Suggestion Day: Nephalem Trials, Adding Competition to Diablo; [Endgame 2.0] Challenge Mode Infographic; Orb of Nightmares

TAC Podcast Ben Brode Interview, Opt-In Updates

Warlords of Draenor - Group Finder
Patch 5.4.2 adds cross realm listings to the Raid Browser, which has been in the game for several expansions now. Unfortunately only Ordos, the Celestials, and the Flex Siege of Orgrimmar wings are supported for now.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Since we're still seeing some confusion about the Group Finder, let me try to clear up what I can:

There are two completely separate developments going on here. One is the cross-realm functionality being added to our existing Raid Browser in patch 5.4.2. This is totally unrelated to the new Group Finder we announced at Blizzcon. Basically, we discovered that we could pretty easily add cross-realm browsing to the Raid Browser for 5.4 content, so we've done that in 5.4.2.

6.0's Group Finder is an entirely different thing being built from scratch. It'll allow you to find or create groups for basically any content you can think of, be it raids, dungeons, PvP, questing... heck, you could start a group for running laps in Dalaran if you wanted. It also won't be hidden away someplace that the majority of the playerbase won't notice -- it's gonna be a lot more front-and-center.

A lot of players are drawing parallels between our new Group Finder and the oQueue addon, and that's a perfectly valid comparison. We've been thrilled to see how people have taken to oQueue for finding organized groups, especially in 5.4, and feel that's the sort of thing that the game really should be providing to all players. We're not trying to "kill oQueue"; in fact, a lot of us use it ourselves. We just think that cross-realm group finding should really be part of the core game.

Or do you thinking having everyone on each other friend's list is how Blizzard is going to implement it?
The 6.0 Group Finder will not rely on BattleTags or RealID to form groups, no. Of course, you're more than welcome to share that information yourself with players you meet, and make new friends!

If I'm taking you out of context I deeply apologize Lore, but are you saying Blizzard is alright for the time being with us using Open-Que? I ask because concern of violating the ToU is the prime reason I have not ever used it.
Using oQueue does not violate the terms of service, no.

But with OQ you can put restrictions, view how well they've done before, and how well they're liked with the public. Openraid had a reputation how well people liked your raids and gave you upvotes. Is there any way they will add something like that to help people avoid groups lead by bad players, mean leaders or elitist jerks?
We do want to provide some options for group leaders to put some restrictions for who can and can't request to join their group. We don't want to do it in a way that encourages people to be too heavy-handed, but we also want to make the system easy and intuitive to use, and feel it's better for everyone if the system lets leaders be upfront about who they're willing to bring along.

Basically, we want to avoid a situation where you can be invited to a group and then immediately be kicked when the leader inspects your gear and finds you're 10 item levels lower than he or she is looking for (and then have to repeat that process until you eventually either find a group that will bring you or give up entirely). We'd rather do our best to make sure you only see groups that you've actually got a shot at running with

Patch 5.4.2 PTR Notes Update - December 5
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Classes
  • Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
    • Talents
      • Temporal Shield's healing should now correctly modified by effects that affect healing (Battle Fatigue, Mortal Strike, Dampening).
  • Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
    • Talents
      • Improved checks on pathing for Intervene and Safeguard to address situations where Warriors may wind up under the terrain.

Quests
  • Catch and Carry: Druids can no longer attempt to catch Sacks of Grain while in flight form.
  • Lost Treasure: Resolved an issue where players may be unable to open Cache of the Legion.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
  • Siege of Orgrimmar
    • Norushen
      • Resolved a situation where Quarantine Measures may sometimes fail to destroy all life within the Quarantine Zone.
    • Galakras
      • Resolved a situation that may cause demolition NPCs to stop opening the door to one of the towers.
    • Paragons of the Klaxxi
      • Resolved an issue where players may fail to gain Hisek the Swarmkeeper's special ability if they were in the middle of casting a spell while interacting with his corpse.

Items
  • Crashin' Thrashin' Flyers should now be able to damage each other while in a sanctuary area.
  • MiniZeps should now be able to damage each other while in a sanctuary area.

Bug Fixes
  • Resolved an issue that caused players to not receive credit towards the Drop It! and Drop It Now! achievements.

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Tanking Stats
What do i do with a +armor item when switching to dd spec?
Use it knowing you are wasting some stats, or swap those pieces out. You likely won't have armor in every non-armor slot. (Source)
So maybe you're swapping 3-5 pieces? Much better than today, which asks you to swap everything or at least reforge it all. (Source)

If dodge and parry are going byebye, Are tanks left with stacking mastery or stam? Gonna miss stat juggling.
We are going to add armor as a tanking stat. The combat mechanics can support that now. (Source)

I just cant get in my head how "Bonus Armor" in gear is more interesting that Dodge/Parry
Tanks gear for failure not success. Dodge and parry affected some boss swings. Bonus armor affects every one. (Source)
Im fine with P/D gone but saying those werent "interesting" stats. Avoidance is more interesting than flat mitigation
The tanking community was debating this long before I even joined the team. Twitter can't do that discussion justice. (Source)

Alts
Why dont you just limit accounts to one single char if you just dont want to support alts?
We like alts. But we get pressure from players who seemingly want to do content once, and then have all their alts ready to raid. (Source)
Devil's advocate what's wrong with that? You believe questing is important them less so favoring other activities.
Players originally made alts because they wanted to experience other characters. They wanted to actually play them. (Source)
There is some level of alt speed up that is appropriate, but we are hesitant to ever take too much of the "play them" away. (Source)

What are the better solutions for power lvling up our alts? Seems like flying helps..
I find the very notion that an alt *needs* to be power leveled to be worthy of more discussion. (Source)

PvP
You promised that vanilla pvp players would get some sort of recognition when Swifty interviewed you, any news on this in WoD?
I try not to promise much, but that is something we'd like to do. Did you rank in vanilla? (Source)

Arena class rep imbalances (spriest? WW monk? DK?), PvP gear worse than PvE gear in world PvP makes your side a hard sell!
I'd wager Arena and BG balance is more important to more players than the state of wPvP. (Source)
World PvP hasn't really existed in much of a form since TM vs. SS, which stopped once players had BGs to run. (Source)

So we will see the return of tanks in pvp? Great.
That's not the intention. Tanks in PvP aren't much fun for everyone else, except possibly as FCs. (Source)

So if I've sunk days into Darkspear Horde, I'm just screwed? Timeless Isle isn't even fun because of the imbalance.
Our intent with Ashran is to connect that zone to get balanced factions. (Source)

Just Another Morning - Blizzcon 2013 Movie Contest
This was the second place winner at the Blizzcon 2013 Movie Contest.

This article was originally published in forum thread: WoD - Group Finder, Dec 5 PTR Notes Update, Blue Tweets, Just Another Morning started by chaud View original post
Comments 71 Comments
  1. Kuja's Avatar
    Odd. Someone here reported that they got banned because oQueue prevented them from going AFK, and now they say..

    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    We're not trying to "kill oQueue"; in fact, a lot of us use it ourselves
    Guess the poster wasn't totally honest :P
  1. Zylan's Avatar
    6.0 group finder sounds amazing.
  1. Geodew's Avatar
    This is actually Garrosh's propaganda video that he hands out to Draenor Orcs to recruit them to his cause.
  1. Lucetia's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Zokten View Post
    What a nice lie.
    How is this a lie? As the blue mentioned once Battlegrounds were added in World PvP basically died. Sure you had some here and there in some places (like Isle of Quel'danas), but it was still basically dead. If you think otherwise then you probably didn't play until one of the recent expansions.

    Reason being is the only way to get honor back then was World PvP'ing and even then it came at a cost because if someone in your party killed a lowbie or guard your entire team (if grouped) was penalized and could cause you to lose rank. Then battlegrounds were introduced and everyone flocked to them as it was a bit more efficient in terms of grinding honor for rank. At that point World PvP died because there was no incentive (and still isn't really, Timeless Isle attempted with Bloody Coins).
  1. Caerule's Avatar
    Curse that video! Now I actually feel incredibly sad.. for Garrosh, of all people.
  1. mmoc3d7f422663's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Lastlivingsoul View Post
    Video is garbage. I now know what sociopaths do in their time off.

    When Garrosh was never smart, well liked by anyone and started more fights than he prevented. I could waste my time retelling why Garrosh is an example of an arrogant egotistical a-hole whose parades around where ever he goes with his Dad's accomplishments on his shoulders. Its a sign of a sick community that expects admiration to a spoiled brat like Garrosh.
    I can tell you don't know what the vid tried to show from your post.
  1. mmoc85d693b13f's Avatar
    I just watched the 1st place video and i have to say why did this video not win?
  1. Redlokyldoreifanggore's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Lastlivingsoul View Post
    Video is garbage. I now know what sociopaths do in their time off.

    When Garrosh was never smart, well liked by anyone and started more fights than he prevented. I could waste my time retelling why Garrosh is an example of an arrogant egotistical a-hole whose parades around where ever he goes with his Dad's accomplishments on his shoulders. Its a sign of a sick community that expects admiration to a spoiled brat like Garrosh.
    I suppose you also hate "Wicked", "Der Untergang (Downfall)", Star Wars, and all other forms of entertainment that make the evil person look more relatable, realistic, and human, right? Everyone that supports Garrosh at all is a "sociopath" or "exemplifies everything that's wrong in the modern world". Are you Trassk's alt account?
  1. TheRickyB's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kuja View Post
    Odd. Someone here reported that they got banned because oQueue prevented them from going AFK, and now they say..

    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    We're not trying to "kill oQueue"; in fact, a lot of us use it ourselves
    Guess the poster wasn't totally honest :P
    i know almost like the poster was lying. . . .

    loved that video from the contest!
  1. mmoc7fb8344b2d's Avatar
    Uhm, world pvp got better when BG's came, and it wasnt just ss/tm zerg. Even for honor grinders, world pvp died only after they implemented battlemasters, because what else would you do while waiting for the game than raid the opposing factions bg entry area.

    But there was still always world pvp if you wanted, even after bg's. First it was blackrock mountain, then silithus and so on. Some of the most fun world pvp was at the green dragons when half of the raid had to keep opposing faction from killing us and half kill the boss. Roaming pvp while traveling to instances... It's small things that killed the world pvp piece by piece, like adding a fp to thorian brotherhood so horde couldn't set up ambush to the tunnel that leads to searing gorge etc. Flying was the final nail in the coffin when tbc came.
  1. Preliatus's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Burn3d View Post
    This video deserved 1st place imo...
    Compared to a video of puppets, yes it does.


    How to win future Blizzcons: Make a video using puppets.
  1. Kandorr's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Lastlivingsoul View Post
    Video is garbage. I now know what sociopaths do in their time off.

    When Garrosh was never smart, well liked by anyone and started more fights than he prevented. I could waste my time retelling why Garrosh is an example of an arrogant egotistical a-hole whose parades around where ever he goes with his Dad's accomplishments on his shoulders. Its a sign of a sick community that expects admiration to a spoiled brat like Garrosh.
    While I don't think the video is garbage, I really admire the emotion of your comment. Made me log in to reply, which I rarely ever do.
    I think the video is just a little hypothetical depiction of how things could be, no matter how unlikely. In fact, I think we all pretty much agree that Garrosh is an egotistical a-hole brat who wears his dad's trophies like they were his own.
  1. Arbs's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kuja View Post
    Odd. Someone here reported that they got banned because oQueue prevented them from going AFK, and now they say..

    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    We're not trying to "kill oQueue"; in fact, a lot of us use it ourselves
    Guess the poster wasn't totally honest :P
    Blizzard will only kill it when they have their feature working & fully implemented, but for right now they will just let the addon run & than shut it down in WoD or Pre Expansion patch.
  1. Necrotica's Avatar
    Am I the only one in this entire game that supports Garrosh and what he did for the Horde?

    Would of liked to see the option to offer support to Garrosh's Horde vs. the Rebel Horde and earn rep with one or the other during this last few patches, depending on the side you picked you got unique looking armor.
  1. Arbs's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Lucetia View Post
    How is this a lie? As the blue mentioned once Battlegrounds were added in World PvP basically died. Sure you had some here and there in some places (like Isle of Quel'danas), but it was still basically dead. If you think otherwise then you probably didn't play until one of the recent expansions.

    Reason being is the only way to get honor back then was World PvP'ing and even then it came at a cost because if someone in your party killed a lowbie or guard your entire team (if grouped) was penalized and could cause you to lose rank. Then battlegrounds were introduced and everyone flocked to them as it was a bit more efficient in terms of grinding honor for rank. At that point World PvP died because there was no incentive (and still isn't really, Timeless Isle attempted with Bloody Coins).
    Exactly, I don't think most people who blame Flying Mounts played until TBC because those who played in Vanilla know World PvP was long but dead before TBC even came out. The only World PvP I seen was the odd battle here & there & SS vs TM hardly happened after BGs got introduced.
  1. IzoGray's Avatar
    Stupid confusing video. Why would it show Garrosh in a sympathetic light? The dude is an asshat.
  1. Achaman's Avatar
    good vid

    (enough with the 10 char minimum crap!)
  1. Magemaer's Avatar
    This video deserved 1st. They were robbed.
  1. Ravenman's Avatar
    This Vid was far better imo. Poor ol Garrosh.
  1. Necrotica's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Magemaer View Post
    This video deserved 1st. They were robbed.
    Guess I never saw the video that got 1st place... any links?

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