Dev Watercooler: Pruning the Garden of War

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Thrall, the Shaman

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Dev Watercooler: Pruning the Garden of War Twitter Q&A
Celestalon and Holinka answered some questions on Twitter that arose from the Watercooler posted earlier tonight.
Originally Posted by Blizzard
Future Blog Posts
You're better off making a blue post about racials/class abilities rather than tweets. Info overload! future watercooler?
Working on it, just wasn't ready in time, and didn't want to delay the blog post. (Source)

To those /sadpanding at the blog, you're not after the philosophy. You're after the patch notes which still aren't available yet. (Rygarius)

Alliance Racials
Humans lose the Mace/Sword racials. The Human Spirit becomes +X to two secondary stats of your choice. (Source)
Change to Human Spirit seems really cool. Can you talk about the interface for choosing which secondary stats it'll give you?
Still designing it. Probably a flyout button of some sort (like Rogue Poisons, Mage Portals, etc) (Source)
The idea is interesting, but are you worried it will be too strong since it's customizable? Or just needs proper tuning
The downside is that it's split between two. If haste is your best stat, 1% haste is better than 0.5%haste + 0.5% crit. (Source)

Weapon Specialization racials are removed because Hit/Exp are removed. (Source)

Draenei's Heroic Presence is now +X to your primary stat. Gift of the Naaru heals for the same amount but over 5sec. (Source)

Night Elves' Quickness also increases movement speed by 2% passively. They also got a new passive which is quite unique... (Remember, no more haste breakpoints!) Touch of Elune, a new passive which grants 1% Haste at night, 1% Crit during the day. (Source)
Might annoy some specs that benefit from one stat but not another (e.g. feral druids benefit from crit, but not haste)
We're making sure that everyone benefits from them. (Source)
Shadowmeld is unchanged. (Source)

Gnomes' Escape Artist dropped to a 1min CD (from 1.5min), and Shortblade Specialization became Nimble Fingers, 1% Haste. Also a tweak to Expansive Mind. Was +5% max Mana. Now +5% Max Mana, Energy, Rage, or Runic Power. (Source)

Darkflight is staying unchanged. (Source)

Dwarves lost Crack Shot and Mace Specialization. Gained Might of the Mountain, a passive which adds 2% Crit Damage and Healing. Also a change to Stoneform: Also removes Magic/Curse. HOWEVER, it still cannot be used while CC'd. (It is still NOT a CC-break) (Source)

Horde Racials
Undead are seeing relatively few changes. Tweaks to the scaling rate of Touch of the Grave, and WotF to 3min CD (up from 2). (Source)

Blood Elves gain Arcane Acuity, a 1% crit passive. Arcane Torrent now restores 20RunicPower, or 1HoPo, or 3% Mana. (Also, Rage and Chi) (Source)

Orcs were one of the outliers we brought down. Lost the Axe Specialization, and Hardiness is 10% Stun reduction (down from 15%). (Source)
Blood Fury is unchanged. Every Man For Himself, we're still evaluating. Itemization changes may mean no nerf needed. (Source)

Tauren's Endurance becomes +X Stamina. Brawn is a new passive which increases Crit Damage/Healing by 2%. (Source)

Can you tell us what exactly will be changing with the Troll racial Berserking?
Reduced to 15% Haste (down from 20%). (Source)

Will there be any changes to Worgen and Goblin racials?
Not much. They were about at baseline. Time is Money becomes real 1% Haste, not just attack speed / cast speed. Subtle diff. (Source)

Squish
Re the squish, simple yes/no question-- will noninstanced world bosses like Oondasta be soloable at level 100?
I'd be surprised if really skilled players didn't solo him at 100. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if a couple are close already. (Source)

Any idea what enchants & set bonuses that currently reduce disarm duration will turn into?
We'll change the set bonuses but the weapon chains won't be relevant anymore. (Source)

PvP
PvP trinkets now grant immunity to reapplication of an effect from the same spell= bad idea, everything else good.
You actually want to trinket a Solar Beam, and have it instantly reapply to you? (Source)

"Long fears are now shorter in PvP due to the added benefit of a fear changing the players position." How short?
6sec instead of 8sec. (Source)

Is paralyze dispellable? Like cyclone is going to be.
It's a physical effect, like gouge, so it can't be dispelled.
Cyclone is not a physical effect?
No it's magic
Magic in WoD, you mean? It's always been Physical CC.
It's more of a "behind the curtain" thing here. It's actually magic, it just isn't dispellable. (Source)

Can we expect more relative damage in WoD with the reduced amount of cc?
We're reducing crit damage done to players by 25% (i.e. crits do 150% damage against players). Damage will be more consistent. (Source)

The blog doesn't mention abilities that break CC, which is significantly more powerful (Lichborne, Fear Ward, TT, BRage..)
In a world where we have too much CC and we're trying to tip the balance away, I can't see going after breaks as aggressively. (Source)
What about mechanics like subterfuge/dematerialize? Those are really bad mechanics..
Subterfuge no longer leaves the rogue in stealth but provides the rogue access to stealth abilities. (Source)
Will there be changes to all the root breaks that melee have now that they all share a DR and we have less instants?
Certainly concerned about all the root breaks. We haven't arrived at exactly what we want there yet.
What about interrupts? Skull bash/rebuke staying?
Interrupts are staying. We think their gameplay is more interesting than blanket silences. (Source)
If interrupts dont have globalCD & casters dont cast a lot,then I disagree.Its just random, no-skill
Our other changes will mean a lot more casting, fewer instants. (Source)
Will Interrupts remain off the GCD?
Yes, that's just a gameplay feel issue. (Source)

Confused about "Removed Silence effects from interrupts." No more 3s lockout on kick?
No more silence on counterspell, spear hand strike, silencing shot, etc. Things that added a silence to an interrupt. But a spell that is specifically a silence, like, well Silence, isn't going away. (Source)
So no more blanket silence as a CC unless Spriest?
There are others like Strangulate. (Source)
Short silence, or wait for a cast for a longer interrupt. how is that not a choice?
Disagree. It feels like people more often use it to silence and the lock out ends up as a bonus. (Source)
What about the "Spell locks"? Will Wind Shear still have a 2 sec lockout and will CS keep it's X secs?
Yeah, interrupts still lockout the interrupted spell school for X sec. (Source)

Are you going to do some kind of pass with the goal of equalizing CC is some way? IE: Each class has like 1-2 CC spells?
Some classes will have more control than others. (Source)

Are PvP set bonuses going to be reworked? I think it would be cool if they were really interesting like PvE bonuses.
Probably. Some classes rely on their set bonuses more than others. (Source)

With the stat squish, number retuning, and CC changes are you looking to make PVP fights overall longer or shorter?
We'd like to see people rotting and healers having to triage more. No one likes 100-0 gameplay.
So overall it would take longer to die/kill someone, but it is also much harder to heal someone back to full?
That would be the goal (Source)

Classes
Regarding removing CDs, which is likely gonna be cut for Ferals Berserk or Tiger Fury or both?
Both of those are staying. Tiger's Fury is on the border between feeling like a DPS cooldown and a rotational button. Keeping it because it has significant impact on your rotation; good gameplay. (Source)

So the 197 of CJL's damage (6 * (197 + 1[1.2] * Attack power * 0.386) is going away?
Correct, no more base damage on spells. (Source)

Does "One type of ability that we focused on removing is temporary power buffs (aka "cooldowns")" mean hero/lust/windfury/etc?
We're keeping Bloodlust/Heroism as the only raid-wide throughput cooldown. No more Stormlash/SkullBanner. Time Warp, Ancient Hysteria stay. We count those all as the same thing, just different sources of the same buff.(Source)
When are we getting those changed from Haste to Amp? Makes much better sense as raid cooldown
Based on our experiments with the SoO trinkets, we're holding off on doing Amp and Cleave as stats, at least for now. (Source)
Plans for a different new secondary to take its place then? DPS could use more options. (I know readiness+multistrike)
Crit/Haste/Mastery/Readiness/Multistrike. We think 5 is enough for now. Will make sure none are terrible. (Source)

What of the Raid Wide CDs, other than Bloodlust, like devotion aura?
Defensive cooldowns stay. May tweak them of course, but as a concept they stay. Only offensive one will be Bloodlust (etc). (Source)
Wait, the ONLY offensive cooldown will be Hero/BL/etc? Every other one is gone?
No, only *raid-wide* offensive cooldown is Bloodlust. I'm referring to removing Stormlash and Skull Banner. (Source)

I'm worried that class flavour spells are going to vanish. Things that don't take up keybind space, like Enslave Demon/Undead.
We're less concerned about removing those (Source)

Death Knight (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Death Knights' runeforges. Anything new there, yet?
Couple tweaks, but nothing ready to announce yet. Not an overhaul. (Source)

DKs don't fit in a world with fewer CCs.They r essentially gonna become immune CC.(other than slow/root)
Then root them? (Source)

Druid (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Can you still NS healing abilities? or is NS just going completely?
You can NS all other spells. (Source)

Hunter (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
What about Silence/Counter Shot for Hunters. How will you go about changing these?
Counter Shot stays, Silencing Shot goes (Source)

NS Clone/PoM poly gone is a good change. Wyvern Sting gone as well I presume?
Wyvern is still available. Hunters have had other changes to their CC (Silencing Shot gone for example). (Source)

With all incap sharing DR will scatter and trap now DR w/ each other? How will hunters land traps?
Scatter Shot is gone. Traps arm and activate instantly. (Source)
"arms and active instantly"? Does that mean it can be fired at a person directly to be trapped? No luncher
No, it has to be placed and has a travel time. (Source)

Mage (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
How will combustion work in relation to the new "dynamic" dots? Popping CDs just to have them be meaningless after
Combustion is based on the damage of the Ignite, so will not dynamically change. (Source)

Re pet-cast CC: Freeze going away? If so, room for a non-CC replacement?
Water Elemental Freeze is staying. However, there is a minor talent that teaches Squirt a new spell that shares a cooldown with it (Source)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Divine favor is gone right?
Healadins had a whole bunch of cooldowns. Merged some of them together. (Source)

Rogue (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
For example, are Combat Rogues going to See AR and Shadow Blades combined?
Killing Spree and Adrenaline Rush for Combat, Vendetta for Assassination, Shadow Dance for Subtlety. Plus talents. (Source)

Shadow blades gone? I'd love that.
Yes, Shadow Blades lost the roll of which Rogue cooldown to cut. (Source)

Is preparation considered bloat? I think it's good having the choice, I hate abilities with 2 charges it promotes tunelling
We're exploring an idea where Preparation becomes a passive. Details still being worked out. (Source)

Removing tricks damage modifier as well, yes please?
Yes, Tricks of the Trade no longer increases damage. Yay! (Source)
Is it going to be free, then?
Oh, yes. Tricks is free. (Source)
Awesome, now it's pure utility! It's not as needed anymore with threat buffs it's still an old fav
Indeed. We expect it to be used for helping pick up new adds, that sort of thing. (Source)

Warlock (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Regarding pet-cast CC, will Seduction still be in the game as it currently exists?
A nerfed version. We don't like so much CC coming from the pets. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
The blog post implies that Charge is going to be changed to a root after all?
Yes Charge will become a root. Our stance was we liked that change, but 5.4.7 wasn't the right time to do it. (Source)
Will Warbringer still add a stun? That will be the only choice for PVP, jumping charges with Freedom/druid shifting/windwalk totem
Yes, Warbringer will be a short stun off DR. Players will be able to get the same behavior with a talent.
Warbringer stun off of DR seems counter to the idea that all stuns share a DR.
There are a number things with very short duration that do not share DR. (Source)
Clarify very short? Heard warbringer will be a 3 second stun. Also presume they DR with themselves? (warbringer rotations in RBGs)
Basically baseline charge, 1.5 seconds. (Source)
Charge should remain as is change the talents instead!
We like the added mobility that the talents give, but charge stun every 12 seconds is too much. (Source)
This article was originally published in forum thread: Dev Watercooler: Pruning the Garden of War Twitter Q&A started by chaud View original post
Comments 47 Comments
  1. moveth's Avatar
    Lot of interesting tweets the last few hours.
  1. Blithe's Avatar
    I was anticipating some additional Shaman information before the class title was removed from the post. Oh well, at least Stormlash got removed.
  1. volteh's Avatar
    That guy that leaked the racials a while ago was right? ....
  1. Terminal Lance's Avatar
    No info on shamans here, bummer Only thing so far was that Rainstorm for Ele/Enhance was changed to Shocking Lava, and Spirit Bite is gone from Feral Spirit.
    All the other info here most everyone knows/anticipated.

    I'm hoping they cut one of the Elemental summons, preferably Fire E.T., and roll its damage over to Earth. Seems more fitting imo.
  1. prwraith's Avatar
    watercooler says basically nothing to me. Seems like they put a lot of work into not a lot of information.
  1. Tucci's Avatar
    Those are some big ass changes. I'm always nervous for huge pvp changes like this but I'm crossing my fingers. A lot of classes are going to be so different. I wonder how mages and rogues will do, it seems like so much control is being cut.
  1. furydeath's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Terminal Lance View Post
    No info on shamans here, bummer Only thing so far was that Rainstorm for Ele/Enhance was changed to Shocking Lava, and Spirit Bite is gone from Feral Spirit.
    All the other info here most everyone knows/anticipated.

    I'm hoping they cut one of the Elemental summons, preferably Fire E.T., and roll its damage over to Earth. Seems more fitting imo.

    Yep sure would seem like it.
  1. The Lion's Avatar
    Stoneform got even better, and the 2% Crit dam/heal is nice. Go Dwarves!
  1. nekobaka's Avatar
    So that racial ability leak awhile ago seemed to be about right especially with the more unique changes.
  1. Kilperch's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by volteh View Post
    That guy that leaked the racials a while ago was right? ....
    It appears he was. Funny. I remember that leak and how most people thought those ideas were too ridiculous and stupid to be real.

    But they are real. And I'm not sure how to feel about it.

    On the one hand its good they're addressing racials. On the other hand, these ideas are very underwhelming. I honestly can't see the Night Elf racial making it to live. And I'll be really shocked if Every Man For Himself remains unchanged.

    I guess I was expecting an overhaul and got slight tweaks. My bad.
  1. ombus's Avatar
    okey... somebody knows what the " minor talent " on the mage section mean ? .. .. a talent of the mage is minor ?.. or what ? .. ( thinking something like glyphs here )
  1. TheShultz's Avatar
    They must really hate undead putting their cc break on a 3 minute cool down.

    And Humans get a buff? I am still not spending 30 bucks on a faction change blizzard, nice try.
  1. Cernunnos's Avatar
    WOTF gets nerfed but EMFH doesn't? What is this I don't even.

    And orcs get nothing in place of losing 2 racials, not even a cosmetic or fun one? What gives?
  1. Tenjen's Avatar
    all racial changes are not final and still being worked on. this is just the most recent shifts
  1. Sainur's Avatar
    Dem dwarf racials.

    Dwarf master race.
  1. nekobaka's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kilperch View Post
    On the one hand its good they're addressing racials. On the other hand, these ideas are very underwhelming. I honestly can't see the Night Elf racial making it to live. And I'll be really shocked if Every Man For Himself remains unchanged.

    I guess I was expecting an overhaul and got slight tweaks. My bad.
    Well they said they are still looking at it although idk why it wasnt listed with the humans. It seems the developers are waiting more on what the CC changes will settle on. Just about any change to it will render it generally useless in PVP and calling for a completely new racial to be designed and balanced and it seems the developers are not just yet ready to do that.
  1. Vongimi's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Sainur View Post
    Dem dwarf racials.

    Dwarf master race.
    Dwarven master race brother!
  1. l33t's Avatar
    So, that guy who posted leaked info on racials was right. Horde fanbois were so funny in denial "NO IT IS NOT FAIR! YOU DIRTY ALLIANCE SCUM FINALLY GET EQUAL RACIALS NOOO!!!!", lol @ you guys.
  1. Torian kel's Avatar
    Yeah, better nerf undead and not give them anything else, they where so fucking overpowered. I mean, did you see that undead stacking in method's raid ? /s
  1. Nerraw's Avatar
    They nerfed Every Man For Himself once a few years ago (Cata launch). It was borderline useless until they undid the nerf. I honestly don't see how they could nerf it without making it useless. Unless they end up making it a variant of Escape Artist/WotF that only counters a specific set of CC. It would need to not share CD with the trinket then.

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