Patch 5.4 PTR - Build 17345

Diablo 3 Console Interview, Blue Posts, Reaper of Souls Wallpaper

Beta Patch 3749 - EU Preparation Patch

Patch 5.4 - Spawn of Galakras
Patch 5.4 adds the Reins of Galakras mount, which is a reward from the Glory of the Orgrimmar Raider achievement. Keep in mind that this achievement can be completed in Flex, Normal, or Heroic difficulty.


FEEDBACK: The Gates of Retribution (LFR)
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
The second wing of Siege of Orgrimmar is now available on Raid Finder mode, and will remain available through Monday, September 2.

Please use this thread to provide feedback on any of the bosses being tested in this wing, including group makeup (premade, random, mixed) and Determination stack count.

PTR Hotfix to RPPM Mechanics
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Hi folks,

Over the last few days we identified a glitch that was causing the “time since last chance to proc” counter of RPPM mechanics to reset unnecessarily, regardless of whether the effect had actually had a chance to activate. This was resulting in much lower than intended proc rates for RPPM effects on the 5.4 PTR.

We’ve applied a hotfix that should resolve the issue, but wanted you to be aware – RPPM trinkets (and other effects) should be activating more regularly on the PTR now. Note that this issue was unique to the 5.4 PTR and is not present on live servers.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Battlefield: Barrens Ending Soon
Vanity rewards that reflect the achievements of the player should follow the player, not simply be restricted to a character that may very well be set aside one day.
Agree to disagree? I have my Tabard of the Protector on a single character, and I'll always cherish that item, and remember that I was there for the Burning Crusade launch with that specific character. She was there, she stepped through the portal at midnight, and that's not some generic reward all my characters have. I can see the appeal of having that available to all my characters, but personally I quite like that the character itself has a history, and has individual accomplishments, rather than everything I do being given to every new character I make.

I totally get that not everyone is going to care about building a legacy of experience with each character, and they just want everything to be account-wide, but obviously there are others that appreciate that being at a point in the history of the game with a specific character leaves some kind of lasting mark on that character.

so glad I spent 2 hours last week farming the head-shrinka only for it to be removed. Cool.
It's not going to be removed from your character, he means removed from being obtainable to anyone that doesn't already have it. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Scenarios
about the gamebreaker interview: Heroic scenarios are not premade content. Most people chose the first people from trade chat
That's still premade, just premade without much effort. You still have more control over the group than LFD. (Source)
Have you forgot what desaster 5 mans were in tbc without df?
There was no alternative though. With scenarios, normal = matchmaking, heroic = premades. Could have worked for dungeons maybe. (Source)

Any chance on having the other scenarios scaled up to heroic? I really enjoy heroic scenarios.
No immediate plans, but we'd call heroic scenarios a big success. They are very popular, despite lack of matchmaking. Yay. (Source)

Raid Finder
No other game forces you to complete it on easy mode before you have access to the way was intended to be played
I think you are assuming intentions that aren't actually there. If you are an LFR player, then the intent is LFR is for you. (Source)

That's a very valid concern, and one I've raised. The activation barrier to being social is feeling insurmountable.
I don't think LFR is ever going to feel very social, nor was it intended to be. OTOH, features like Flex have a decent chance. (Source)

thoughts on limiting lfr? Say 10/12 available bosses -> incentive to push normals, exclusivity for norm/hc.
Potentially. We all like exclusive content. You just can't let that come at the expense of content in general. (Source)
but its also a question wether content is lfr appropriate by design. Lei Shen wasn't, so why force it? Sour taste.
We tried to push it a bit with Lei Shen LFR. Should it be a goal that NO communication or coordination is required for LFR ever? (Source)

It's infact a broad audience gamestyle, while organized raiding is and was niche.
That's not really accurate. LK Nax and ICC had huge participation without LFR. (Source)
The diff was they were fairly forgiving, which is what we're going for with flex. (Source)

It's essentially solo play. I don't know anyone else in LFR plus trolls are there
LFR is ideally for when you're between friends or your friends aren't online. (Source)
I just don't think playing WoW completely as a solo game would be a great experience. (Source)
We expect to see flex pugs spring up in a month. Even that is more social than LFR. (Source)
We will see how it will work out. I would love flex to be successfull.
Give it a few weeks for players to learn the fights and let us know how it goes. (Source)

I really have to agree here, it feels like being punished for only being able to run LFR
It's a carrot. If you can get every reward from LFR there is much less motivation to play with friends. (Source)
Short term, we get that solo is a big convenience. Long term, we think it drives players away from the game. (Source)
Your fixation on "organized gameplay" is scary, even if it is just not successfull at all.
It's a multiplayer game. Organized gameplay is it's heart and soul. (Source)
playing is it's heart and soul. And please tell me which letter in MMORPG stands for organized
The second one, as I said. If you ignore all those other players or treat them as NPCs then why not play Skyrim or something? (Source)

I would have to agree that LFR is in a weird place. It is fun for everybody to see it once or twice but then it gets old. fast
Some motivation to perform would go a long way. Currently success is nearly guaranteed whether you are paying attention or not. (Source)
I don't think we could make LFR so challenging that you have to perform well, but there are other approaches. (Source)

Items
Could you disable the chance for TF items to drop until after world first H clears? Or maybe "non-raid" patches.
Getting a weapon vs not during world first > getting a TF weapon vs non TF weapon. (Source)

Can you address 10m vs. 25m thunderforged loot? 10m almost never gets the drops they can use in TF form.
Ten has so many other benefits though. Doesn't 25 get to have a few? (Source)
weapons tend to be the biggest problem - can we just not have TF weapons at all?
It makes me sad to talk about removing the most exciting, powerful drops just because players can't count on getting them. (Source)
If I can't count on getting the best drops, that's fine. If Method can't, then something is wrong with the system
Method is affected far more by whether a weapon drops period than whether a TF one does. (Source)
They are going to clear the zone with very few drops per boss period. They may have raiders with 1-2 heroic pieces at first. (Source)

Why is that? NA Subs don't want harder bosses in 25 and gear separation? I miss how the loot diff was separate in 25.
We locked 10 and 25 based on burnout complaints from NA/EU but Asia had a strong tradition of running both, so they still can. (Source)
Note that I am generalizing regions here. No doubt there are burned out Chinese or NA/EU players who want to raid more a week. (Source)

ilvl jumps between tiers are insanely huge. why did you guys think this was a good idea?
Otherwise raiders can't improve their gear every week to beat new bosses. (Source)
We have also found, through feedback, that 13-19 ilevels of power feels, psychologically, like a noticeable increase. (Source)

PvE
Why not remove enrage timers from bosses in normal modes? WoW has too many guides for maxing DPS. This would help reduce that.
The timers are pretty relaxed in 5.2 compared to 5.0. Without them, risk of normal guilds bringing 10 healers and nearly no DPS. (Source)

You disguise "We were wrong" as "Were trying something else" though. Cant remember you ever saying you were wrong
We were wrong to make the DMF trinkets so powerful without giving them an appropriate ilevel to communicate that intent. (Source)
We were wrong to put so much emphasis on daily quests that locked gear in 5.0. (Source)
We were wrong to make Cataclysm dungeons hard without offering any alternative for the LFD crowd. (Source)
I'd like to see 4 difficulties for dungeons. Leveling, Max Level, Heroic Max Level, and Challenge. Epics for H mode like TBC.
Yeah, we think tough heroics could work so long as they aren't the only route to gearing for LFR and flex raiding. (Source)

I would be really pleased, knowing that I can be staisfied with 300 points in a busy week, and 1700 when I'm off duty.
Yeah the challenge is that if some players earned 1700 a week, others would think that's what they had to do to keep up. (Source)
why not put a cap limit on spending instead of gaining like lesser charms
I said a few weeks ago that a spending cap has potential. It just needs bulletproofing (example: We offer refunds). (Source)

LK model worked well here. Lots of new content addressed 11 geared toons now what syndrome. Not sustainable?
We saw the alt explosion in the ICC and DS tiers though. Guess which equivalent tier hasn't shipped yet. (Source)

so, unh, isn't it a little backwards to do so much raid testing before the tuning pass is done?
The raid testing helps us with the tuning and also with the raid mechanics (and fun) in general. (Source)
There will be plenty of raid tests with stable numbers as well. (Source)

Do you think that perhaps many people are intimidated by raiding guilds, and prefer to see content on own terms
I'm not sure that's common. You don't need to be in a hardcore guild to be in a fun guild that still raids (or not even). (Source)

Please don't even consider normal raids for flex. It's the last thing I really enjoy in this game, it's fine the way it is.
You aren't ever sad when you have to turn someone away or cancel a raid when too few show? That's the strength of flex. (Source)

with the celestials been the new nalak/sha. are the loot tables linked i.e. kill one thats it or 4 chances for loot
it's one a week. Pick which one you want to fight. (Source)
So to be clear, they all share the same loot-lockout and loot table?
Yes. (Source)

Have you guys ever considered/talked about, making your own verison, or possibly working with the guys from WoWProgress?
We would have to make a lot of hard calls, like whether skipping the 2nd boss to kill the 4th and 5th is more or less progress. (Source)

Fan Art
You can find a high res version of this artwork here.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Spawn of Galakras, 5.4 LFR Testing, PTR RPPM Hotfix, Blue Posts, Blue Tweets, Fan Art started by chaud View original post
Comments 56 Comments
  1. Resentful's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vegas82 View Post
    Considering how easy it is to get you shouldn't be complaining. Do it in flex and get a free mount. There are other mounts for this tier as well.
    Yeah a robot Scorpion Hah

    HAHAHAHHA
  1. Duende's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by arcaneshot View Post
    'Added spikes', as you put it, qualifies as a remodel.
    Yea... And youre ok with that? Lets just add spikes to everything!
  1. Soulfròst's Avatar
    I agree with the first guy who posted. Take this shitty excuse of a meta mount and shove it. Probably took 5 minutes to edit the current Red Proto-Drake into this.
  1. Kaleredar's Avatar
    The mount armor is fine.

    It just needs a better skin.

    It should be some persuasion of black, like the dragon Zaela was taming. Or maybe deep red, or something. The yellow stripes just look weird.
  1. Resentful's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kaleredar View Post
    The mount armor is fine.

    It just needs a better skin.

    It should be some persuasion of black, like the dragon Zaela was taming. Or maybe deep red, or something. The yellow stripes just look weird.
    It WAS black they turned it red for some reason lol
  1. Kaleredar's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Apathy - View Post
    It WAS black they turned it red for some reason lol
    They might have been worried about naxx 25 raiders going "QQ, the casuals are stealing our mount!"
  1. hobbsey's Avatar
    People who hate LFR should just stop doing it. I get it that they want the gear to cheese normal mode, but there are some people (like me) who would never get to see the encounters at all if it wasn't for LFR. It's annoying enough to deal with people's superior attitudes during the raid, but then I come here and see people asking for bosses to be removed for no reason other than they want to feel special or saying it's in a weird place when actually it works fine for its intended audience.
  1. mmoc93b0a7f85d's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by hobbsey View Post
    People who hate LFR should just stop doing it. I get it that they want the gear to cheese normal mode, but there are some people (like me) who would never get to see the encounters at all if it wasn't for LFR. It's annoying enough to deal with people's superior attitudes during the raid, but then I come here and see people asking for bosses to be removed for no reason other than they want to feel special or saying it's in a weird place when actually it works fine for its intended audience.
    Yeah, and while we are at it lets have all content do able in 5 minutes so that everyone can see it regardless of how much time they have available. Alternately, shall we consider the possibility that given your busy schedule maybe a MMO is not the game for you?
  1. Murlocbait's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by NigelGurney View Post
    Yeah, and while we are at it lets have all content do able in 5 minutes so that everyone can see it regardless of how much time they have available. Alternately, shall we consider the possibility that given your busy schedule maybe a MMO is not the game for you?
    Who are you to tell someone else what game he shouldn't be playing? It's not like "casuals" are crying out for Heroic mode raids to be nerfed so that they can sweep through them in 45 minutes. Blizzard created a raid mode that lets anyone see the content. If you're a raider, then you should absolutely LOVE LFR, because it means Blizzard can focus more on raiding than ever before. Tier 14 had three decent-sized raids, ToT was huge, SoO is even freakin' bigger. Want to know why the current raids are so large? LFR. Since everyone can now raid in one form or another, Blizzard can focus on it much more than ever before. The biggest complaint about things like original Naxx and Sunwell, was that Blizz put time into them and only a small section of the player base could see them. Now that raids are open to everyone, on one form or another, Blizzard can make raids bigger and better than ever before.

    Also, cut this "5 minute" BS please. Right now, for someone to do all of ToT in LFR, all four wings, including queue time, and assuming they get into a good group that doesn't manage to somehow still wipe on Ji-kun or Durumu, will take at least 4-6 hours a week. Hmm, 4-6 hours a week of raiding... sounds an awful lot like casual raid guilds that clear Normal mode content all the time. There are just people who can't schedule those 4-6 hours in a way that works for organized, pre-made raiding, so for them, LFR lets them put in the time and effort to get the experience and loot that everyone else gets. Alternatively, shall we consider the possibility that given your distaste for accessible content maybe a MMO is not the game for you? (see how easy that is?)
  1. mmoc93b0a7f85d's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Murlocbait View Post
    Who are you to tell someone else what game he shouldn't be playing? It's not like "casuals" are crying out for Heroic mode raids to be nerfed so that they can sweep through them in 45 minutes. Blizzard created a raid mode that lets anyone see the content. If you're a raider, then you should absolutely LOVE LFR, because it means Blizzard can focus more on raiding than ever before. Tier 14 had three decent-sized raids, ToT was huge, SoO is even freakin' bigger. Want to know why the current raids are so large? LFR. Since everyone can now raid in one form or another, Blizzard can focus on it much more than ever before. The biggest complaint about things like original Naxx and Sunwell, was that Blizz put time into them and only a small section of the player base could see them. Now that raids are open to everyone, on one form or another, Blizzard can make raids bigger and better than ever before.

    Also, cut this "5 minute" BS please. Right now, for someone to do all of ToT in LFR, all four wings, including queue time, and assuming they get into a good group that doesn't manage to somehow still wipe on Ji-kun or Durumu, will take at least 4-6 hours a week. Hmm, 4-6 hours a week of raiding... sounds an awful lot like casual raid guilds that clear Normal mode content all the time. There are just people who can't schedule those 4-6 hours in a way that works for organized, pre-made raiding, so for them, LFR lets them put in the time and effort to get the experience and loot that everyone else gets. Alternatively, shall we consider the possibility that given your distaste for accessible content maybe a MMO is not the game for you? (see how easy that is?)
    Hehe, I love it when people try and be clever and end up getting it wrong.
  1. Murlocbait's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by NigelGurney View Post
    Hehe, I love it when people try and be clever and end up getting it wrong.
    Oh man, your one-sentence response sure showed me. Well played sir, well played.
  1. Grof's Avatar
    very nice mount tbh, whp cares for reskin...
  1. Shudder's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Murlocbait View Post
    Who are you to tell someone else what game he shouldn't be playing? It's not like "casuals" are crying out for Heroic mode raids to be nerfed so that they can sweep through them in 45 minutes. Blizzard created a raid mode that lets anyone see the content. If you're a raider, then you should absolutely LOVE LFR, because it means Blizzard can focus more on raiding than ever before. Tier 14 had three decent-sized raids, ToT was huge, SoO is even freakin' bigger. Want to know why the current raids are so large? LFR. Since everyone can now raid in one form or another, Blizzard can focus on it much more than ever before. The biggest complaint about things like original Naxx and Sunwell, was that Blizz put time into them and only a small section of the player base could see them. Now that raids are open to everyone, on one form or another, Blizzard can make raids bigger and better than ever before.

    Also, cut this "5 minute" BS please. Right now, for someone to do all of ToT in LFR, all four wings, including queue time, and assuming they get into a good group that doesn't manage to somehow still wipe on Ji-kun or Durumu, will take at least 4-6 hours a week. Hmm, 4-6 hours a week of raiding... sounds an awful lot like casual raid guilds that clear Normal mode content all the time. There are just people who can't schedule those 4-6 hours in a way that works for organized, pre-made raiding, so for them, LFR lets them put in the time and effort to get the experience and loot that everyone else gets. Alternatively, shall we consider the possibility that given your distaste for accessible content maybe a MMO is not the game for you? (see how easy that is?)
    Um, no. The raids are bigger because they have more people working on them. What magical content were they working on before when raids weren't as big and coming in as fast? Hmm? Pet battles? Nope. Proving grounds? Nope. Brawler's Guild? Nope. What else was there to do back in those days? When a patch was released, hm? A couple of 5 mans? That's your argument. We have scenarios now. LFR didn't magically create more content. Maybe in your make believe world, sure. I live in reality, and the reality is they have more employees now and are pumping out content faster than ever before and LFR is the reason the community is crap and nobody is actually making friends or talking in an M M O so you see huge sub losses.

    Ever play a game, you're having fun and then decide to put cheat codes in? How long does it take for you to get bored and quit? Pretty fast. That's what LFR is doing to the game. People are putting in their cheat code and beating the game in 45 minutes. You take the challenge out of a game, they get bored and quit. Ghostcrawler was right, you have no business playing an mmo, go play skyrim if you don't have time to socialize.
  1. Kaleredar's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Shudder View Post
    Um, no. The raids are bigger because they have more people working on them. What magical content were they working on before when raids weren't as big and coming in as fast? Hmm? Pet battles? Nope. Proving grounds? Nope. Brawler's Guild? Nope. What else was there to do back in those days? When a patch was released, hm? A couple of 5 mans? That's your argument. We have scenarios now. LFR didn't magically create more content. Maybe in your make believe world, sure. I live in reality, and the reality is they have more employees now and are pumping out content faster than ever before and LFR is the reason the community is crap and nobody is actually making friends or talking in an M M O so you see huge sub losses.

    Ever play a game, you're having fun and then decide to put cheat codes in? How long does it take for you to get bored and quit? Pretty fast. That's what LFR is doing to the game. People are putting in their cheat code and beating the game in 45 minutes. You take the challenge out of a game, they get bored and quit. Ghostcrawler was right, you have no business playing an mmo, go play skyrim if you don't have time to socialize.
    No, I'm afraid you don't live in reality.

    You live in a magic, make-em-up world where everyone prior to LFR progressed into normal mode raids. Except for the fact that 1) less than 5% of the player base ever cleared the end-tier raids like sunwell and naxx, even when they were out for months on end and 2) Ghostcrawler has actually SAID that the people that do LFR would never have actually been in the raiding pool to begin with.

    So maybe you should look at some actual facts before you try and say you're coming from a position of "reality"



    And your position is completely irrelevant anyway. It's pointless for Blizzard to include an "easy mode" that doesn't include a raiding guild if they're also not going to provide challenging content that doesn't as well. Are you saying "well, WoW is a game that's only for people that can put in time, or that like doing pablum. If you're somewhere inbetween, the game obviously isn't for you. But on either side of that bracket, well, we've got a whole bunch of stuff!" And even if you ARE pathetically self-centered enough to agree with that incorrect sentiment, you'd again be ignoring reality, as blizzard USED to offer content that was challenging but didn't require a raiding guild: BC heroic dungeons and Cataclysm Heroic dungeons. All they'd need to do is make it so you can go straight from max level normal dungeons into LFR, while heroic dungeons have to be formed manually and offer gear that's BETTER than LFR gear. Done and freakin' done.

    But according to people, that would be "bad for the game?"
  1. Murlocbait's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kaleredar View Post
    No, I'm afraid you don't live in reality.

    You live in a magic, make-em-up world where everyone prior to LFR progressed into normal mode raids. Except for the fact that 1) less than 5% of the player base ever cleared the end-tier raids like sunwell and naxx, even when they were out for months on end and 2) Ghostcrawler has actually SAID that the people that do LFR would never have actually been in the raiding pool to begin with.

    So maybe you should look at some actual facts before you try and say you're coming from a position of "reality"
    This guy pretty much said it all for me. Thanks for saving me the time of typing up a response.
  1. Shaede's Avatar
    playing is it's heart and soul. And please tell me which letter in MMORPG stands for organized
    The second one, as I said. If you ignore all those other players or treat them as NPCs then why not play Skyrim or something?
    Pretty crazy to read that tweet knowing skyrim online (teso) is going to be a competitor. Idk I wouldn't care if WoW was more solo friendly or not. I've never been the type of guy who has scores of internet friends. If anything they are just general acquaintances. Hell, if my real friends knew how much I played this game I'd never hear the end of it. Dealing with people is pretty much a chore in this game to me. It's fun, for sure...but 90% of the time I'm just doing solo play anyway. I get it for those people who are with their friends and all or guilds that have been together for ages. That's cool. I don't see why LFR infringes on anything really. Reading all of the complaints, it basically just comes down to purples..which isn't about team-play, it's about reward. Team-play just becomes the veil over the reward at that point.

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