stacks go to 99 not 20. Sick of their excuses. As for all that ignorant crap he spewed about alts. It's like they don't even play the game. People like leveling and gearing alts. I don't give a shit if the developers don't like it, WE the fucking paying customers do. Get your head out of your ass.
  1. mmoc40beaa2269's Avatar
    priest set ?? it looks more like its made for druids..
  1. Crovyn's Avatar
    What annoys me is that 99,9% of GCs replies he shoots down and oberservation or suggestion with something silly or illogical. There is always at least a "but". The arrogance he shows is infuriating.
  1. SodiumChloride's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by voskopoula View Post
    Some 1-2 weeks ago some posters told me to stop whining and that changes are not final. I wrote then, that no matter what, these nerfs will happen and the community will be happy about them because just before the patch, blizzard will remove 1-2 of them. That this is their strategy, to implement nerfs without the nerfed spec community whine or stop playing by throwing many nerfs in the ptr only to remove some just before the patch goes live.
    Some posters in here said i was nuts but oh look! 1 nerf went out, all the enhancement shaman community will stop whining and boom! ptr goes live with 4 nerfs.!
    LOL. I think you are giving Blizzard too much credit. I doubt they would bother to "engineer" a PR response of that complexity. They are probably used to the whining now. LOL. QQing without a good argument to back up your QQ will just get your QQ ignored.
  1. voskopoula's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Crovyn View Post
    What annoys me is that 99,9% of GCs replies he shoots down and oberservation or suggestion with something silly or illogical. There is always at least a "but". The arrogance he shows is infuriating.
    dude you are totally right. He is arrogant and he chooses dumb questions to reply to and he replies to with an ironic attitude. Does he not know what happened to everquest?

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by SodiumChloride View Post
    LOL. I think you are giving Blizzard too much credit. I doubt they would bother to "engineer" a PR response of that complexity. They are probably used to the whining now. LOL. QQing without a good argument to back up your QQ will just get your QQ ignored.
    my QQ wasn't ignored back then, it was just that some posters thought i was over reacting. I am just saying that this has happened many times before in many patches to many specs and the strategy of blizzard was the same. Throw 10 nerfs in ptr, make community go crazy, remove 4 nerfs before live and voila, community nerfed but happy.
    I am not the first to see this attitude towards community in wow, many have seen it and wrote about it in the last 4-5 years
  1. girlTheory's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by mytherandir View Post
    it looks more like its made for druids..
    This was my first thought! I don't mind it so much since there's xmog, but it's been a while since I've (personally) been excited about a priest tier set.
  1. SodiumChloride's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by voskopoula View Post
    my QQ wasn't ignored back then, it was just that some posters thought i was over reacting. I am just saying that this has happened many times before in many patches to many specs and the strategy of blizzard was the same. Throw 10 nerfs in ptr, make community go crazy, remove 4 nerfs before live and voila, community nerfed but happy.
    I am not the first to see this attitude towards community in wow, many have seen it and wrote about it in the last 4-5 years
    As I said, you are probably over think it.

    They are just probably nerfing and buffing as they see fit. There is no "strategy".

    And when did Blizzard ever give a rat's ass about whether the "community" is happy? Your whining on the forums have next to zero effect on Blizzard FYI. However if you can produce a good arguement with proper data backing said argument, then yes, you have a chance of effecting change. Otherwise, you are just wasting bandwidth as Blizzard isn't going to put the design of the game up to a vote.

    Look at all the bitching about CRZ ... it's still here. LOL.
  1. Jueles's Avatar
    Since when do priest bring to mind birds? I am not keen on the T16, okay I can live with the shoulders (although lifting my arms to heal with those shoulder...don't know about that), the helm no way (bird beak), and I'm fed up with the robes they keep giving us (ugly). I think priest should look elegant - ethereal - spiritual. Remember the days when walking around Ironforge in full Tier 1 meant you were something? Tier 2 was a really "wow look at that priest" (I kept all my Tier 2, I worked so hard to get it all way back when). I liked my Tier 5 and Tier 6 also. No comment on cloaks, I generally just hide mine, hide the helm also unless it is really a look I'm going for that day. Ah well- I could transmog -

    I do miss the days when you could tell a class from a distance just by their gear - well unless it was a certain rogue I knew who dressed to look like a priest and would join 5 mans as healer and see if anybody noticed(Vanilla). He was great at bandaging
  1. Metacrias's Avatar
    I think that developers need to take a more serious look at ways to allow dedicated, tested players do harder material without premade groups (allowing random flex raids, heroic scenarios, etc). My issue is my schedule: I play WoW A LOT, but I teach a course at my University (I'm a PhD Cand.), work a second night-job, and generally have a sporadic, ever-changing schedule. Most guilds won't keep me on as a raider because I can't commit to specific times and nights weeks in advance or with guaranteed regularity. Yet lfr is too easy, heroic scenarios can't be done randomly, the gear I can get on my own isn't optimal... I want more challenge, but my schedule (and many other players' schedules) doesn't allow me to plan what nights I'll be available for what more than a few days in advance - all I've got is lfr now and it's frustrating.

    Why not implement random flex-raids (with their higher ilvl rewards) and random heroic scenarios, but do so in a way that ensure that more serious players are going to be the vast majority choosing to do them. Perhaps require they run a particular lfr or random heroic once normally before allowing access to doing that one with a random group? Perhaps have certain higher ilvls required to run'em? Maybe have a set of one-time 'tests' for a toon to 'qualify' for access to special, high-difficulty randoms?

    It would be great to have a set of individual scenario/challenges to qualify to be allowed to run random flexes, random heroic scenarios and RANDOM CHALLENGE MODES for regular dungeons. I, and many other players in similar situations, would love to access this content but am limited by an unpredictable schedule from being able to do so easily and regularly by the current means of accessing this content. Guilds don't want members for regular raids, challenge mode dungeons, heroic scenarios who can't guarantee regular availability on a set time schedule, current random content is too easy... Allow randoms for challenge mode, flex raids and heroic scenarios but find some means of ensuring that those who can access them are serious about it (more exclusive, but available to everyone so long as they commit to improving their play individually and in a way that does not necessitate guild membership or premade groups).
  1. Explicit Teemo Nudes's Avatar
    Well how could they not see reforgning would turn out the way it is? Damn, Blizzard developers are really stupid. I thought they mostly implemented the feature to a) give players another way to "personalize" and decide over their characters, and b) another gold dump mechanic.
Page 3 of 3 FirstFirst
1
2
3

Site Navigation

Social Media

Services

My Account

Support

Advertise

Resources

Terms of Service

Privacy Policy

Our Communities

© 2023 Magic Find, Inc. All rights reserved.