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Patch 7.2 PTR - Build 23623, Raid Testing Schedule - Feb 23 - 24, Weapon Size ChangesConcordance of the Legionfall
The latest Patch 7.2 PTR build added a new Artifact Trait with 50 ranks, Concordance of the Legionfall
Ion alluded to some of this in his post last week, but essentially the goal here is to address what we believe to be the core of the issue with the 7.0 final traits: the large gap in player power it created between players who spent a lot of time farming AP and those who spent their time on other endeavors. To that end, there's four key changes:
#1: The individual ranks are less impactful. This was honestly one of the biggest issues with the 7.0 design. Grinding out a couple million Artifact Power for a 0.5% raw damage increase was just too lucrative compared to other methods of endgame progression - even eclipsing gear for some players. The goal for the new 7.2 design is that the next rank is still an increase, and you won't turn it down, but it's not your primary focus.
#2: The rate at which the cost for the next rank increases is higher. In the 7.0 design, someone who farmed twice as much AP as you had roughly twice as many ranks as you. While rewarding the extra effort isn't a bad thing, it doesn't need to be nearly that rewarding. By making each rank's cost increase exponentially, we can help ensure that you're never too far behind even if you aren't spending as much time farming AP. It also means that, as Artifact Knowledge increases, it'll be easier for alts or newer players to catch up.
As a quick aside, to put some extra context on both of those changes: we always want Artifact Power to be of at least some value to you. It's fine to reach a point where you're not going out of your way to earn it, but it's purpose is to be a fairly reliable form of progression. If you spend an evening raiding, or run a few dungeons, or do some PvP, but don't get any gear upgrades, you should still be able to say "at least I earned some Artifact Power" with some level of satisfaction.
Anyway, key change #3: The new trait gives a primary stat bonus instead of a percentage-based increase. With the 7.0 design, as your gear improved, so did the total benefit you were getting from your final trait. Changing to a primary stat bonus means it's giving roughly the same benefit to someone at ilevel 900 as it does to someone at 850. Again, the goal here is to reduce the overall power gap.
And finally, #4: It's a proc. I know anything that involves RNG is often controversial, but this is, in my opinion, a great example of where it's extremely useful. This is for two reasons.
First, it kind of muddies the waters a bit. When you wipe on a boss at 1%, or just barely miss a kill window, it can be easy to say "if Todd was doing 2% more damage we'd have won." But when it's a proc, you can't actually be that sure. Maybe Todd needs more AP, or maybe he just got unlucky with procs. Maybe the wipe wasn't Todd's fault at all. Maybe you should be a little nicer to Todd.
Second (and more importantly), it allows for player skill to play more of a factor. If you're the sort of player who can pay attention to procs and adjust your rotation on the fly (say, a healer who chooses to use cheaper spells while it's active, or a damage-dealer who saves a charge of their hardest-hitting ability), you're going to get more value out of the new trait than someone who ignores it.
I've seen some initial feedback that indicates some specs are likely to benefit from these more than others - to some degree that's expected, but specific feedback on which specs those are and why is very helpful. We're still actively tuning and tweaking things, so please keep that feedback coming.
I haven't been a hardcore progression raider for a few years now, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that wiping at 1% due to poor procs/RNG is INFINITELY worse than simply needing a bit more gear to push you towards that kill.
I understand where you're coming from but personally disagree - for me, knowing we just got unlucky means that it's worth it to try again and hope for a different result, whereas "we just don't have enough gear/AP" means we should give up and come back next week.
Either way, my point wasn't to say "this will make wiping at 1% less painful," but more to say it's harder to pin it on Todd skipping last week's M+ farm. Poor guy.
I rarely gamble because I understand odds and know that the house usually comes out on top. WoW is starting to feel the same way. Obviously you need some random elements to keep everything from being completely methodological, but its really getting overboard.
Sure, I can see that, and to be clear we're intentionally keeping the proc pretty flat; it should still feel somewhat reliable even if it isn't a 100% uptime. Also worth mentioning that most of #4 above is just my opinion as a guy who isn't a developer but plays a lot of WoW and gets to talk to to the devs sometimes.
The issue, Lore, is you're now creating a problem on the flipside of the coin where power gains are so small that they don't seem worth pursuing, and each rank becomes even less valuable compared to the previous. Frankly, just don't do it. Get rid of the "infinite" trait completely. Artifact power tokens now have a gold value, so cut progression off after the 4/4 ranks and the new traits are maxed. Let players transition to getting 1-2% upgrades from gear after they cap their artifacts and vendor the tokens for a little extra gold.
We honestly don't see that as a problem. In fact, it's kind of the goal. If you decide it's not worth grinding a few million AP to get another 200 Agility on your proc... great! We don't want you to feel obligated to.
We do, however, want to make sure you always find the Artifact Power you come across to be valuable. 200 more Agi might not be enough to convince you to farm the AP needed to buy it, but you're not going to turn it down either.
Well, or maybe you would, in which case, sure, feel free to vendor the AP items.
#1: The individual ranks are less impactful. This was honestly one of the biggest issues with the 7.0 design. Grinding out a couple million Artifact Power for a 0.5% raw damage increase was just too lucrative compared to other methods of endgame progression - even eclipsing gear for some players. The goal for the new 7.2 design is that the next rank is still an increase, and you won't turn it down, but it's not your primary focus.
#2: The rate at which the cost for the next rank increases is higher. In the 7.0 design, someone who farmed twice as much AP as you had roughly twice as many ranks as you. While rewarding the extra effort isn't a bad thing, it doesn't need to be nearly that rewarding. By making each rank's cost increase exponentially, we can help ensure that you're never too far behind even if you aren't spending as much time farming AP. It also means that, as Artifact Knowledge increases, it'll be easier for alts or newer players to catch up.
As a quick aside, to put some extra context on both of those changes: we always want Artifact Power to be of at least some value to you. It's fine to reach a point where you're not going out of your way to earn it, but it's purpose is to be a fairly reliable form of progression. If you spend an evening raiding, or run a few dungeons, or do some PvP, but don't get any gear upgrades, you should still be able to say "at least I earned some Artifact Power" with some level of satisfaction.
Anyway, key change #3: The new trait gives a primary stat bonus instead of a percentage-based increase. With the 7.0 design, as your gear improved, so did the total benefit you were getting from your final trait. Changing to a primary stat bonus means it's giving roughly the same benefit to someone at ilevel 900 as it does to someone at 850. Again, the goal here is to reduce the overall power gap.
And finally, #4: It's a proc. I know anything that involves RNG is often controversial, but this is, in my opinion, a great example of where it's extremely useful. This is for two reasons.
First, it kind of muddies the waters a bit. When you wipe on a boss at 1%, or just barely miss a kill window, it can be easy to say "if Todd was doing 2% more damage we'd have won." But when it's a proc, you can't actually be that sure. Maybe Todd needs more AP, or maybe he just got unlucky with procs. Maybe the wipe wasn't Todd's fault at all. Maybe you should be a little nicer to Todd.
Second (and more importantly), it allows for player skill to play more of a factor. If you're the sort of player who can pay attention to procs and adjust your rotation on the fly (say, a healer who chooses to use cheaper spells while it's active, or a damage-dealer who saves a charge of their hardest-hitting ability), you're going to get more value out of the new trait than someone who ignores it.
I've seen some initial feedback that indicates some specs are likely to benefit from these more than others - to some degree that's expected, but specific feedback on which specs those are and why is very helpful. We're still actively tuning and tweaking things, so please keep that feedback coming.
I haven't been a hardcore progression raider for a few years now, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that wiping at 1% due to poor procs/RNG is INFINITELY worse than simply needing a bit more gear to push you towards that kill.
I understand where you're coming from but personally disagree - for me, knowing we just got unlucky means that it's worth it to try again and hope for a different result, whereas "we just don't have enough gear/AP" means we should give up and come back next week.
Either way, my point wasn't to say "this will make wiping at 1% less painful," but more to say it's harder to pin it on Todd skipping last week's M+ farm. Poor guy.
I rarely gamble because I understand odds and know that the house usually comes out on top. WoW is starting to feel the same way. Obviously you need some random elements to keep everything from being completely methodological, but its really getting overboard.
Sure, I can see that, and to be clear we're intentionally keeping the proc pretty flat; it should still feel somewhat reliable even if it isn't a 100% uptime. Also worth mentioning that most of #4 above is just my opinion as a guy who isn't a developer but plays a lot of WoW and gets to talk to to the devs sometimes.
The issue, Lore, is you're now creating a problem on the flipside of the coin where power gains are so small that they don't seem worth pursuing, and each rank becomes even less valuable compared to the previous. Frankly, just don't do it. Get rid of the "infinite" trait completely. Artifact power tokens now have a gold value, so cut progression off after the 4/4 ranks and the new traits are maxed. Let players transition to getting 1-2% upgrades from gear after they cap their artifacts and vendor the tokens for a little extra gold.
We honestly don't see that as a problem. In fact, it's kind of the goal. If you decide it's not worth grinding a few million AP to get another 200 Agility on your proc... great! We don't want you to feel obligated to.
We do, however, want to make sure you always find the Artifact Power you come across to be valuable. 200 more Agi might not be enough to convince you to farm the AP needed to buy it, but you're not going to turn it down either.
Well, or maybe you would, in which case, sure, feel free to vendor the AP items.
PTR Development Notes - Build 23623
This week’s PTR build has a couple new additions. The new Broken Shore World Bosses should be in, and 7.2’s crafted Legendary items are available as well (although they’re not fully completed, so expect to run into some issues with them).
We’re reaching the point of development where nearly all of the new content and features in Patch 7.2 are in-game and testable. From here, we’ll be focusing primarily on bugfixes, stability, tuning, and generally tightening everything up. Please continue to report any bugs you encounter and give us any feedback you have!
To help with stability testing, this week we’re organizing a scheduled stress test of the Broken Shore. We’ve made some behind-the-scenes changes to how our servers operate under heavy load, and so we’d like to get as many people as possible testing World Bosses and the Sentinax assault on the Broken Shore this Thursday at 2 pm PST (11pm CET). If you’re able to come help out, please do!
Thanks, and happy testing!
We’re reaching the point of development where nearly all of the new content and features in Patch 7.2 are in-game and testable. From here, we’ll be focusing primarily on bugfixes, stability, tuning, and generally tightening everything up. Please continue to report any bugs you encounter and give us any feedback you have!
To help with stability testing, this week we’re organizing a scheduled stress test of the Broken Shore. We’ve made some behind-the-scenes changes to how our servers operate under heavy load, and so we’d like to get as many people as possible testing World Bosses and the Sentinax assault on the Broken Shore this Thursday at 2 pm PST (11pm CET). If you’re able to come help out, please do!
Thanks, and happy testing!
Azeroth Needs You! - On the Patch 7.2 PTR Thursday
Brave adventurers—we need you on the PTR this Thursday (2/23) at 2 pm PST for the next phase of testing Patch 7.2: The Tomb of Sargeras. Please join us in the Broken Shore to test World Quests, bosses, and more.
Visit the World of Warcraft PTR Discussion, Bug Report, and Class Development forums to learn more about the ongoing development of the patch.
Read more about the upcoming features in Patch 7.2: The Tomb of Sargeras within our previews:
Visit the World of Warcraft PTR Discussion, Bug Report, and Class Development forums to learn more about the ongoing development of the patch.
Read more about the upcoming features in Patch 7.2: The Tomb of Sargeras within our previews:
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Patch 7.2 - Relinquished Armor Tokens
Looks like Timeless Isle/Baleful gear (Tanaan Jungle). My guess is that this is merely another way to get legendaries, not *the* fix.
Yeah, the primary purpose here is similar to the gear vendors from the Timeless Isle or Hellfire Peninsula. Adding the ability for these items to create Legendaries is just an extra bit of functionality that makes sense for Legion.
Note that the actual costs of the tokens are intentionally much higher than their final values will end up being, as they’re not ready for testing. Making them prohibitively expensive was just an easy way for us to make sure they’re inaccessible for now. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Tier 20 Set Bonuses
The currently-datamined Tier 20 set bonuses are indeed mostly placeholder and untuned. Bear in mind that the current Tier 19 bonuses went through several rounds of revisions, and in many cases redesigns, before they went live as well. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Tanks and Magic Damage
Just pinging this thread to say that we're talking about magic damage reduction for all tanks, including Prot Warriors, and how it compares across the board.
It should be noted that Nighthold is highly unusual as raid tiers go - it ended up with a lot more magical effects for tanks to worry about than most, which has taken a couple of tank abilities that normally qualify as "kind of nice to have" and moved them to "extremely useful on many encounters." Not sure re-designing tank mitigation based on one raid is the right way to go, and we certainly don't want to make sweeping changes to Nighthold encounters at this point.
But like I said, we're talking about it. At the absolute minimum we can keep a better handle on it for Tomb of Sargeras. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Looks like Timeless Isle/Baleful gear (Tanaan Jungle). My guess is that this is merely another way to get legendaries, not *the* fix.
Yeah, the primary purpose here is similar to the gear vendors from the Timeless Isle or Hellfire Peninsula. Adding the ability for these items to create Legendaries is just an extra bit of functionality that makes sense for Legion.
Note that the actual costs of the tokens are intentionally much higher than their final values will end up being, as they’re not ready for testing. Making them prohibitively expensive was just an easy way for us to make sure they’re inaccessible for now. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Tier 20 Set Bonuses
The currently-datamined Tier 20 set bonuses are indeed mostly placeholder and untuned. Bear in mind that the current Tier 19 bonuses went through several rounds of revisions, and in many cases redesigns, before they went live as well. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Tanks and Magic Damage
Just pinging this thread to say that we're talking about magic damage reduction for all tanks, including Prot Warriors, and how it compares across the board.
It should be noted that Nighthold is highly unusual as raid tiers go - it ended up with a lot more magical effects for tanks to worry about than most, which has taken a couple of tank abilities that normally qualify as "kind of nice to have" and moved them to "extremely useful on many encounters." Not sure re-designing tank mitigation based on one raid is the right way to go, and we certainly don't want to make sweeping changes to Nighthold encounters at this point.
But like I said, we're talking about it. At the absolute minimum we can keep a better handle on it for Tomb of Sargeras. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
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