Karazhan Cleanup - Just a Test, Blue Tweets, Fan Art

Classes
have you a general team class designer or specific teams per class?
General. The class design team designs collaboratively, there's no one person in charge of each class. We all work on all classes (Source)
Do all members play all classes to at least some degree?
There's not enough time in the day for us all to play all classes seriously, but I think we probably have all at least leveled every class, though not every spec (there are a lot). Personally, I could play any spec at an LFR-sufficient level, 2/3 of them at Normal-sufficient, 1/4 at Heroic-sufficient, and 1 optimally. (Source)

Are there still plans to do a rework of the hunter class in order to differentiate the specs? Possibly some new resourses? #hope
I don't want to set hopes too high; not even close to MoP Warlock change level. But yes, Rogue/Hunter spec differentiation up. (Source)
Mainly going to try to make their rotations more distinct from each other, feel different to play. Again, NOT an overhaul. (Source)
Why do you not like focus roger focus is awesome. Pls don't add combo points or mana
There will not be any new resources for Rogues/Hunters. Again, not an overhaul. (Source)

Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Maybe alter time shouldn't store the procs? One way to lessen the instants from mages. And frozen orb no longer granting FoF 1/2
we like the utility of alter time more than the dps gameplay it brings. Something we're exploring for 6.0 (Source)

Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Are you removing stance of the fierce tiger for mistweavers/brewmasters in WoD?
Yes. Mistweavers get a new Crane stance for Fistweaving, in addition to Serpent stance. (Source)
Crane is healer, Serpent is dd, so why Serpent Stance is for healing and Crane's is for damage?
Honestly, because we switched Mistweavers to Serpent for aesthetic reasons during MoP development (Mistweaver heals = Jade color). (Source)
Funny story: Early on, Mistweaver heals were patterned after the Crane, so many of them were red. That felt somewhat odd... (1/2) (Source)
The oddest one was Spinning Crane Kick. It was red and had feathers flying out of it. It got nicknamed "Poultry Slaughter". (2/2) (Source)
Is the visual effects desisions part of the class team or the art team? or does the teams work together in this?
Close collaboration between design and art. (Source)

Why are monk damage formulas so much longer/more complex than other classes?
They're actually extremely simple if you abstract out what we call "Monk Normalized Weapon DPS". (Source)
We have a standard formula for "Monk Normalized Weapon DPS", which combines 2H and DW into one. Abilities just do a % of that. (Source)

You know my feelings on FOF =) I agree that a lower haste build works if you prioritize it though, just no upside.
Suppose you had only one knob to turn on FoF: +X% Damage. How far would you turn it in order to be happy with it? (Source)
Damage isnt a problem. Its a melee channel that breaks on movement. Awkward to use with no real bonus over high haste
Its not rewarding enough for its drawbacks. I'm saying, if you want to solve that only by +Dmg, how much is needed? (Source)

Has there ever been talk of reworking Invoke Xuen to more of a "Invoke Celestial" and make the CD more spec specific?
We've discussed that, but it would just be a visual change if we ever did that. Happy with the functionality for all specs. (Source)

do you know if they are going to give Windwalker monks the ability to have and change stances like the DPS Warriors?
Nope, no plans for Windwalkers to have any other stances. (Source)

Nerfing soothing mist and giving us a moderate mana cost on demand chi generator would fix a lot of issues with monks.
Mistweavers need some significant changes. The goal will be to make MW care about mana. Going to make chi gen more expensive. (Source)
Also, more expensive means less frequent - doesn't that risk becoming holy power?
More expensive does not mean less frequent. (Source)

Why does Assurance of Consequence affect Transcendence for Monks when its not that major of a cooldown like Xuen is.
It's a utility cooldown, and we make Readiness affect many of those. Xuen is not, because it would unbalance the talent row. (Source)
okay I get that, but why transcendence and not say touch of karma?
Because that would have made it overpowered. Likely room to tune around that in WoD though. (Source)
the problem is it only affects fists of fury dps cd which isn't really used on cd
It should be, for optimal DPS. Community doesn't follow that logic, unfortunately. (Source)
(c) but can we assume when something has CD we should use it every CD cycle?
It's a reasonable starting assumption, but not *always* the case. (Source)
I don't know about that. We would still be using RJW on the same fights in SoO that we do today if it did change
Maybe, maybe not, but it would buff 1 talent on a row, and not the others, which we prefer not to do. (Source)
Readiness will be problematic. Hard to balance, hard to understand. Differs btwn specs. Which spells are affected? By how much?
Same way you know how Mastery works. There's a passive in your spellbook that explains what it affects, and by how much. (Source)

In this 50/50 stance, will we still 'care' about mana? Will it be more or less expensive to hybridize?
Fistweaving will not be mana free or anything. Mana cost will be roughly proportional to its total throughput. (Source)

Just wondering if there are any plans to give WW monks an execute or to redesign Touch of Death because its not very good at all
Unlikely. ToD is a very different type of spell from a typical execute. Extremely valuable in certain situations. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
With all the changes to haste breakpoints in Warlords, will Eternal Flame and Sacred Shield continue to work as on live?
Eternal Flame is a HoT like any other, so the changes apply. Sacred Shield is unusual; intend will be the same, may be custom. (Source)

PvE
to reduce raid lag, could you change BL to +dmg instead of +haste ?
Unlikely. It's so iconic. (Source)

is crit supression going away in warlords?
Unsure yet. Possibly. (Source)

I'd just like to see a tank swap mechanic that isn't taunt swap at "X" number of stacks
We would too. Tanks alternate having fun in most fights right now. Want to make both have fun. (Source)
that and for paladin avenger's shield procs don't exist while offtanking. Could cast sequence macro the entire rotation.
Aye, for tanks, having fun generally entails actively getting punched in the face. They're weird like that. (Source)

PvP
hello holinka, as a 2200+ multi classer, i find it very hard to cap conquest now, is there any solution to this?
How many classes are we talking about? Time required to cap is too low imo. (Source)
too low? I wouldnt say that at all. Can take 2-3 hours sometimes doing arenas. Have 8 toons, and thats alot...
Being "done" with a character for the week after 2-3 hours of playtime seems low to me. (Source)
Please tell me you're not getting the "drill sergeant" mentality that has driven off so many customers already.
Not sure I understand the critique. 3 hrs of play a week sounds low, especially when compared to PvE endgame. (Source)

Any words about RBG for 5 players?
We're doing Group Finder instead. Prefer your group of 5 have an easier time filling out your group so you can set the tone. (Source)

Do you think the flag on the back of players in arena actually makes any sense?I mean it's barely noticable,just adds to the 'mess'
Guess it's sole purpose supposed to be to show team colors, but you won't see it in combat,why not have a light beam above players?
Light beam seems a bit over the top. I think those flags are an opportunity for vanity rewards though. (Source)

I second this! Why are there zero balance changes this season? Bit frustrating..
We've made the change to Intervene. (Source)
Can something be done to Death Knights? We are actually the worst class in PvP right now and it's not fun playing.
Other side of the coin, people complain about DK damage constantly. (Source)

Is there a reason why you guys haven't buffed AMS? You yourself earlier stated that it was an unintended victim of Battle Fatigue
Yup definitely a tweet I'd take back if I could. Prefer Battle Fatigue is universally applied to all heals/absorbs so no change. (Source)
If this the plan then you will need to adjust a lot things with bf going up every season ams % heals scale down through a exp
We aren't happy with how high battle fatigue and base resilience numbers are right now. We need the expansion to help reduce it. (Source)
Why aren't our health values just much higher?
They should be. But there are a lot of cascading effects of doing so. (Source)

will the s14 "Gladiator" be permanent/account-wide like "Hero of the Alliance"?
No it will not. We just changed how we distribute the rewards on the backend. (Source)

As a hunter trying to kill a warrior, should I use Widow Venom to reduce his self-healing, or are those "heals" unaffected?
Those heals are affected by Widow Venom (if they aren't something is bugged) (Source)

Misc
Hey how long have you been with Blizzard? Do you have a sword or shield yet? Did you design for other game companies before?
I've been with Blizzard for nearly 3 years (played WoW since beta). No Sword/Shield. Prior to Blizz, I programmed at Microsoft 7yr (Source)
Do you get to program and crunch numbers often? Or mostly just enter into endless meetings about design related stuff?
Depends on where in the patch cycle we are. I've done a ton of theorycrafting programming and number crunching while here. (Source)
Sounds really cool, did you come from a math degree background or comp sci? Were you theorycrafting wow before joining Blizz?
Preface: I respect, value, and recommend college for most people. For me, personally, it wasn't worth it. (cont...) (Source)
I started working full time with Microsoft at 16, while still doing Highschool. I applied and was accepted to UW Math, (cont.) (Source)
but didn't go, since I didn't want to walk away from my MS job. Again, please do not skip college because that's what I did. (Source)
My path through life was rather unorthodox. And yes, I did a ton of theorycrafting before joining Blizz. (Source)
Why would you leave Microsoft for Blizzard? It does not make any sense to me sir.
There was a 1.5yr gap in between there. Even still, I'm so much more passionate about WoW than enterprise software. (Source)

Plot twist, played a Holy Priest. Where are they now?
Yeah, people get the idea that the devs make their own class/spec(s) strong. Commonly harshest on ourselves; we defer to other devs. (Source)