Patch 6.0 Reminders, Warlords of Draenor Healing, Blue Tweets, DLC #457

Our target for both healing and dungeon tuning is something of a middle ground between Mists and Cataclysm. It's important to note that healer balance is not yet final, and damage output in our dungeons (especially pure melee damage on tanks, in light of recent mitigation changes) is still being adjusted. So in terms of the raw numbers, we're not quite there yet. The most helpful thing testers can provide is actionable feedback with regard to specific encounters (also specifying difficulty and which spec you were playing). We're listening and making changes on a daily basis.

That said, I'd like to help clarify our goals with respect to both healer gameplay and dungeon tuning. Healing in Mists, especially in raids and especially later in the expansion, suffered from three major problems: 1) the power of healing relative to player health pools meant that injured players could be topped off almost instantly; 2) mana became increasingly irrelevant as a constraint, with many healers actively reforging out of Spirit; and 3) "smart heals" accounted for a very large portion of healing done, meaning that for some healers their targeting decisions were almost meaningless.

Now, some might be thinking, "so you're saying healers were really strong - that sounds great to me!" The problem is that when healing was in that state, the only way we could kill someone in a raid or dungeon was with massive damage, fatal if the healer didn't react instantly; it led to sudden spike deaths, punished latency, and made healing more like whack-a-mole and less like a series of tactical decisions. And in raids, as soon as maximizing throughput becomes all that matters, healing risks turning into a rotation performed irrespective of the encounter or the incoming damage.

Our goal is not to make healing more difficult. Note that nowhere in the above did I say that a problem with Mists healing is that it was too "easy." We want to slow down the pace a bit, and for the challenge in healing to lie more in making decisions about spell usage and targeting, and less in twitch-reaction and sustaining a DPS-style rotation. This also means that the cost of a mistake is not a dead player, but rather a more injured one, giving you a chance to fix your error.

In Cataclysm, fresh 85s had very little mana regen, and if they attempted to heal a dungeon the way they'd been accustomed in late Wrath (e.g. lots of Flash Heals), they'd quickly run out of mana. In Warlords, players have significantly higher base regen, and less available Spirit from items, so that you'll start off with a much deeper mana pool than is usually the case as a new max-level healer, while avoiding the problem of mana becoming irrelevant once in endgame epics.

In Cataclysm, nearly your only efficient heal was also your smallest, and it was easy to run yourself out of mana and feel helpless as you watched your group die; in Warlords even if you are running on fumes mana-wise, you can still sustain a steady stream of Greater Heal or Healing Touch or the equivalent. You aren't helpless.

Now, as for dungeon difficulty, one of the challenges in adapting to new dungeons at the start of an expansion has been the contrast between players' habits at the end of the last expansion when they massively outgear every dungeon, and the different approach required when undergeared and running a dungeon for actual loot drops instead of currency. The ability to recklessly pull multiple packs of mobs at once and cleave everything down is something that you earn and grow into as your gear and knowledge of the content increases - that's never been the intended dungeon gameplay when the content was brand new, even for our "easy" dungeons in Wrath or Mists.

Normal dungeons should be pretty easy. Some of them aren't quite there yet. But you should feel confident that you can push the "Dungeon Finder" queue button and land in a random group with a high chance of success. If you don't feel that way about a given Normal dungeon (especially a level-up dungeon), please let us know why not. We have a solid chunk of level 100 Normal dungeon content that everyone should be able to jump into when they hit max level, and Normal dungeon loot will be sufficient to qualify you for Highmaul LFR when that unlocks.

Heroic dungeons will be somewhat more challenging, which is the reason for the Silver Proving Grounds requirement to random-queue for them. We're not looking to recreate Heroic Stonecore or Grim Batol or The Arcatraz, but there's a middle ground where mechanics can still matter.

Finally, it's also worth noting that in beta, we're scaling players down to pretty much the lowest possible level and item level at which you could be running a given dungeon. Nearly all groups in the live game will be better-equipped, but we need to make sure the content is viable at the minimum threshold.

Classes
theres a reason that you arent seeing wht the players are.Dont dismiss the input of players just bc we arent devs.
Reconciling player results with internal results is something we have to do constantly. 95% of the time, they... (Celestalon)
...line up. The other 5% of the time, they don't, we investigate why, and solve the problem. The beta process. (Celestalon)

Are dps attunements a hard rule for what should be our best stat? Is another secondary stat 'beating' the attunement stat ok?
Soft rule. Not hard rule. (Celestalon)

I agree. If raid CDs were a problem, why not remove from all DPS (stackable) vs. from tanks (static)?
Simple: It's not feasible to remove *all* raid CDs from DPS, just lessen them. Whereas it *is*... (Celestalon)
...feasible to remove almost all raid CDs from tanks (but still not quite all). (Celestalon)
Do you mean it's impossible to remove almost all CDs from DPS vs tanks or do you mean it's harder to?
Well, nothing's truly impossible. But it'd be much much harder. (Celestalon)

but what about the passive talents? Is it bloat to nerf and make them baseline?
Yes, it still would be. Passives can be bloat too. (Celestalon)

Death Knight (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Do you think there's any chance that in the future Death Knights will start at level 1? It's weird them being the odd ones out.
Not likely, the experience is intended to be special. Might revisit the hero class concept again at some point. (Muffinus)

Hunter (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
tier 17, 4 piece for survival is the buff going to stack or are we going back to explosive shot weaving? thanks for looking
When it procs, you gain 3sec of the buff. Extends existing buff by 3sec if you already have the buff. (Celestalon)

Will Marksmanship be tuned as a stand-still caster or a mobile dps? Curious since right now it is sort of both.
Somewhere in between. (Celestalon)
Will Marksmanship have a higher DPS than SV and BM when standing still? If not, what's the point?
Slightly, yes. (Celestalon)

PvE
What was the design philosophy for Challenge Modes in WoD? What went behind the decision to exclude sets? http://t.co/1NA9I512w4
The audience for Warlords CM golds probably already has their Mists armor sets. Weapons complement, rather than compete with, that. (WatcherDev)

Reputation / Questing
quests that make that involve critical thinking or memory games are good for the game overall IMO
WoW has flirted with puzzles, but it's not really a puzzle game. We are always experimenting with new mechanics, though! (_DonAdams)
It's tough. Some ppl loved the simon game, others just used an addon or chat to trivialize it. (_DonAdams)
Sometimes our experiments fail and the quest isn't what we hoped. Sometimes we really like it and make more (bombing runs!) (_DonAdams)
A big part of quest design is trying new interactions and mechanics without overwhelming the player and interrupting flow. (_DonAdams)
interrupting what flow? the leveling? you have scenarios now that you're incorporating in the leveling.
By interrupting the flow I mean making you do a quest with new mechanics that you hate. Scenarios tend to be basic combat. (_DonAdams)
new mechanics that you hate? people tend to despise something at first because they're not used to it. Take Vehicle quests e.g.
Vehicles are a good example, they can be great or a hassle depending on several factors. They're high risk/reward. (_DonAdams)
If we keep them simple (1-2 buttons) and make it obvious what you're doing, vehicle quests are usually fine. (_DonAdams)
But most of the time we don't want to teach you complex mechanics for a single quest and never use them again. (_DonAdams)
you could make a puzzle scenario that rewards bonus XP but set aside from the leveling flow (if thats what you mean by that)
The Thunder King's treasure room is a good example of this! Opt-in, good rewards, and very unique gameplay. We liked it. (_DonAdams)

World Events
Can you please give us a bit more insight on new holiday stuff in WoD, is it a facelift like the Cata one (would be really nice)
Lots and lots of new things to purchase/obtain this year, but not a total overhaul. Would like to tackle that eventually though. (Muffinus)
Thanks for a fast response! Is the only new Hallow's End thing the Lich King costume or are there more additions?
And I think 5? New wands? And two new pets, and I'm sure some other stuff I'm forgetting. (Muffinus)

Garrisons
Do followers stationed at garrison buildings count as active? He only mentions missions.
Yes (Muffinus)

Not sure why needs 250g to activate. Just don't let it send another NPC past 20. Why does everything have to cost gold?
It's a pretty low cost, all things considered, the cost needs to be nonzero, what feels right for you? (Muffinus)
I thought there would be something else. Is that the idea, for people to be making their gold from the AH?
Most recipes now require cross - profession resources, so I'd imagine AH trading will be more important. (Muffinus)

How long do work orders take, and are extra work orders intended to just be "do 5 dailies on alt and come back in a week"?
Each will eventually resolve in about a day I believe, letting you queue more so you don't need to log in daily. (Muffinus)

Will the tannery tents be free on retail? Theyre so awesome for RP! Please don't give them a gold cost
I love them! They will have some cost, so you can't have unlimited all the time. What feels fair? (Muffinus)

Any thoughts of maybe allowing us to get the other race guards from the town hall instead of barracks? Feels too mandatory
You can swap your guards, then remove the barracks and get something else and they stay swapped. (Muffinus)

Can this lv3 Gladiator's Sanctum perk (reduce 50% damage when below 35% life) effective in Ashran PVP zone?
It should be, though we'll be looking at feedback closely about this too. (Muffinus)