Build of the Month
Recent Blue Posts
The War Within Alpha Development Notes
Professions Update: Concentration in The War Within
Recent Forum Posts
The War Within Alpha - Isle of Dorn Main Story Quest Preview
2.1 Releases Tomorrow! Patch 2.1 Roundup!
Icy Veins Developer Interview, Arena Issues Update, HyperX Invitational Decklists, Naxx T-Shirt now in the Blizzard Gear Store
Extended Maintenance Tomorrow: No New Content, Skin Spotlight: Master IllidanWarlords of Draenor - Solar Spirehawk Mount
You may remember the Stormcrow mount which was added to the files during Patch 5.4, but never went live. A similar fiery mount has appeared : Solar Spirehawk.
Some people appear to have forgotten as of late, so keep in mind that this is beta. Animations, models, sounds, and everything else are not final.
Warlords of Draenor - Laughing Skull Helms
The latest beta build added some new Laughing Skull helms. It looks like they will be available to more than just cloth users for transmog.
| Level | Type | Slot | Name | Model Viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cloth | Head |  Frozen Visage of the Laughing Skull | Modelviewer |
| 1 | Cloth | Head | Bloody Visage of the Laughing Skul | Modelviewer |
| 1 | Cloth | Head | Golden Visage of the Laughing Skull | Modelviewer |
| 1 | Cloth | Head | Visage of the Laughing Skull | Modelviewer |
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Hunter Feedback
Hunter (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)Hey all. Please focus on continuing to give good feedback, not the style/amount of our responses to said feedback. We're just extremely busy, not ignoring or spiteing you.
Now then... Yes, the Marksmanship and Survival rotations are simpler than they were before. The goal is to have a simpler baseline rotation, and have meaningful choices that allow you to layer more depth onto that in talents, if you choose.
Hunters have a ton of talents which grant rotational or short CD abilities, to support this design. However, they were lacking in rotational depth. The gameplay of most of them boiled down to "use on cooldown". No need to think about preparing for when you're going to use it, or how it interacts with your rotation, etc. So, we're going to make some tweaks to try to add some rotational depth to several of the talent choices.
- Barrage is being changed to make it more rotational, with Focus-pooling gameplay required to min/max its benefit. You'll want to pool 60 Focus in anticipation of it coming off cooldown.
- Barrage now has a 20sec CD (down from 30sec), costs 60 Focus (up from 30 Focus), and deals 100% additional damage.
- Murder of Crows had a cooldown-shortening effect that hardly mattered in practice; either the fight would likely be over within 1min if used on a low-healh boss, or you'd likely waste most of the damage of the crows if used on a low-health add. Instead, we're changing that mechanic, so that it's primarily useful on those low-health adds. You'll want to time it well to finish off low health targets, while still being as Focus-efficient as possible.
- Murder of Crows has been changed. Its duration, cost, and cooldown have been reduced by 50%. It no longer has a shorter cooldown when used on low health targets. Instead, its cooldown is reset if the target dies.
- The gameplay of Fervor and Dire Beast were extremely similar, so we opted to replace Fervor completely. It's rather late in the development process to be doing that, so went with something tried and true: Steady Focus. This iteration of Steady Focus purely increases Focus regeneration, and has a duration short enough to add depth.
- Fervor has been replaced with Steady Focus: Using Cobra Shot or Steady Shot twice in a row, or using Focusing Shot, increases your Focus Regeneration by 50% for 10 sec.
We think that these changes will allow Hunters of all types to customize their gameplay to their liking.
Oh, completely forgot that another relevant change hasn't made it into one of your builds yet. Apologies.
Lock and Load is returning to the previous version of it, and Multistrikes will simply do more damage for Survival instead.
To clarify.. is it reverting to how it works on Live servers or the version that relies on Black Arrow. I assume the Black Arrow one which I am pretty okay with.
It's changing to... 20% chance on Black Arrow tick (not multistrikes, and guaranteed to get at least 1 proc per Black Arrow cast). Effect is to reset ExS's cooldown, and cause the next two ExSs to cost no focus and trigger no cooldown.
Lots of responses like this so far:
These changes are great. However, they still don't address anything about MM's core issues.
We don't view specs by their baseline untalented rotations, because their baseline untalented rotations never matter. What matters is the complete package. The complete package includes some baseline abilities, some talent on rows where all affect your rotation, and some optional rotation-affecting talents to complicate things further. It makes it very customizable. Most of you are quite experienced and will enjoy significant added rotational complexity, which is available to you.
Oh one more VERY important thing: Will the LnL effect have a 10 second internal cooldown as it does on live? Would be fantastic if it didn't.
No.
This is concerning. It means that "cookie cutter" talent builds are coming back, correct? Despite the possibility to choose, it seems that we'll be stuck at a "superior" talent choice (e.g. the L45 row for warriors)
No, that is not implied in what I said.
Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Racials
Months of beta testing, release 3 months away, yet no changes to EMFH? Still "wait and see" or are you keeping the OP racial as is?
We aren't planning changes to Every Man for Himself. (holinka)
Classes
PSA: On beta, it's very hard for you to have much perspective of how you spec's performance compares to others. The goal is everyone equal. (Celestalon)
.So when you see nerfs/buffs, keep that in mind. Very easy to be overpowered and not realize it, and be surprised by nerfs. (Celestalon)
Although pretty the spell effect for Light of Dawn looks like an explosion, could we get a glyph so it looks less like raid AE?
No need; only you see it like that. (Celestalon)
M'kay still annoying but i assume it won't take long to get used too.
Yeah. We find that people are able to quite easily adapt to their own flashy visuals. No need to tone down your own. (Celestalon)
Healing Tonics heal for 68k, and Healthstones heal for 50k at lvl100. (Celestalon)
Why not make both %healing? That way after first tier they won't be nearly worthless. In MoP Pots went from 20% to ~3%
Hyperbole is a wonderful thing, isn't it?But no, crafted items need to be replaced each expansion. (Celestalon)
I'd like to see how far Versatility takes the Tonic/HS each tier before I call the flat base heal "worthless."
Versatility would indeed affect both of them. (Celestalon)
does the change to improved server responsiveness have any impact on the "not in range" problem with melee?
Somewhat, yes, though not as huge as it does on other issues. (Celestalon)
Monk (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Are y'all going to buff Surging Mist for WW? Because right now, I much rather have my healing orb than weak cast
What you're seeing is not a difference between Healing Sphere and Surging Mist, but rather Mists vs Warlords healing. (Celestalon)
Can BrM get healing spheres back? And/or afterlife glyph effect for BrM too? Hard cast surging mists != the ease of droping orbs
It's just not intended to be used while actively in combat. (Celestalon)
Paladin (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Merging two Blessings would free up a keybind for paladins. Is there a reason why we have two of them?
Because the alternative isn't merging, it's removing. Having two blessings is a slight *gain* for Paladins. (Celestalon)
any thoughts of the manditory beacon of faith switching gameplay holy pala got atm? You guys happy with it being as effective?
Happy with it being a minor min/maxy thing, yeah. As long as its impact stays minor. (Celestalon)
BoF is mandatory which makes Glyph of BoL mandatory aswell. Any chance the glyph baseline will become baseline?
Neither of those is true. (Celestalon)
how are we supposed to build HP if not with macroing glyped BoL or BoF with HL/FoL?
The same way you always have. You don't have to go *that* heavy on HoPo abilities, you realize, right? (Celestalon)
Like, if you do that, you're giving up a significant amount of healing elsewhere. That's not insignificant. (Celestalon)
So with casting HR? That's way too expensive. or are you also tuning that with the healer tuning passes?
HR is one tool you have, sure. You also can just use beacons as beacons, and heal. (Celestalon)
I mean, obviously, the quintessential healing style for Paladins is to Beacon a tank, heal the party with HL/WoG/LoD. (Celestalon)
The problem with that is that all our non-HP abilities heal for a pittance currently.
Not if you're actually using your Beacon(s) for healing, instead of HoPo. (Celestalon)
What about the other 100 talents then? Hope you can make those viable as well.
Indeed we can. Talents have strengths and weaknesses. Ignoring them is a bad idea. (Celestalon)
Priest (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Shadow CC is good? In comparison to what? A Discipline or Holy Priest that forgot to spec their CC talent?
In comparison to most specs in the game. (holinka)
Chastise is more of an interrupt than a CC, it's short and constantly on DR. May change in WoD but maybe make it 4-5s?
It allows you to set up further CC. I don't see us buffing the duration of Chastise. (holinka)
We don't have 4, two are on same tier and why are you brushing aside the weaknesses highlights? Address our concerns!
I'm brushing them aside because they are all totally reasonable "weaknesses." There are 4 in MoP. They left out scream (holinka)
Scream, Fiend, Tendrils, MC, Silence, Horror, Chastise. Shadow=4, Holy=3, Disc=2. Easily counterable is not reasonable!
I'm open to concerns from Disc about CC, but not shadow. They're fine. (holinka)
Shaman (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
is unleash life supposed to help with high movement? If it is, why tie it to a proc talent? It is currently not worth the gcd
It's definitely worth the GCD while moving... And talents provide options. (Celestalon)
what's the point of unleash elements in wod? feels like an ability that should've gone away with pruning, just a buff in wod
Primarily for movement. (Celestalon)
Warrior (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
arms mastery affecting the primary target for whirlwind. Feasible? Possible?
No, that's not its intended goal. Masteries work best when they affect *some* of your damage. (Celestalon)
makes mastery seem terrible then in current beta outside of pvp. Especially given cleave situations vs crti/multistrike
Err...That's not even remotely true. (Celestalon)
Why does Siegebreaker replace Intimidating? It's a one second knock-down..on a 45sec CD...
Frequency matters a lot, as does the power of the knockback. We don't want to increase Warrior CC. (Celestalon)
right now it's like 10-15 yards. Honestly put the stun on the end up 1-2 seconds and it fits better where DR is now.
Yeah, it's a knock *back*, of about 10yd. That's a big deal, especially on a Warrior. (Celestalon)
In what scenario would you want to knock them away from you?
When you want to interrupt a cast. When you have Charge up. When you want to knock a target out of an AOE clump, to CC it. (Celestalon)
When you've just Heroic Leaped past them and want to knock them back toward your teammates. When you want to get a mob to a clump. (Celestalon)
.. You should just remove the knock-down then. As that basically makes the talent unusable in pvp. Maybe that's the point but...
Uhh... So very confused. (Celestalon)
Giving up intim is a lot to ask for. You're giving up one ability for another... Trading CC for damage...
And for a different but also quite strong CC. (Celestalon)
Not found of new lvl 100 talent to be honest. It looks like nerfed DR. 1 sec is a strong cc? Not really.
It's not DR'd, and the knockback is the big part of its CC value. (Celestalon)
Why not put it on the stun tier instead if it's meant to be a strong CC?
Because it's a tradeoff, not a direct gain. (Celestalon)
after all these changes, warriors get a new talent because they had a boring passive one. What about venom rush? Thoughts?
That's distinctly *not* why Ignite Weapon was replaced. And it wasn't boring/passive anyway. A passive on each row is a good thing. (Celestalon)
If the passive is good/fun design. Basic resource regeneration for the final tier is underwhelming?
With a bit of gameplay of trying to maintain it on multiple targets? Yes. We like to have one talent that doesn't complexify things. (Celestalon)
I worry you don't realize how big Ignite Weap was for us who -hate- CS pooling gameplay. RB extending CS just further added 2 it
The glyph is there for that gameplay desire. (Celestalon)
Character / Items
I gotta ask, what is design philosophy in making the CD's on Mr Smite's Compass, Manastorm Duplicator, et al so long (2 hours!!!)
So we can add a ton more of them without you annoying your raid by insisting they "check out that noise" on every pull. (Muffinus)
Warlords of Draenor Stats
What's the secondary stat value design philosophy in Warlords? Worth 1/4 as much as Primary stats? 1/2 as much? Equal to?
Generally 1/2. Spirit and Bonus Armor are more in the realm of 3/4. (Celestalon)
Those are rough estimates though; what's important is that secondaries are balanced against each other. (Celestalon)
PvE
abit confused about how WoD lockouts works. Can i do(wipe) mythic with guild and then run heroic with friends for loot?
Yes. Every difficulty has a separate lockout. (WatcherDev)
Will 6.0 Mythic SOO still be cross realm?
Yes. (WatcherDev)
PvP
Melee dodge/parry still too high in beta pvp, some rng ok but having entire rotations dodged/parried without cooldowns is too much.
Yeah we're looking at the values. (holinka)
Hello you, wondering if skirmishes will come with Wod or pre wod patch ?
Pre-WoD patch. (holinka)
What about Parry in PvP? Chances are still very high. Got ~20% DKs should go up to ~35%. Any plans to change this?
We're looking into it (holinka)
why not 100% chance to hit, 0% chance to be dodged, 3% chance to be parried, 3% chance to be blocked for everyone?
Many classes have survivability built around the amount of dodge/parry they receive from stats. (holinka)
Lore
But all the veils were haunted at best during BC - So they were built by ghosts..?
There is one haunted veil in SMV. The rest are live arakkoa. Go check out Terokkar again. (_DonAdams)
Garrisons
Lots of cool rewards from Garrison buildings, do we keep them if we earn them then swap the building out?
For the most part, yes, except passives. Example: not the stables tier 3 global speed bonus, but you do keep the mounts. (Muffinus)
So many 1k+ items in garrison. Blueprints. Farm tools. Any worries it's too expensive?
Get a feel for it when you have multiple buildings producing for you, open to feedback. (Muffinus)
Misc
Why do official notes tend to go up after the builds get pushed live Would it not make alot of these questions alot less common?
They take time. Rather not delay one to wait for the other. (Celestalon)
Fair enough, but is a list not already in existence between the idea and the actual code changes being made?
Yes. There's just a lot of work that goes into getting it into full Patch Note quality. (Celestalon)
So the official story is Gamon died I guess to the heroic fight? Even though you can save him in normal mode.
.Canon is that he survived, and is called Hero of Orgrimmar. You'll find him drinking upstairs in Org Inn, with a lady friend. (Muffinus)
Months of beta testing, release 3 months away, yet no changes to EMFH? Still "wait and see" or are you keeping the OP racial as is?
We aren't planning changes to Every Man for Himself. (holinka)
Classes
PSA: On beta, it's very hard for you to have much perspective of how you spec's performance compares to others. The goal is everyone equal. (Celestalon)
.So when you see nerfs/buffs, keep that in mind. Very easy to be overpowered and not realize it, and be surprised by nerfs. (Celestalon)
Although pretty the spell effect for Light of Dawn looks like an explosion, could we get a glyph so it looks less like raid AE?
No need; only you see it like that. (Celestalon)
M'kay still annoying but i assume it won't take long to get used too.
Yeah. We find that people are able to quite easily adapt to their own flashy visuals. No need to tone down your own. (Celestalon)
Healing Tonics heal for 68k, and Healthstones heal for 50k at lvl100. (Celestalon)
Why not make both %healing? That way after first tier they won't be nearly worthless. In MoP Pots went from 20% to ~3%
Hyperbole is a wonderful thing, isn't it?But no, crafted items need to be replaced each expansion. (Celestalon)
I'd like to see how far Versatility takes the Tonic/HS each tier before I call the flat base heal "worthless."
Versatility would indeed affect both of them. (Celestalon)
does the change to improved server responsiveness have any impact on the "not in range" problem with melee?
Somewhat, yes, though not as huge as it does on other issues. (Celestalon)
Monk (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)Are y'all going to buff Surging Mist for WW? Because right now, I much rather have my healing orb than weak cast
What you're seeing is not a difference between Healing Sphere and Surging Mist, but rather Mists vs Warlords healing. (Celestalon)
Can BrM get healing spheres back? And/or afterlife glyph effect for BrM too? Hard cast surging mists != the ease of droping orbs
It's just not intended to be used while actively in combat. (Celestalon)
Paladin (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)Merging two Blessings would free up a keybind for paladins. Is there a reason why we have two of them?
Because the alternative isn't merging, it's removing. Having two blessings is a slight *gain* for Paladins. (Celestalon)
any thoughts of the manditory beacon of faith switching gameplay holy pala got atm? You guys happy with it being as effective?
Happy with it being a minor min/maxy thing, yeah. As long as its impact stays minor. (Celestalon)
BoF is mandatory which makes Glyph of BoL mandatory aswell. Any chance the glyph baseline will become baseline?
Neither of those is true. (Celestalon)
how are we supposed to build HP if not with macroing glyped BoL or BoF with HL/FoL?
The same way you always have. You don't have to go *that* heavy on HoPo abilities, you realize, right? (Celestalon)
Like, if you do that, you're giving up a significant amount of healing elsewhere. That's not insignificant. (Celestalon)
So with casting HR? That's way too expensive. or are you also tuning that with the healer tuning passes?
HR is one tool you have, sure. You also can just use beacons as beacons, and heal. (Celestalon)
I mean, obviously, the quintessential healing style for Paladins is to Beacon a tank, heal the party with HL/WoG/LoD. (Celestalon)
The problem with that is that all our non-HP abilities heal for a pittance currently.
Not if you're actually using your Beacon(s) for healing, instead of HoPo. (Celestalon)
What about the other 100 talents then? Hope you can make those viable as well.
Indeed we can. Talents have strengths and weaknesses. Ignoring them is a bad idea. (Celestalon)
Priest (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)Shadow CC is good? In comparison to what? A Discipline or Holy Priest that forgot to spec their CC talent?
In comparison to most specs in the game. (holinka)
Chastise is more of an interrupt than a CC, it's short and constantly on DR. May change in WoD but maybe make it 4-5s?
It allows you to set up further CC. I don't see us buffing the duration of Chastise. (holinka)
We don't have 4, two are on same tier and why are you brushing aside the weaknesses highlights? Address our concerns!
I'm brushing them aside because they are all totally reasonable "weaknesses." There are 4 in MoP. They left out scream (holinka)
Scream, Fiend, Tendrils, MC, Silence, Horror, Chastise. Shadow=4, Holy=3, Disc=2. Easily counterable is not reasonable!
I'm open to concerns from Disc about CC, but not shadow. They're fine. (holinka)
Shaman (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)is unleash life supposed to help with high movement? If it is, why tie it to a proc talent? It is currently not worth the gcd
It's definitely worth the GCD while moving... And talents provide options. (Celestalon)
what's the point of unleash elements in wod? feels like an ability that should've gone away with pruning, just a buff in wod
Primarily for movement. (Celestalon)
Warrior (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)arms mastery affecting the primary target for whirlwind. Feasible? Possible?
No, that's not its intended goal. Masteries work best when they affect *some* of your damage. (Celestalon)
makes mastery seem terrible then in current beta outside of pvp. Especially given cleave situations vs crti/multistrike
Err...That's not even remotely true. (Celestalon)
Why does Siegebreaker replace Intimidating? It's a one second knock-down..on a 45sec CD...
Frequency matters a lot, as does the power of the knockback. We don't want to increase Warrior CC. (Celestalon)
right now it's like 10-15 yards. Honestly put the stun on the end up 1-2 seconds and it fits better where DR is now.
Yeah, it's a knock *back*, of about 10yd. That's a big deal, especially on a Warrior. (Celestalon)
In what scenario would you want to knock them away from you?
When you want to interrupt a cast. When you have Charge up. When you want to knock a target out of an AOE clump, to CC it. (Celestalon)
When you've just Heroic Leaped past them and want to knock them back toward your teammates. When you want to get a mob to a clump. (Celestalon)
.. You should just remove the knock-down then. As that basically makes the talent unusable in pvp. Maybe that's the point but...
Uhh... So very confused. (Celestalon)
Giving up intim is a lot to ask for. You're giving up one ability for another... Trading CC for damage...
And for a different but also quite strong CC. (Celestalon)
Not found of new lvl 100 talent to be honest. It looks like nerfed DR. 1 sec is a strong cc? Not really.
It's not DR'd, and the knockback is the big part of its CC value. (Celestalon)
Why not put it on the stun tier instead if it's meant to be a strong CC?
Because it's a tradeoff, not a direct gain. (Celestalon)
after all these changes, warriors get a new talent because they had a boring passive one. What about venom rush? Thoughts?
That's distinctly *not* why Ignite Weapon was replaced. And it wasn't boring/passive anyway. A passive on each row is a good thing. (Celestalon)
If the passive is good/fun design. Basic resource regeneration for the final tier is underwhelming?
With a bit of gameplay of trying to maintain it on multiple targets? Yes. We like to have one talent that doesn't complexify things. (Celestalon)
I worry you don't realize how big Ignite Weap was for us who -hate- CS pooling gameplay. RB extending CS just further added 2 it
The glyph is there for that gameplay desire. (Celestalon)
Character / Items
I gotta ask, what is design philosophy in making the CD's on Mr Smite's Compass, Manastorm Duplicator, et al so long (2 hours!!!)
So we can add a ton more of them without you annoying your raid by insisting they "check out that noise" on every pull. (Muffinus)
Warlords of Draenor Stats
What's the secondary stat value design philosophy in Warlords? Worth 1/4 as much as Primary stats? 1/2 as much? Equal to?
Generally 1/2. Spirit and Bonus Armor are more in the realm of 3/4. (Celestalon)
Those are rough estimates though; what's important is that secondaries are balanced against each other. (Celestalon)
PvE
abit confused about how WoD lockouts works. Can i do(wipe) mythic with guild and then run heroic with friends for loot?
Yes. Every difficulty has a separate lockout. (WatcherDev)
Will 6.0 Mythic SOO still be cross realm?
Yes. (WatcherDev)
PvP
Melee dodge/parry still too high in beta pvp, some rng ok but having entire rotations dodged/parried without cooldowns is too much.
Yeah we're looking at the values. (holinka)
Hello you, wondering if skirmishes will come with Wod or pre wod patch ?
Pre-WoD patch. (holinka)
What about Parry in PvP? Chances are still very high. Got ~20% DKs should go up to ~35%. Any plans to change this?
We're looking into it (holinka)
why not 100% chance to hit, 0% chance to be dodged, 3% chance to be parried, 3% chance to be blocked for everyone?
Many classes have survivability built around the amount of dodge/parry they receive from stats. (holinka)
Lore
But all the veils were haunted at best during BC - So they were built by ghosts..?
There is one haunted veil in SMV. The rest are live arakkoa. Go check out Terokkar again. (_DonAdams)
Garrisons
Lots of cool rewards from Garrison buildings, do we keep them if we earn them then swap the building out?
For the most part, yes, except passives. Example: not the stables tier 3 global speed bonus, but you do keep the mounts. (Muffinus)
So many 1k+ items in garrison. Blueprints. Farm tools. Any worries it's too expensive?
Get a feel for it when you have multiple buildings producing for you, open to feedback. (Muffinus)
Misc
Why do official notes tend to go up after the builds get pushed live Would it not make alot of these questions alot less common?
They take time. Rather not delay one to wait for the other. (Celestalon)
Fair enough, but is a list not already in existence between the idea and the actual code changes being made?
Yes. There's just a lot of work that goes into getting it into full Patch Note quality. (Celestalon)
So the official story is Gamon died I guess to the heroic fight? Even though you can save him in normal mode.
.Canon is that he survived, and is called Hero of Orgrimmar. You'll find him drinking upstairs in Org Inn, with a lady friend. (Muffinus)
Dark Legacy Comics #454
DLC #454 takes look at how flying in Draenor will work at the start of the expansion.
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