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Patch 5.4 - Fallen Protectors and Sha of Pride Preview, Blue Posts, SWTOR Class Reps 

by
chaud
Published on 2013-07-12 04:28 AM

Console Version Pre-Order, Diablo: Sword of Justice is Out, Blue Posts, Archon's 5 Mil Tempest Rush Monk Guide

Community Feedback, Hero Picker UI - Base and Drop-Ins

Patch 5.4 - Fallen Protectors
Fallen Protectors is the second encounter in the Siege of Orgrimmar Raid and takes place where the Golden Lotus daily quest pagoda was located.


Name Points Category
Go Long Transfer the Mark of Anguish to at least 5 unique players over a total of 250 yards or more during a single Desperate Measures phase, and then defe...
10Pandaria Raid
Heroic: Fallen Protectors Defeat the Fallen Protectors in Siege of Orgrimmar on Heroic difficulty.
10Pandaria Raid

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
  • Overview - Players must do battle with the brewmaster Rook Stonetoe, the rogue He Softfoot, and the priest Sun Tenderheart, as the three fallen protectors assault the raid simultaneously. At 66% and 33% health remaining, each protector will perform Desperate Measures, manifesting spirits of fallen allies to bring new and powerful attacks to bear against the raid until those spirits are defeated. Triggering Desperate Measures on multiple protectors at the same time is inadvisable.
  • Bond of the Golden Lotus - Rook Stonetoe, He Softfoot, and Sun Tenderheart share a spiritual bond, linking their fates to each other. Upon reaching 1 health, each of them will begin to cast Bond of the Golden Lotus if any of the other Protectors are still in combat, restoring 30% of maximum heath upon completion. Bringing all three Protectors to 1 health simultaneously will restore clarity to their clouded minds.
  • Rook Stonetoe -
    • Desperate Measures - Upon reaching 66% or 33% health remaining, Rook Stonetoe manifests evil forms of his closest friends, making Embodied Misery, Embodied Sorrow, and Embodied Gloom. Once all three spirits are defeated, Rook Stonetoe resumes fighting players.
      • Embodied Misery -
        • Defiled Ground - Embodied Misery smashes the ground with fervor, inflicting 525,000 Physical damage to her current target, knocking them back. This force burns into the ground, inflicting 150,000 Shadow damage every second.
      • Embodied Sorrow
        • Inferno Strike - Embodied Sorrow casts a massive Fire damage spell at a random target. Inferno Strike divides 3,600,000 Fire damage among all targets within 8 yards.
          • Residual Burn - Secondary targets are afflicted with Residual Burn, taking 500% increased damage from Inferno Strike for until cancelled.
      • Embodied Gloom
        • Corruption Shock - Embodied Gloom hurls a bolt of corrupted lightning at several locations, inflicting 250,000 Nature damage to all enemies within 4 yards.
        • Corruption Chain - On Heroic difficulty, Corruption Chain replaces Corruption Shock. Embodied Gloom hurls a bolt of corrupted lightning at an enemy, inflicting 150,000 Nature damage and chaining to enemies within 10 yards.
      • Shared Torment - Embodied Misery, Sorrow, and Gloom share health.
    • Vengeful Strikes - Rook Stonetoe enters an offensive stance, stunning his target and inflicting 35% normal damage in a frontal cone twice per second for 3 sec.
    • Corrupted Brew - Rook Stonetoe hurls a keg of Corrupted Brew at a distant target, inflicting 275,000 Shadow damage to enemies within 5 yards and slowing targets hit by 65% for 15 sec. In Heroic difficulty, every two casts, Corrupted Brew's travel time is reduced by half a second. This effect resets when Rook Stonetoe begins his Desperate Measures.
    • Clash - Rook Stonetoe clashes against an enemy, charging each other and meeting halfway. Rook Stonetoe then immediately begins to perform Corruption Kick. In Non-Heroic Difficulty, Rook Stonetoe's Clash will not be cast during any Desperate Measures phase.
      • Corruption Kick - Spins rapidly in a circle, rooting himself and inflicting 180,000 Physical damage to targets within 10 every second for 4 sec. Additionally torments targets struck, inflicting 112,500 Shadow damage every two seconds for 6 sec.
  • He Softfoot -
    • Desperate Measures - Upon reaching 66% or 33% health remaining, He Softfoot manifests a twisted spirit of his brother, creating Embodied Anguish, which fixates upon the raid member who has the Mark of Anguish. Once this spirit is defeated, He Softfoot resumes fighting players.
      • Mark of Anguish - Mark of Anguish periodically inflicts 75,000 Shadow damage every second and roots the target. The Marked player gains the ability to transfer the Mark to another friendly player within 30 yards. Embodied Anguish's gaze moves to a random target upon killing his current target.
      • Lingering Anguish - Embodied Anguish's attacks periodically inflict Lingering Anguish, increasing damage taken by Mark of Anguish by 35%. This effect stacks. A stack of Lingering Anguish is applied to all raid members when Mark of Anguish is passed to another player.
      • Debilitating Anguish - Possessing the Mark of Anguish debilitates targets, decreasing their armor by 50% for until cancelled.
    • Garrote - Traveling through the shadows, He Softfoot Garrotes targets, inflicting 108,000 Physical damage every 2 sec. This effect is removed when He Softfoot begins his Desperate Measures.
    • Gouge - He Softfoot attempts to gouge the eyes of his target, incapacitating them for 6 sec and fixating on a random target until Taunted. If the target is facing away, Gouge will instead knock them away a short distance.
    • Master Poisoner - He Softfoot is a Master Poisoner and occasionally coats his weapons with various types of poisons. In Heroic Difficulty, Master Poisoner abilities also take effect when using Garrote or Fixate. In Non-Heroic Difficulty, He Softfoot's Master Poisoner abilities will not be cast during any Desperate Measures phase.
      • Noxious Poison - He Softfoot coats his weapon in a Noxious Poison, causing successful melee attacks to create pools of poison on the ground, inflicting 127,500 Nature damage every second. These pools may be jumped over. This effect is removed when He Softfoot begins his Desperate Measures.
      • Instant Poison - He Softfoot coats his weapon in an Instant Poison, causing successful melee attacks to inflict 112,500 additional Nature damage.
  • Sun Tenderheart
    • Desperate Measures - Upon reaching 66% or 33% health remaining, Sun Tenderheart manifests an evil form of her protectors, making Embodied Despair and Embodied Desperation. Once both spirits are defeated, Sun Tenderheart resumes fighting players.
      • Dark Meditation - Sun Tenderheart enters a Dark Meditation, inflicting Shadow damage to all enemies every half second. Players take 35% less damage from Dark Meditation when inside her Meditative Field.
      • Manifest Emotions - Embodied Despair and Embodied Desperation focus their negative emotions, creating Sha manifestations which attack players. Any damage taken by Manifest Emotions will also be suffered by the creature that spawned them.
      • Meditation Spike - Sun Tenderheart periodically fires a bolt of dark energy that inflicts 250,000 Shadow damage upon impact to enemies within 6 yards.
    • Sha Sear - Causes an explosion of Shadow magic around the target, inflicting increasing Shadow damage every second to all enemies within 5 yards around the target.
    • Shadow Word: Bane - Expels a word of misery upon multiple targets, inflicting 135,000 Shadow damage every 3 sec for 18 sec. Each time this effect deals damage, it will jump to an additional target, up to a total of 3 times.
    • Calamity - Calls forth a great Calamity, striking all players for 30% of their maximum health as Shadow damage. This also removes Shadow Word: Bane from all targets. In Heroic difficulty, Calamity increases in magnitude by an additional 10% of maximum health each addtional time it is cast. This effect resets when Sun Tenderheart begins her Desperate Measures. In Non-Heroic Difficulty, Sun Tenderheart's Calamity will not be cast during any Desperate Measures phase.



Patch 5.4 - Sha of Pride
Sha of Pride is the fourth encounter in the Siege of Orgrimmar raid and takes place under the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.


Name Points Category
Heroic: Sha of Pride Defeat the Sha of Pride in Siege of Orgrimmar on Heroic difficulty.
10Pandaria Raid
Swallow Your Pride Defeat the Sha of Pride in Siege of Orgrimmar on Flexible, Normal, or Heroic difficulty after no player has gained Pride from Manifestations of Pri...
10Pandaria Raid

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
  • Pride - Players start the encounter with 0 points of Pride. Whenever hit by an ability from the Sha of Pride or one of its minions, players gain 5 Pride. As a player's Pride increases to 25, 50, 75 and 100, Swelling Pride will inflict additional effects on that player.
  • Gift of the Titans - Norushen gifts players with immunity to Pride. In addition, if all players with Gift of the Titans are within 8 yards of each other, they gain Power of the Titans.
    • Power of the Titans - If all players with Gift of the Titans stand within 8 yards of each other, they gain Power of the Titans for 15 sec. Power of the Titans increases haste and all damage and healing done by 15%.
  • Swelling Pride - When the Sha of Pride reaches 100 energy, it releases a wave of dark energy, inflicting 350,000 Shadow damage to all players, giving them 5 Pride. In addition, Swelling Pride will trigger a secondary effect on any player with 25 or more Pride.
    • Bursting Pride - When Swelling Pride hits a player that has 25 to 49 Pride, a mass of Sha corruption is created at their location. After 3 seconds, the corruption explodes, inflicting 250,000 Shadow damage to all players within 5 yards. Any player damage by this explosion gains 5 Pride.
    • Projection - When Swelling Pride hits a player that has 50 to 74 Pride, they create a projection 15 yards from their current location. Projections explode after 6 seconds, inflicting 175,000 Shadow damage to all players, unless the projection's creator is standing within it. Any player damage by a projection's explosion gains 5 Pride.
    • Aura of Pride - When Swelling Pride hits a player that has 75 to 99 Pride, they are afflicted with Aura of Pride for 25 sec. This effect causes the player to inflict 250,000 Shadow damage to their allies within 5 yards every 1 sec. Any player damage by Aura of Pride gains 5 Pride.
    • Overcome - When players reach 100 Pride, they are overcome, increasing their damage and healing done by 50%. Players hit by Swelling Pride while Overcome are permanently mind controlled and have their health increased by 100%.
  • Mark of Arrogance - The Sha of Pride marks 2 players, inflicting 55,000 Shadow damage every 1 sec., for the remainder of the encounter. This effect stacks. When Mark of Arrogance is removed, the dispeller gains 5 Pride. In 25 player Difficulty, the Sha of Pride marks 5 players.
  • Wounded Pride - The Sha of Pride wounds his current target for 15 sec. Wounded players gain 5 Pride whenever they suffer melee damage from the Sha of Pride.
  • Manifestation of Pride - The Sha of Pride periodically summons Manifestations of Pride to attack players.
    • Mocking Blast - Manifestations of Pride blast a random player, inflicting 175,000 Shadow damage, giving them 5 Pride.
    • Last Word - When a Manifestation of Pride dies, it gives 5 Pride to the 2 closest players. In 25 player Difficulty, Manifestaions of Pride give Pride to the 5 closest players.
  • Self-Reflection - The Sha of Pride causes up to 5 players to reflect on their actions, creating a Reflection of Pride at their location. With each tick of Self-Reflection, the Sha focuses on players with higher levels of Pride, only targeting those with 25, 50 and then 75 Pride.
    • Reflection - Reflections explode out of the ground at a player's location after 2 sec., inflicting 250,000 Shadow damage to all players within 2 yards. Any player damage by this explosion gains 5 Pride.
  • Corrupted Prison - The Sha of Pride activates 2 titan prisons, trapping a player inside of each. As the prison activates, it releases a burst of Sha energy that inflicts 250,000 Shadow damage to all players within 0 yards, knocking them back and giving them 5 Pride. Imprisoned players are stunned, suffer 80,000 Shadow damage and gain 5 Pride every second. Players remain stunned until all titan locks surrounding the prison have been activated. Titan locks are activated by having a player stand within the lock's rune and remaining there until the prison is deactivated. In 25 player Difficulty, the Sha of Pride activates 4 prisons.
  • Banishment - The Sha of Pride banishes a random player to the corrupted Sha Realm. Banished players leave behind a physical form of their pride and remain banished until it is destroyed. Players within the Sha realm move 50% faster and are compelled to continually run forward, unable to stop. Additionally, coming into contact with corruption within the Sha realm inflicts 350,000 Shadow damage every second. Any player damage by the Sha realm gains 5 Pride.
    • Orb of Light - Orbs of Light form within the corrupted Sha realm that weaken a player's physical form of pride. Each orb inflicts 25% of the physical form's maximum health in Holy damage and increases its damage taken by 25%. This effect stacks.
  • Reaching Attack - The Sha of Pride strikes at a distant target, inflicting 50% of weapon damage as Shadow and increasing Shadow damage taken by 25% for 8 sec. The Sha uses this ability when no targets are in melee range.
  • Unleashed - When the Sha of Pride reaches 30% health remaining it becomes unleashed. With its unleashed power, the Sha focuses on Norushen, instantly killing him. The remaining power of the unleashed Sha inflicts 245,000 Shadow damage every 10 seconds for the remainder of the encounter. Players gain 5 Pride each time they are damaged by Unleashed.
    • Final Gift - As Norushen dies, he purifies all players, reducing their Pride to zero.



Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
GC Tweet (https://twitter.com/Ghostcrawler/sta...149588164609):

"Going to try DP scaling with Spirit. GoAK with AE heals. Maybe buff to WoG, EF, LoD."
For some clarification on this, here's the patch notes for Divine Plea and Holy's Guardian of Ancient Kings in the next PTR build:

  • Guardian of the Ancient Kings (Holy version) has been redesigned. The ability is no longer limited to the next 5 single-target heals, and deals additional healing based on all healing spells cast by the Paladin for its duration. The ability also increases the Paladin's haste by 10% while it's active. However, the duration of the ability has been reduced to 15 seconds (down from 30 seconds).
  • Divine Plea no longer reduces the amount of healing done by 50%, and now restores 135% of the Paladin's Spirit as mana every 3 seconds for 9 seconds. The total amount of mana restored will always be at least 12% of the Paladin's total mana.

As per usual, anything is subject to change. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Combat is supposed to feel faster-paced than the other specs, but we agree that it's gotten a bit TOO spammy, particularly where the Tier 15 set bonus is concerned. We don't have any solid info on any changes we might make yet, but we definitely see the concern and are discussing it.

The challenge we always face when balancing between different specs that perform the same role is that, even if the benefits are relatively small, some players will feel "required" to play whichever is "best". Even in cases where each spec has a clearly defined niche that they excel at, some players still feel like they should change specs from fight to fight to match each encounter's mechanics.

We're not sure it's even possible to ever balance things out completely perfectly so that all specs are equal in all areas, but we do our best to at least minimize the differences. It's far too early to guess at which specs will be "best" once 5.4 launches, but our goal is to allow you to play whichever you enjoy the most without feeling like you're making a huge sacrifice. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Free Character Moves (US)
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
If you're on one of the source realms listed below, you can move your characters to one of the designated destination realms and avoid the queues -- for free!

By initiating one of these transfers, you will be moving your character to a new realm and home. This is a one-time, one-way move. If you wish to move your character elsewhere, you will need to use the paid transfer service.

Source Realm -> Destination
Stormrage-> Trollbane
Area 52 -> Turalyon
Darkspear -> Vashj
Tichondrius -> Blackrock
Illidan -> Mannoroth
Bleeding Hollow -> Korgath

Please be aware that, due to the unpredictable nature of free transfers, we may close down any Free Character Moves at any time and without warning if the target realm becomes full. If you plan to move with friends or your guild, we suggest that you coordinate the effort to reduce the chance of any stragglers being left behind.

Early closures aside, this set of Free Character Moves will end on Thursday, July 25.

Begin a Free Character Move now! We recommend reviewing the FAQ, as it details what is or isn't allowed for transferred characters.

I thought the purpose of the Free Realm Transfer was to repopulate dying realms. Korgath is already a high population realm. Wouldn't it serve the purpose better to offer the Free Realm Transfer to one of the dying low population realms like Archimonde?
We've found over the years that people would rather stay on high population realms with long queues than move to very low population realms. When offering transfers - even free ones - to low population realms, very few people take the offer and high queue times persist. By providing transfers to medium population realms we can, at the very least, offer them a somewhat enticing reason to get away from their long queues and offer relief to that entire realm.

Obviously we're exploring some new ways to solve low population issues in 5.4, and we'll have more details on how that will all work (as well as a final name!) in the near future. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

SWTOR Class Representative Program
SWTOR is adding an interesting way for players to provide feedback on classes and get developer replies. You can see the full post over on Darthhater.

Originally Posted by SWTOR
How Will Class Representatives Be Selected?
This process is going to be largely in your hands! As of the time of making this post, you will be able to head over to your Advanced Class Forum and you will find a post where you can begin nominations for who your Class Representative will be. After a span of time (a week or so) we will create a poll with the names we saw mentioned most, by each AC, and you will vote on who you want your rep to be! I want to note that Class Representatives will be shared across mirrored ACs, so Sentinel and Marauder will have the same representative. We are still going to allow one to be selected for each, but they will rotate in their responsibilities.

Also, each Class Representative will only serve for one “term” (more on that later). After that a new representative will be elected!

What Will They Do?
Upon the Class representatives being selected, we will release a schedule. On each scheduled date listed, the chosen representative for each Class will make a forum post in their Class forum with the top 3 things they want to have answered or commented on. Our current plan is to do 4 ACs each month with 2 ACs being able to propose questions every 2 weeks.

Up until the scheduled date, the rep’s job is to work to figure out what the top 3 issues or questions are for their Class. Once posted, we will begin working with the Combat Team to get an answer or comment to all 3 of those issues, regardless of what they are! Our goal is a one week turnaround from the time that you post the questions for us to get you an answer. I will stress now that our development schedule will take priority at all times, so if our Combat Team is unavailable due to development constraints, any of this schedule is subject to change.

Expectations
Our number one goal is to get your questions answered. We have known for some time that players have had Class balance questions, and it has been tricky to get them answered. The purpose of this initiative is to get those questions addressed as directly as possible. I want to make sure we stress the following things:

It is possible, and even likely, that we could disagree with player sentiment towards something in relation to Class balance. Ex: Why does suck at ?! We may respond that we feel they are in a good place in our design goals and we will do our best to explain why.

Attaching feedback to your top 3 in no way guarantees that it will be feedback that is actionable. The purpose is to allow a set dialog between our Combat Team and you here on the forums. Just because something appears in the top 3 provided by a representative does not mean it is feedback that will garner special treatment.

Class Representatives are player elected and will not be granted any special access to the BioWare team. If chosen, you won’t have to sign an NDA or anything similar. You will be a player-elected forum user who assists your Class in formulating the top issues and concerns you would like to have BioWare commentary on.
34 Comments

Tier 16 Shaman Armor, Ordos Audio, July 5 Hotfixes, SoO Testing, Blue Posts, Fan Art 

by
chaud
Published on 2013-07-11 07:36 AM

DiabloFans Interview With the Diablo 3 Team, Blue Posts, BlizzCon 2013 Talent Contest

Blue Posts - No Test Phase NDA, Linux Support, Card Clarifications

Tier 16 Shaman Armor Set
Keep in mind that this is a preview and the final sets may be significantly different.





Patch 5.4 - Ordos Audio
Ordos is one of the new world bosses on Timeless Isle being added in Patch 5.4. You will need to obtain your legendary cloak to access him.




Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
  • Magma Crush - Inflicts 5,000,000 Fire damage, split evenly amongst all players within 20 yards of the target.
  • Burning Soul - Inflicts 50,000 Fire damage every 1 sec. for 10 sec. On expiration, the player explodes, inflicting 300,000 Fire damage to players within 8 yards and knocking them up.
  • Pool of Fire - Creates a pool of fire that inflicts 50,000 Fire damage every 1 sec.
  • Ancient Flame - Summons an orb that inflicts 50,000 Fire damage to the nearest player every 2 sec. and increases Fire damage taken by 5% for 10 sec.
  • Eternal Agony - After 5 minutes, Ordos channels all of his power into a massive ball of magma, inflicting 300,000 Fire damage to all players every 1 sec.



Patch 5.3 Hotfixes - July 5
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Classes
  • Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
    • Holy
      • Mastery: Illuminated Healing's damage absorption shield should now properly interact with Battle Fatigue on both the initial application and when refreshed. Previously, Battle Fatigue was being incorrectly applied to the damage absorption shield a second time on refresh.
      • Guardian of Ancient Kings (Holy version) should now properly interact with Battle Fatigue. Previously, Battle Fatigue was being incorrectly applied to the ability's subsequent heals.

Quests
  • Last Rites: Thassarian should now allow players to speak with them, allowing the quest to be completed.
  • The Darkness Within: Captain Doren should no longer get stuck in evade mode if the player dies when he has less than 3000 health.

Raid Testing Schedule - July 11
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
On Thursday, July 11, we will continue testing raid encounters in the Siege of Orgrimmar raid. We'll begin with 10-player Normal testing, and then move on to Heroic and then 25-player mode as the PTR cycle progresses.

Each encounter should be available at approximately the listed times below for all Public Test Realms.

Thursday, July 11
Norushen - 10 Player Normal - 10:30 PDT (13:30 EDT, 19:30 CEST)

As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a beta environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session, change the boss being tested, or cancel a test entirely, due to bugs, server hardware issues, etc. Keep an eye on this forum for the latest information, and thank you in advance for testing and providing feedback.

Do you guy's ever do weekend testing? or LATE LATE night testing? I'd kill to get a chance to see the new content and try it out but unfortunately I work second shift and dont get home till 11pm PST on weekdays. Will I ever get my chance to see it in the PTR? =(
When we test LFR and/or Flexible mode, we'll leave those open for much larger windows, often including entire weekends. We'll provide notification on this forum once those modes are ready for testing.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Random Loot Chests in the World
I think you'll enjoy the Timeless Isle in 5.4. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Virtual Realms
It’s true that we haven’t released that much detailed information about Virtual Realms, but you can rest assured that queues and especially server capacity won’t be a problem. We’ll be paying close attention to its implementation and we’ll make sure that the gameplay is not negatively affected by this, as that would be absolutely counterproductive to what we are trying to achieve here.
Now, there are always some risks inherently associated with new things, but on the odd chance that any hiccups do happen, we’ll make sure that they don’t last very long. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Hearthstone in WoW
in short, do you also think that blizzard plans on implementing a shortcut from wow to heartstone so that you can access it without leaving wow ?.
Play it from within the game? It's something the team has talked about, but there aren't any plans for this currently. It would be really cool though, for sure. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Patch 5.4 PvP Mounts
Understand that this is just a first implementation of us trying to add some more rewards into PvP for a wider audience of players. The number of Arena matches and RBG's that need to be won may not be final at this time and there's a chance that they can change before patch 5.4 is released.

Please continue to provide your feedback on this topic though as we would very much like to know what you think about the new mounts and their reward structure. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Flight Paths
With the Cataclysm, and all of the 1-60 zones being redone, there's a pretty direct progression from zone to zone as you level. By and large following that progression is going to give you travel options as your need them. If you want to instead jump to the other side of the world, though, you might be in for a bit of a run. But that's ok. It is an entire world, and if you want to explore and venture off into new lands, you should expect to... adventure and explore. Plenty of solutions exist though for world-travelers even without giving out every flight point, such as various teleportation mechanics of varying availability, or the most obvious, do a /who mage and hit one up for a portal. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Patch 5.4 Class Changes
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Patch 5.4 Prot Paladin Changes
The Seal of Insight change is not intended as a Protection nerf, or to make haste less attractive. In fact, the change is being made because of a Holy concern. Although Seal of Insight does benefit from haste, the stat’s real value for Protection comes from Sanctity of Battle. Regardless, we will be making adjustments to make sure Protection doesn’t start having mana issues. Current thinking is to increase the mana gain from Guarded by the Light to 10%.

Glyph of the Battle Healer was something we had originally intended to allow Holy to adopt a “melee healer” playstyle, but as class design changes shifted Protection towards using Seal of Insight primarily, it has become both mandatory and overpowered. It’s just significantly stronger than a glyph should be. We think that the redesign will still allow it to be useful for Protection, but much more situationally, which is fine.

The Grand Crusader changes are indeed intended to make avoidance more attractive. The goal isn’t to nerf haste; as I mentioned, Sanctity of Battle is where the majority of haste’s value lies (along with other secondary benefits such as its interaction with Sacred Shield). However, we’ve seen overwhelming feedback that dodge and parry feel like wasted stats to Paladin tanks. It’s fine if you still prefer haste over avoidance, but we still intend to put avoidance on plate tanking gear, and we don’t want you to feel like those stats don’t benefit you when you get them.

We are paying careful attention to your feedback while we work through these changes. Please keep in mind that specific feedback regarding what exactly your concerns are about the changes is significantly more useful to us than sweeping generalizations. Thanks

Please just stop it with Grand Crusader. I don't say useless, but Parry and Dodge are surely the least useful things to get. Why do you acknowledge we like Haste and it works well, then emphasize poorer (or at least 'lumpy' damage intake) gearing setups? Smoothness is key.
The goal is not to get you to prefer one over the other. We want you to like haste AND avoidance.

We know you guys like active mitigation. We like it too. We totally agree -- it feels a lot better (and a lot more fun) than passive mitigation.

However, in the short term, dodge and parry still exist. We want them to serve at least some value to tanks. They don't have to be your best stats, we just want them to feel like they're at least accomplishing something.

Looking to the future, we want to keep the idea of "tank" stats around, but they may end up playing less of a role than they do today. Between Dodge and Parry, it's entirely possible that we'll cut one or another and embrace the idea of active mitigation even further. Those changes are just way too big for 5.4. We'd have to re-itemize hundreds of items, rebalance boss damage, change class mechanics, and so on.

So to summarize: we love active mitigation, and we love that you love active mitigation. We want to push harder in that direction, but we can't fit that in for 5.4. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Patch 5.4 Holy Paladin Changes
I just posted some info for Protection in another thread (link) but wanted to make sure we got the message across to Holy as well.

We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from the Holy community that there’s too much of a difference between fights where you’re allowed to stand in melee and fights where you cannot. Seal of Insight is a large part of that problem. By removing the mana gains from SoI, we can balance Holy’s mana appropriately. We don’t think the overall impact will be too large, but just to be sure, we’re planning to buff Divine Plea up to 15% for slightly stronger mana-on-demand.

As I mentioned in the other thread, the Glyph of the Battle Healer changes are largely due to how exceedingly powerful the glyph has become for Protection tanks. We do think it will still be useful in some situations, but we also recognize that many Paladins simply like the idea of healing through melee attacks, and that’s something we may explore more fully in the future. If we do, however, it will most likely not be through a glyph.

In regards to the more general concerns about Holy throughput, we do still plan to buff Holy elsewhere to make up for the changes to Eternal Flame. We’re still discussing exactly what those changes will be (which is why you haven’t seen them yet), but to give a bit of insight, we’re not very likely to buff spells like Beacon of Light or Holy Radiance. When we do make changes, they’ll probably be to spells like Flash of Light, Divine Light, Light of Dawn, and Guardian of Ancient Kings.

Again, please keep in mind that the PTR is a development environment, which quite often means you’ll see incomplete parts of overall changes as work continues. We really appreciate constructive and precise feedback about your concerns – letting us know exactly what is or isn’t working is a lot more effective than hyperbole. Thanks!

For clarification: as I said, we're still discussing exactly how to compensate for the Eternal Flame change. The handful of spells I listed were just possibilities. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Patch 5.4 Warlock Changes
Archimonde's Vengeance has been further adjusted, as you'll see in a forthcoming PTR build. We agree with the general concern about incentivizing a pure DPS class to seek out sources of damage and make healers' lives harder in exchange for a damage boost. Even though we can filter out "standing in the fire," so to speak, and plan to do so for tank Vengeance as well, there are plenty of cases that can't be easily handled (e.g. Lei Shen's Thunderstruck, which isn't really avoidable damage, but where a warlock with the current PTR Archimonde's might find it optimal to stand just close enough that they barely survive it, rather than properly trying to get far away).

The current plan is a replacement that will make Demon Soul significantly more potent, though, of course, that is subject to change, it being PTR and all. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Fan Art
Blizzard featured Dmitriy "Tamplier" Prozorov and his diverse Blizzard fan art this week, along with a nice Q&A to go with it.
39 Comments

Patch 5.4 - PTR Build 17169 

by
Boubouille
Published on 2013-07-09 10:57 PM

Update: (9:55 PM EST) Added some new NYI glyphs.
Update: (9:45 PM EST) Cleaned up spell changes.
Update: (9:25 PM EST) Added nicer Shaman Tier 16 preview.
Update: (9:00 PM EST) Added Wrathion Epilogue audio.
Update: (8:30 PM EST) Added new modes and a very rough Shaman Tier 16 Preview.
Update: (7:50 PM EST) Added new items.
Update: (7:40 PM EST) Added new icons.
Update: (7:30 PM EST) Added client strings.

Patch 5.4 - PTR Build 17169
Build 17169 will be deployed to the PTR realms soon.

  • The epic item level 600 cloaks were changed to be Unique equipped, rather than Unique.
  • Qian-Le, Courage of Niuzao traded Dodge for Expertise.
  • More Season 15 items and achievements were added in this build. Keep in mind that Season 14 hasn't taken place yet and the Season 15 gear is named "Prideful".


Shaman Tier 16



New Models



Audio



New Strings
Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
  • GENERIC_FRACTION_STRING - %d/%d
  • LOOT_ITEM_BONUS_ROLL - %s receives bonus loot: %s.
  • LOOT_ITEM_BONUS_ROLL_MULTIPLE - %s receives bonus loot: %sx%d.
  • LOOT_ITEM_BONUS_ROLL_SELF - You receive bonus loot: %s.
  • LOOT_ITEM_BONUS_ROLL_SELF_MULTIPLE - You receive bonus loot: %sx%d.
  • LOOT_ITEM_PUSHED - %s receives item: %s.
  • LOOT_ITEM_PUSHED_MULTIPLE - %s receives item: %sx%d.
  • PROVING_GROUNDS_SCORE - Score:
  • PROVING_GROUNDS_WAVE - Wave:
  • UNCONSCIOUS - Unconscious



New Icons




New Items
You can see all the new items from this build on the WoWDB PTR site.

Level Type Slot Name
1Companion Pets Lil' Bling
1Other Coalesced Mists
1Other Sheltering Mists
1Other Path of Shaohao
1Other Mountain-Climbing Rope
1Other Ring of White Ash
1Other Tale of the Emperor
1Other Legacy of the Emperor
1Other Tabard of the Shaohan
1Other Greatfather's Box of Greatness
1Other "Dapper Gentleman" Costume
1Other "Princess" Costume
1Other "Pirate Captain" Costume
1Other Big Pink Bow
1Other Elder Charm of Good Fortune
1Other Mogu Rune of Fate
1Other Tattered Adventurer's Journal
20Mount Greatfather's Riding Turtle
90Other Spirit of War
535None Burden of Eternity
496TrinketTrinket Resolve of Niuzao
1TabardTabard Prideful Gladiator's Tabard
496TrinketTrinket Alacrity of Xuen
496TrinketTrinket Discipline of Xuen
496TrinketTrinket Cunning of Chi-Ji
496TrinketTrinket Yu'lon's Caress
90BackBack Prideful Gladiator's Greatcloak
213Fist WeaponOne Hand Raid D01 1H
90BagBag Greatfather's Satchel
1Consumable Greatfather's Path of Cenarius
85Food & Drink Singing Crystal
85Food & Drink Book of the Ages
85Food & Drink Dew of Eternal Morning


Achievement Changes
Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
Feats of Strength

Pandaria Raid
Dungeons & Raids
  • Double Trouble Reveal and defeat two Massive enemies in the same quadrant simultaneously and then complete the Spoils of Pandaria encounter in Siege of Orgrimmar on Flexible, Normal, or Heroic difficulty. 10 points.
  • Fire in the Hole! Stomp on 6 superheated Crawler Mines and then defeat the Iron Juggernaut on Flexible, Normal, or Heroic Siege of Orgrimmar. 10 points. in Siege of Orgrimmar on Flexible, Normal, or Heroic difficulty. 10 points.
  • Gamon Will Save Us! Defeat General Nazgrim while Gamon is alive and participating in the battle in Siege of Orgrimmar on Flexible, Normal, or Heroic difficulty while Gamon is alive and participating in the battle. 10 points. 10 points.
  • Go Long Transfer the Mark of Anguish to at least 5 unique players over a total of 250 yards or more during a single Desperate Measures phase, and then defeat the Fallen Protectors in Siege of Orgrimmar on Flexible, Normal, or Heroic difficulty. 10 points.
  • Lasers and Drills and Magnets! Oh My! (New) Defeat Siegecrafter Blackfuse without destroying each of the following weapons in Siege of Orgrimmar on Flexible, Normal or Heroic difficulty: 10 points.
  • No More Tears Defeat Immerseus after killing 10 Tears of the Vale.in Siege of Orgrimmar on Flexible, Normal, or Heroic difficulty.
  • Strike! Kill 18 Kor'kron Warbringers with Iron Star Impact and then defeat Garrosh. a single Iron Star and then defeat Garrosh in Siege of Orgrimmar on Flexible, Normal, or Heroic difficulty.
  • The Immortal Vanguard Defeat Galakras in the Siege of Orgrimmar without having allowed a single friendly NPC to perish in battle in Siege of Orgrimmar on Flexible, Normal, or Heroic difficulty. 10 points.
  • Unlimited Potential (New) Transform a Corrupted Warden into a Corrupted Amalgamation and then defeat Malkorok in Siege of Orgrimmar on Flexible, Normal or Heroic difficulty. 10 points.

Player vs. Player



New NYI Glyphs
Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)



Spell Changes
Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
Mounts

Companions

Item Set Bonuses
Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Item - Death Knight T16 Blood 4P Bonus Dancing Rune Weapon will reactivate converts all Frost and Unholy runes as to Death Runes, and make your next 2 Death Strikes free. 1 Death Strike free.

Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Item - Druid T16 Guardian 4P Bonus Activating Frenzied Regeneration and Savage Defense will cause a heal over time on yourself based on 25% 30% of your Attack Power over 8 sec.
  • Item - Druid T16 Restoration 2P Bonus Rejuvenation ticks have a 8% 12% chance to grant a Sage Mender, reducing the mana cost and cast time of your next Healing Touch by 20%, stacking up to 5 times.

Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Item - Priest T16 4P Bonus Circle of Healing and Prayer of Mending casts increase the effect of your next Holy Word spell by 15%, stacking up to 10 75%, stacking up to 3 times. While Spirit Shell is active, you gain 15% haste and 3,500 mastery. 10% haste and 3,500 mastery.

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Item - Shaman T16 Restoration 2P Bonus When Earth Shield heals a target, the target will gain 100% 300% of the amount healed as an absorb.
  • Improved Lightning Shield When your Lightning Shield is triggered by being hit by a hostile spell or attack, a charge will be generated, up to a maximum of 7. Your Lightning Shield can now be triggered once every 1.5 sec instead of once every 3 sec.

Death Knight (Forums, Talent Calculator)
Blood
  • Riposte now grants 75% of your Parry and Dodge as additional Critical Strike for 20 sec, up from 50%.
  • Scent of Blood now also procs from dodges and parries.

Hunter (Forums, Talent Calculator)
  • Counter Shot (New) A shot that interrupts spellcasting, preventing any spell in that school from being cast for 3 sec. Requires Ranged Weapon. 40 yd range. Instant. 24 sec cooldown.
  • Stampede tooltip was clarified to show the reduced damage is in Arenas and Battlegrounds.

Marksmanship

Monk (Forums, Talent Calculator)
Windwalker
  • Brewing: Tigereye Brew now grants 1 charge per 4 Chi, up from 3. Damage and healing buff increased to 5% from 2.6%. Now stacks 30 times, up from 20. Now allows you to consume 15 stacks at a time, up from 10, for 75% increased damage, up from 26%.
  • Mastery: Bottled Fury was reworked: When you generate Tigereye Brew charges, you have a 16% chance to generate an additional charge.
  • Tigereye Brew now grants 1 charge per 4 Chi, up from 3. Damage and healing buff increased to 5% from 2.6%. Now stacks 30 times, up from 20. Now allows you to consume 15 stacks at a time, up from 10, for 75% increased damage, up from 26%.

Paladin (Forums, Talent Calculator)

Protection
  • Grand Crusader no longer procs from Crusader Strike or Hammer of the Righteous. Now has a 30% proc chance, up from 12%.

Major Glyphs
  • Glyph of the Battle Healer was reworked: Melee attacks from Seal of Insight heal the most wounded member of your raid or party instead of you.

Priest (Forums, Talent Calculator)
Shadow
  • Shadowy Apparitions had the limit of 3 Apparitions removed from the tooltip, and no longer has spec specific tooltips.

Rogue (Forums, Talent Calculator)
  • Eviscerate had base damage decreased by 10% and AP scaling increased by 13%.
  • Hemorrhage now deals 160% weapon damage (232% if a dagger is equipped), up from 140% weapon damage (203% if a dagger is equipped).

Talents

Subtlety
  • Backstab had a 15% weapon and base damage increase.
  • Hemorrhage now deals 160% weapon damage (232% if a dagger is equipped), up from 140% weapon damage (203% if a dagger is equipped).

Major Glyphs

Shaman (Forums, Talent Calculator)
  • Healing Rain now diminishes for each player beyond 14 in 25 player instances.
  • Healing Tide Totem now diminishes for each player beyond 12 in 25 player instances. No longer a talent. Healing reduced by 33%.

Talents
  • Rushing Streams (New) Your Healing Stream Totem now heals two targets at once for 15% additional healing. Shaman - LvL 75 Talent.

Restoration
  • Purification now increases healing of Water Totems, not just Healing Stream Totem.

Warlock (Forums, Talent Calculator)

Talents
  • Archimonde's Vengeance was reworked: Each time you or your pet take damage, you gain 1% of the unmitigated damage taken as spell power for 20 sec.

Affliction
  • Agony had a 4% base damage and SP scaling increase.
  • Drain Soul base damage reduced by 60%, SP scaling reduced by 38%, and low target health effect now causes all of your other periodic Affliction damage effects to instantly deal 60% of their normal periodic damage, down from 100%.
  • Haunt had a 50% base damage and SP scaling increase. Now increases all damage done by your spells on the target by 45% for 8 sec, up from 30%.
  • Malefic Grasp had a 40% base damage and SP scaling reduction. Now causes all of your other periodic Affliction damage effects to instantly deal 30% of their normal periodic damage, down from 50%.
  • Nightfall now has a 7% proc chance, down from 10%.
  • Unstable Affliction had a 10% base damage and SP scaling increase.

Warrior (Forums, Talent Calculator)
Arms
  • Slam had a 0 value tooltip fix.

Protection
  • Revenge now generates 20 Rage in Defensive Stance, up from 15.
  • Riposte now grants 75% of your Parry and Dodge as additional Critical Strike for 20 sec, up from 50%.Protection Spec.

Major Glyphs

Professions
Blacksmithing

Engineering
  • Rascal-Bot Engineering. 10 sec cast. Reagents: Jard's Peculiar Energy Source (15), Living Steel (15). Tools: Blacksmith Hammer.Arclight Spanner.
  • Spinal Healing Injector Permanently attaches a specialized injector kit to your belt, allowing you to heal yourself for 2,400,000 800,000 every minute. Shares a cooldown with potions. Requires an Engineering skill of 450 or higher to operate. Engineering. 5 sec cast. Reagents: Tinker's Kit. Tools: Arclight Spanner.

Leatherworking

Tailoring

Way of the Grill
  • Fluffy Silkfeather Omelet Cooking Way of the Grill. 2 sec cast. Reagents: Aged Mogu'shan Cheese, Fresh Silkfeather Hawk Eggs (5).

Way of the Oven
  • Stuffed Lushrooms Cooking Way of the Oven. 2 sec cast. Reagents: Aged Mogu'shan Cheese, Fresh Lushroom (5).

Way of the Pot
  • Spiced Blossom Soup Cooking Way of the Pot. 2 sec cast. Reagents: Ancient Pandaren Spices, Delicate Blossom Petals (5).

Way of the Steamer
  • Farmer's Delight Cooking Way of the Steamer. 2 sec cast. Reagents: Aged Balsamic Vinegar, Fresh Strawberries, Fresh Shao-Tien Rice (2).

Way of the Wok

Raid & Dungeon Abilities
  • Berzerker Blaze (New) Wildfire explodes, dealing 1 Fire damage. Instant.
  • Blaze of Gory Wildfire explodes, dealing 1 Fire damage. Instant. 400,000 Fire damage. 15 yd range. Instant.
  • Bond of the Golden Lotus Rook Stonetoe, He Softfoot, and Sun Tenderheart share a spiritual bond, preserving their connection to the world while the others remain alive. Upon reaching 1% health they linking their fates to each other. Upon reaching 1 health, each of them will begin to cast Bond of the Golden Lotus, restoring 20% heath. 15 sec cast. if any of the other Protectors are still in combat, restoring 20% of maximum heath upon completion. Bringing all three Protectors to 1 health simultaneously will restore clarity to their clouded minds. 15 sec cast.
  • Breath of Y'Shaarj Malkorok channels the power of Y'Shaarj, causing the areas recently hit by Arcing Smash and Seismic Slam to explode, inflicting 1,200,000 Shadow damage. Instant. 100 yd range. Instant.
  • Burst of Anger (New) Inflicts 50,000 Shadow damage to all players within the Quarantine zone. 100 yd range. Instant.
  • Corruption Kick Spins rapidly in a circle, rooting himself and inflicting 150,000 120,000 Physical damage to targets within 10 every second for 4 sec. Additionally torments targets struck, inflicting 75,000 Shadow damage every second for 9 sec. Unlimited range. Instant. two seconds for 6 sec. Unlimited range. Instant.
  • Corruption Kick Spins rapidly in a circle, rooting himself and inflicting 150,000 120,000 Physical damage to targets within 10 every second for 4 sec. Additionally torments targets struck, inflicting 75,000 Shadow damage every second for 9 sec. Unlimited range. Instant. two seconds for 6 sec. Unlimited range. Instant.
  • Crushing Fear (New) Unlimited range. Instant.
  • Debilitating Anguish (New) Possessing the Mark of Anguish debilitates targets, decreasing their armor by 0% for until cancelled. Unlimited range. Instant.
  • Detonate! Inflicts 275,000 Inflicts 225,000 Fire damage to nearby units, knocking them back and killing the caster. Instant.
  • Electrostatic Charge Inflicts 250,000 Nature damage to the current target. Increases damage taken from Electrostatic Charge by 100% and damage inflicted on targets with Reactive Armor by 400% for 60 sec 200% for 1.7 min. This ability stacks up to 10 times. 300 yd range. 2 sec cast.
  • Expelled Corruption Inflicts 200,000 Inflicts 100,000 Shadow damage to the target. 100 yd range. Instant.
  • Icy Fear Inflicts 120,000 Inflicts 75,000 Frost damage to all enemies. Instant.
  • Imploding Energy Instant. Energy arcs off of Malkorok, creating an implosion that inflicts 510,000 Shadow damage to all enemies within 5 yards after 3 seconds. If the implosion does not hit an enemy, it instead explodes for 510,000 Shadow damage to all enemies with 200 yards. Instant.
  • Magnetic Crush Magnetic forces weigh on enemies in the area, inflicting 75,000 27,500 Physical damage every 1 sec and pulling them closer to the Electromagnet. Instant.
  • Malice (New) Fires Malicious Blast at the closest 2 allies every 1.5 sec. Any Malicious Blast that is not absorbed will be fired at Garrosh instead, granting him 5 Energy. Limited to 1 target. Unlimited range. Instant.
  • Matter Purification Beam Inflicts 9,999,999 Fire damage. Instant. Inflicts 475,000 Fire damage. Instant.
  • Overload Inflicts 150,000 Inflicts 100,000 Nature damage to all enemies, and increases damage dealt by 10%. Stacks up to 20 times. 300 yd range. Instant.
  • Pheromones Garalon surrounds the target with powerful Pheromones, fixating on the target. Every 2 seconds, Pheromones inflicts 15,000 Nature damage to allies within 300 50,000 yards and increases damage dealt by Pheromones by 10% for 2 min. Pheromones can be passed to allies in close proximity. 1,000 yd range. Instant.
  • Piercing Corruption The caster strikes at the target, inflicting a piercing strike of 200,000 400,000 Physical damage. This attack bypasses absorption effects but can be avoided and blocked. Melee range. 1 sec cast.
  • Reactive Armor The caster is enveloped in Reactive armor, reducing damage taken by 90% 80%. Environmental effects deal damage. Instant.
  • Residual Corruption Residual Corruption left in the quarantine zone inflicts 200,000 90,000 Shadow damage to all players within every 3 seconds. 100 yd range. Instant.
  • Rocket Rampage (New) 45 yd range. Instant.
  • Seismic Activity A mighty drill bores into the earth, causing an earthquake that deals 35,000 40,000 Nature damage every 1 second. Instant.
  • Seismic Slam Malkorok slams the ground, inflicting 500,000 0 Physical damage in a 5 yard area around a random enemy. In addition, anyone hit by Seismic Slam is knocked into the air. Instant. 100 yd range. Instant.
  • Self Doubt The caster reveals the deepest doubts of the victim, causing them to suffer 30% 40% more damage from the Amalgam's next Unleahsed Anger. 100 yd range. Instant.
  • Serrated Slash The sawblade slashes nearby targets, inflicting 500,000 250,000 Physical damage and knocking them back. Instant.
  • Serrated Slash The sawblade slashes nearby targets, inflicting 500,000 250,000 Physical damage and knocking them back. Instant.
  • Shadow Word: Bane Expels a word of misery upon multiple targets, inflicting 100,000 Shadow damage every 3 sec. This effect may jump to other targets based on the number of stacks currently present on a target. Unlimited range. Instant. for 18 sec. Each time this effect deals damage, it will jump to an additional target, up to a total of 3 times. Unlimited range. Instant.
  • Shockwave Missile Launches a missile that sends a barrage of drills in expanding rings of seismic energy, inflicting 385,000 225,000 Nature damage to all players caught within each ring. 3 sec cast.
  • Shockwave Missile Launches a missile that sends a barrage of drills in expanding rings of seismic energy, inflicting 385,000 225,000 Nature damage to all players caught within each ring. 3 sec cast.
  • Shockwave Missile Launches a missile that sends a barrage of drills in expanding rings of seismic energy, inflicting 385,000 225,000 Nature damage to all players caught within each ring. 3 sec cast.
  • Shockwave Missile Launches a missile that sends a barrage of drills in expanding rings of seismic energy, inflicting 385,000 225,000 Nature damage to all players caught within each ring. 3 sec cast.
  • Shockwave Missile Launches a missile that sends a barrage of drills in expanding rings of seismic energy, inflicting 385,000 225,000 Nature damage to all players caught within each ring. 3 sec cast.
  • Shockwave Missile Launches a missile that sends a barrage of drills in expanding rings of seismic energy, inflicting 385,000 225,000 Nature damage to all players caught within each ring. Instant.
  • Shockwave Missile Launches a missile that sends a barrage of drills in expanding rings of seismic energy, inflicting 385,000 225,000 Nature damage to all players caught within each ring. Instant.
  • Shockwave Missile Launches a missile that sends a barrage of drills in expanding rings of seismic energy, inflicting 385,000 225,000 Nature damage to all players caught within each ring. 3 sec cast.
  • Slow and Steady Strikes the ground, inflicting 200,000 Physical damage and stunning targets in a frontal cone for 2 sec 15 yd range. 3 sec cast.
  • Superheated Inflicts 69,000 Inflicts 34,500 Fire damage per stack every 1 sec for 10 sec. Stacks up to 20 times. Instant.



OpenRaid Event - 25 Death Knight Mogu'shan Vaults
Yet another OpenRaid event is here on Saturday, this time for the US and EU Horde! Raegwyn, Elitist Jerks, and Icy Veins moderators will be taking part and answering questions after the event.
102 Comments

Patch 5.4 PvP Mounts, In Game Store Update, 5.4 PTR Notes Update, Blue Posts, Comic 

by
chaud
Published on 2013-07-09 06:52 AM

Key Details on Console Gameplay, Security is Still Overlooked by Players, Testing of RMAH SMS System Continues

Hearthstone Coming to China, Client Localizations, Make a Card

Patch 5.4 -Skeletal Warhorse and Warsaber Mounts
Patch 5.4 adds two new PvP mounts, the Reins of the Vicious Skeletal Warhorse and Reins of the Vicious Warsaber.

Currently, the mounts are sold by Netharian. on the PTR for a Vicious War Saddle, but it isn't very clear where those come from yet though, as we saw two different answers on the same day from two developers:







Patch 5.4 In Game Store Update
It looks like the Asian regions will be the first to be able to purchase faster leveling and Lesser Charms!
Originally Posted by Bashiok (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Thanks for all the feedback so far, everyone. We’re still pretty early in the exploration process, but we did want to go into more detail about our rationale for introducing an in-game store, as well as provide some insight into what you might ultimately see available there.

For players who are already interested in the in-game items we offer, such as Pet Store pets and mounts, the benefits of an in-game store are pretty clear. We think everyone would appreciate the convenience of being able to make such purchases without having to leave the game, and ultimately that’s our long-term goal for the system, though there’s quite a bit of work involved in retrofitting those existing items into the new system.

First, we’ll be testing the in-game store with some new kinds of items we’re looking into introducing (in Asian regions, at the outset) based on player feedback: specifically, an experience buff to assist with the leveling process, as well as an alternate way to acquire Lesser Charms of Good Fortune. We’ve had a lot of requests from players in different regions for convenience-oriented items such as these, and as with other new ideas we’ve introduced as WoW has evolved—including Pet Store pets, mounts, and more—your feedback plays a hugely important part in determining what we add to the game.

Ultimately it’s still too early in the process to make any final determinations about our plans, but in the meantime, we hope you’ll check out the in-game store once it’s implemented on the PTR and let us know what you think.

Patch 5.4 PTR Notes Update
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
General
New Feature: Flexible Raid Difficulty
  • Player spells with different target limits depending on raid size will gradually increase their limits based on the number of players in Flexible Raid difficulty.

Classes
Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Blood
    • Scent of Blood now also has a chance to activate when the Death Knight dodges or parries a melee attack.

Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Talents
    • Force of Nature
      • Guardian: Guardian Druids now gain Vengeance when their Treant takes damage.

Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • General
    • Counter Shot is now a baseline interrupt ability learned by all Hunters at level 22.
  • Talents
    • Silencing Shot is no longer a talent and is now an ability that replaces Counter Shot for Marksman Hunters.

Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Talents
    • Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger's summoned version of Xuen will no longer taunt off players that are tank-specialized.
      • For Brewmaster Monks, they now gain Vengeance when Xuen takes damage.
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Afterlife now increases the chance to summon a Healing Sphere by 100% (up from 25% chance).
  • Brewmaster
    • Keg Smash now deals 18% less damage.
  • Windwalker
    • Mastery: Bottled Fury has been redesigned. The Mastery now gives a chance to generate an additional charge of Tigereye Brew when the Monk gains one normally.
    • Tigereye Brew received a number of adjustments.
      • Stacks up to 30 charges (up from 20 charges).
      • Can be consumed 15 at a time (up from 10 at a time).
      • Increases damage by 5% per stack, (up from 1% per stack) but is no longer increased by Mastery.
      • The Monk gains 1 charge of Tigereye Brew for every 4 Chi spent (down from 1 charge per 3 Chi spent).

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • General
    • Seal of Insight no longer has a chance to restore mana on attacks.
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Battle Healer has been redesigned. The glyph now causes Seal of Insight to heal the most wounded raid or party member instead of the Paladin.
  • Protection
    • Grand Crusader no longer has a chance to activate from Crusader Strike and Hammer of the Righteous, but now has a 30% chance to activate when dodging or parrying a melee attack (up from 12%).

Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Shadow
    • Shadowy Apparitions now creates a shadowy version of the Priest that floats towards the target and deals damage. The apparitions are now treated as a missile, and is no longer an attackable creature.

Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • General
    • Eviscerate now deals 10% less damage.
  • Talents
    • Burst of Speed's cost has been reduced to 15 Energy (down from 30 Energy).
    • Cheat Death now reduces damage taken by 85% after activating (up from 80%).
    • Cloak and Dagger now allows the Rogue to use Ambush, Garrote, and Cheap Shot from 40 yards away (up from 30 yards).
    • Shadowstep now has a reduced cooldown of 20 seconds (down from 24 seconds).
  • Assassination
    • Assassination Rogues should no longer be eligible for any other weapon types except daggers in situations where loot is automatically awarded(Raid Finder, Bonus Rolls, Heroic/Normal Scenarios, and the upcoming Flexible Raid difficulty.)
  • Subtlety
    • Backstab now deals 315% weapon damage (up from 275%).
    • Hemorrhage now deals 160% weapons damage (up from 140%); 232% weapons damage if a dagger is equipped (up from 203% for daggers).

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • General
    • Chain Heal's effectiveness will no longer decrease with each jump (up from a 30% reduction to healing with each jump).
    • Earth Elemental Totem's summoned Greater Earth Elemental will no longer taunt off players that are tank-specialized.
    • Healing Rain's radius has been increased to 12 yards, up from 10 yards. For 25-player instances, Healing Rain will heal for a reduced amount when healing more than 14 raid members. It remains the same in 10-player instances, healing for a reduced amount when healing more than 6 raid members.
  • Talents
    • New Talent: Rushing Streams. This new talent replaces Healing Tide Totem, increases healing done by Healing Stream Totem by 100%, and causes the totem to heal 2 targets at once.
    • Healing Tide Totem is no longer a talent and is a baseline ability for all Shamans. Additionally, this totem will now heal 12 raid members (up from 5) when used in a 25-player instance. now heals for 50% more.
  • Class Armor
    • Elemental Shaman 2-piece PvP set bonus has been changed. It now allows Lightning Shield to be triggered once every 1.5 seconds instead of once every 3 seconds.

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Talents
    • Archimonde's Vengeance has been redesigned. For the passive portion of the talent, each time the Warlock or their pet takes damage, the Warlock now gains 1% of the unmitigated damage back as spell power for 20 seconds.
  • Glyphs
    • Glyph of Everlasting Affliction will be redesigned.
    • Glyph of Soul Swap will be redesigned.
  • Affliction
    • Agony now deals 5% more damage.
    • Drain Soul now deals 40% less damage, and if other periodic Affliction damage effects are triggered by Drain Soul, they now deal 60% of their normal damage (down from 100%).
    • Haunt now deals 50% more damage, and increases damage done by all of the Warlock's other spells against the target by 45%.
    • Malefic Grasp now deals 40% less damage, and causes all of of the Warlock's other periodic Affliction damage effects to instantly deal 30% of their normal periodic damage (down from 50%).
    • Nightfall now gives Corruption a 7% chance to generate a Soul Shard (up from a 5% chance), but the increased chance only works on the most recently applied Corruption.
    • Soul Swap no longer does any damage, and now copies damage-over-time effects instead of just moving them without needing a glyph. Copied effects now once again preserve their power and duration. Duration has been reduced to 6 seconds (down from 20 seconds).
    • Unstable Affliction now deals 10% more damage.

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Protection
    • Revenge now generates 20 Rage (up from 15 Rage).

Battlegrounds and Arenas
Battlegrounds
  • Conquest Point rewards for winning a random or call-to-arms Battleground match has been increased.
    • First win of the day now awards 150 Conquest Points (up from 100).
    • Subsequent wins now awards 75 Conquest Points (up from 50).
  • Strand of the Ancients
    • Bombs are no longer an item held in the player's inventory and will now do considerably more damage, 4500 (up from 1250).
    • Players carrying a bomb now have a button that allows them to place it with a spell effect over their heads.
      • Placing a bomb takes 2 seconds, and can be interrupted like a Battleground capture point.
      • Disarming a bomb takes 2 seconds, and can be interrupted like a Battleground capture point.
    • Demolishers will no longer have the Ram ability and only one will spawn at each stage.

Legendary Cloak Effects
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Legendary Cloak Effects and Druid/Warlock Forms
As the legendary spell effects are tied to the procs and not the cloak graphics themselves, they will still display even if your cloak is hidden. That includes Druid forms.

How's it work with Meta for demo locks I wonder? I'd love to know it's all gonna be smooth sailing
I haven't confirmed Meta form specifically, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

Will players that haven't been doing the quests or chose to level a new character have a chance at getting these cloaks?
You won't get them quite as quickly as someone who's already on the most recent step of the quest chain when 5.4 releases, but we do have plans to shorten the amount of time it takes to "catch up." We made similar changes for the 5.0 steps of the chain when 5.2 launched. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Legendary Cloak and Transmogrification
How many of you are concerned that legacy legendaries will become the new Paladin Tier 2, in that everyone and his dog will be equipping them? Wouldn't it somehow ruin the novelty of owning these items when you get to see them being used constantly, even by levelling characters? Alright, I guess the argument for items that aren't available anymore is a little stronger in my eyes.

But hey, we're not ruling it out completely—one day, who knows? We purposefully made it very limited when transmogrification started, so we could maybe open things up further down the road. I've seen plenty of people argue against this is all.

I mean, allowing players to transmog into legendaries isn't gonna automatically increase the number of players having, say, Thunderfury
Are you sure? One of the reasons I've never gone for the Twin Blades of Azzinoth is because I know I wouldn't be able to show them off constantly. All that work for a few minutes posing in Stormwind? But if I could transmogrify them, I'd be in BT every waking moment trying for those things, and I think there'd be a few more like me. Just a guess, of course. At least now when you see someone taking those few minutes to /flex in the city with those awesome old school legendaries, you're impressed. Well, I am. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Patch 5.4 Hunter Updates
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
As I've mentioned before, we're still discussing Hunter concerns. When we have an update, we will share it.
I said this 5 days ago, before a holiday weekend. We haven't somehow jumped ahead several weeks in development while everyone's been out of the office.

I know it can be frustrating to be patient, but that's just how our development process works. We're still pretty early in that process. As I've mentioned before, balance tuning typically takes place towards the end of the PTR cycle. Hunter sustained DPS in the wake of the Readiness nerf is a concern that we're well aware of and fully intend to fix -- when we get to that point.

For clarity: we know there are other issues than just Readiness. Arcane Shot vs Kill Command is one such issue that, again, we intend to fix. I will make sure to bring up the other concerns to the team as well.

He can be our man on the inside and a champion for our class. It would be risky and challenging, but, if he cares about this game and us, he absolutely should do it. If I could walk down the hall and force Greg to hear these issues I would do so in a heartbeat.
This is starting to get pretty off-topic, and I apologize, but I want to be clear: this is exactly what I do. Daily. For every class. My job as a World of Warcraft Community Representative, as it turns out, is to represent the community. I take my job very seriously. We all do.

I know all too well how frustrating it can be when you're concerned about something and it appears that we're being silent. I was in those shoes myself until very recently. Just please be aware that silence isn't necessarily a bad thing. In many cases, including this one, it means we're still actively discussing things and just don't have anything we're comfortable sharing yet.

We really do appreciate all of the feedback, both on Hunter concerns as well as how we can communicate better. This thread in particular should probably stick to Hunter concerns, but I want to be the very best (like no one ever was) and can always work to improve how we interact with you guys.

Alright, I have a few updates, followed by a request. Here’s what the developers are currently thinking about several of the issues brought up in this thread:

Regarding Stampede: We’re happy with the damage it’s currently putting out in PvP. For PvE, we’re planning to buff its damage pretty heavily, so it becomes a substantially more potent DPS cooldown. We don’t want to give it any more utility than it has now, for reasons we’ve explained at length already.

Readiness is still under heavy discussion, and we haven’t made a final decision on what we’re going to do with it in 5.4. At the moment, we’re leaning towards just removing the ability entirely and giving the affected abilities shorter cooldowns or charges to compensate. If we end up taking that route, we will buff Hunter damage (most likely across the board, not just specific abilities), but as I mentioned, we’re still discussing.

Murder of Crows vs Blink strike is also still under heavy discussion. Our goal (with all talents) is that active abilities used properly will outperform passive ones. We haven’t decided yet what adjustments we’ll make to achieve that in 5.4.

Scatter/Silencing Shot: We don’t consider interrupts to be mandatory in PvE. If a Hunter would rather not take the Glyph of Scattered Thoughts, there are plenty of other players in the raid who could take on the responsibility. We like Silencing Shot as a Marksman perk overall, but we’re still discussing things. We may end up making a baseline Interrupting Shot that gets upgraded to Silencing Shot if you spec Marksman.

Speaking of spec differences, we agree that Hunter rotations feel cooler when your signature shots do a lot more damage than other shots, and we’ll discuss that some more. That’s part of the reasoning behind the Arcane Shot changes – our hope is that saving up more Focus for a bigger hit will feel better than firing off smaller shots more regularly.

As to overall Hunter performance and utility, we don’t think the issues are with the Hunter class specifically. Instead, we think that certain other classes are overperforming (in both) at the moment. Fixing those outliers will, in turn, make a good Hunter more attractive for their raid spot. You may have seen some (but not all) changes along those lines on the PTR already.

Pet pathing errors are unfortunately extremely difficult to fix. A lot of the time, the problem isn’t with the pet AI but with the environment or encounter. That means there’s no blanket fix here; we have to resolve every such error individually. When reporting these problems, it’s most helpful to be very specific. “My pet has trouble getting to the boss during this phase transition on this encounter” allows us to reproduce the issue and come up with a fix. “My pet is dumb” does not.

Which brings me to my request. This thread has a lot of great feedback put together by a good handful of Hunters who just want their class to be fun – which is amazing! The issue is that, in order to find those helpful posts, we have to dig through hundreds of other posts that contain no helpful information whatsoever (and instead focus on how class X got more blue posts this week, or employee Y must just hate Hunters, etc.). There’s always going to be some of that, and we expect as much, but this thread has been particularly out of hand.

I’m not bringing that up because it hurts my feelings or whatever. That sort of thing doesn’t really affect me. I’m bringing it up because it makes it incredibly difficult for us to figure out what you’re actually upset about. When we have to sift through so much noise just to find something we can actually bring up in our meetings and discuss, the end result is that we have less to talk about in our meetings. I’m sure there are still some concerns that I didn’t address above – if that’s the case, it’s 100% because they got lost in the pile. That sucks.

So please, try to keep things constructive. You’re only hurting yourselves and your fellow Hunters otherwise. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Dark Legacy Comics #397
DLC #397 has been released! The series starts with #395.
139 Comments

Patch 5.4 - Legendary Cloak Effects, Blue Tweets, Setup of the Month, News Recap 

by
chaud
Published on 2013-07-07 10:10 PM

Updates on RMAH SMS Issues, New Fan Art , Zlexpro's Melee DH

Patch 5.4 - Legendary Cloak Effects
Along with the new procs on the legendary cloak come some nice new spell effects. Keep in mind the size and positioning of the effects in the preview are aren't from an official preview, so don't expect the final effect to appear in the same place or be the same size as our preview.





Level Type Spec Slot Name
600BackTankBack Qian-Le, Courage of Niuzao
600BackTankBack Qian-Ying, Fortitude of Niuzao
600BackMeleeBack Gong-Lu, Strength of Xuen
600BackSpell SpiritBack Jina-Kang, Kindness of Chi-Ji
600BackPhysical DPSBack Fen-Yu, Fury of Xuen
600BackSpell DPSBack Xing-Ho, Breath of Yu'lon



Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
PvE
Only ToT raids are not x-realm in guild modes - not sure why it is still snowflake delayed after another patch.
We want guilds and realms to still have meaning. (Source)

in the world of bring the player not the class shouldn't Drums be equivalent to lust and not weaker?
If the goal was that you had all buffs regardless of comp then we'd just give them all passively. (Source)
The goal was to give players flexibility to e.g. bring a high DPS player over a low DPS player with a mandatory buff. (Source)
Comp is much more flexible now, but not infinitely so. (Source)
We think you can fit a mage, shaman or hunter in your 10 or live with weaker lust. (Source)
Isn't this raid buff thing mostly there to shit on 10m raids? 25s get them all by accident.
Buffs are there to make you feel stronger in a group and to encourage some level of raid diversity. (Source)
We know there are 10s that would love to bring e.g. 7 druids, but even they are still viable, just at a disadvantage. (Source)

Should I take this as "Bring the Player Not the Class" is now less of a goal for Blizzard than it was during wrath?
I would phrase it as we largely fixed the Sunwell problem. (Source)
We were coming off of Sunwell where raid comps were absurdly rigid. (Source)
Most guilds not competing for world first have huge latitude in their group comp. (Source)

"Finders" have soiled social exps. and has been repeatedly proven. I really like that hs requires forming groups.
I think the key is there have to be alternatives. Social / challenging and finder / easier seems like a good formula. (Source)

How about this for once: "Tough." Nerfing content is not serving the game or the company. Refute me, please.
This sounds like the myth that hard content forces players to rise to the challenge and not quit. (Source)
If it's a myth, then why is it bad for HScens to be nerfed? Maybe having goals is important for progression?
The difference is there are alternatives to heroic scenarios. The problem with e.g. Cat dungeons was there were not. (Source)

Divide in this aspect. Do you think there are players who would like long lasting interractions but miss opportunities in game
Overall we think players tend to stick with the game longer if they have a social network. But that is not something we can force. (Source)
Forcing players to find groups by making content hard and providing no matchmaking isn't a good recipe for success. (Source)
When you provide the ability to play alone, many players will, and then, where's the necessary social network?
From its launch, WoW was vastly more solo friendly than the typical MMO. This isn't a new thing. (Source)
But if we can lure players into social experiences, hopefully they will have more fun. (Source)
But removing solo isn't the answer. This is a case that IS bait and switch. You need the (solo) bait. (Source)

Again, what's the purpose of a kick ability if we're not supposed to use it?
We can't distinguish between a kick because someone is abusive or AFK (legit) and someone who hasn't seen the fights before. (Source)
We see tanks who say "this is my first time" get kicked. Surely you can agree that's not a good use of the kick feature. (Source)

Raid Finder and Flex Raiding
They weren't Raiders before, this confirms NM raiding is dead. 40% loss of NM teams in 1 TIER, source SG vs Jin kills
We didn't provide instant catch up mechanics this time, so many guilds still lack the ilevel to do ToT successfully. (Source)
Instant catch up has very serious pros and cons, neither easily dismissed. (Source)

Interesting that you acknowledge this yet deny that the ruthless tuning of encounters has damaged the NM scene.
It's what I said a few days ago about 10s now being tuned like 25s. Flex should help with players looking for that ICC 10 feel. (Source)
(And it's not fair to the 25s if 10s are easier logistically and easier in difficulty so long as they provide the same loot.) (Source)

Are you not worried that raiding is getting complicated? Raid loot especially. LFR,Flex,Norm,NormTF,Heroic, Heroic TF etc :|
We have a huge diversity of players so having many options makes sense as long as folks can figure out which content is for them. (Source)

Do you honestly think LFR/LFG is a good thing? Does it have a chance at going away at all?
Yes and no, respectively. We do hope with flex we can tempt some players into what we think will be more fun for them. (Source)

Why not make LFR only for raids older than current content. Fixes all problems. Don't run out of content, older raids used.
Players get excited seeing e.g. the awesome Throne of Thunder trailer, only to hear that the new raid isn't for them. (Source)
It's like when a new movie sequel comes out, you really ought to see the first one, but it would be a bad idea to mandate that. (Source)
well then tell them to get a group. it's an MMORPG not a single player game.
I have said this several times lately, but another expansion of spamming LFG for a dungeon pug and I myself might have quit. (Source)
And I have almost always been in a huge guild with lots of friends. It does not guarantee you a group whenever you want it. (Source)

"Fun to do"? I'm sorry but everyone i know playing the game hates LFR, only doing it for a few minor upgrades...
We know there are plenty of players who enjoy LFR. Several of them tweet that to me. Let them have their fun. (Source)
If it's a few minor upgrades, then they aren't really the LFR audience. (Source)
Speaking of, why no thunderforged in LFR?
Tforged is primarily to provide raiding with a long tail. LFR isn't really trying to deliver on that same experience. (Source)
I love LFR. LFR QQ only comes from elitiests who think that there are a lot more of them than there actually is!
I would not have phrased it so harshly, but I do agree many raiders don't understand how hardcore their perceptions really are. (Source)

Please tell me now if you are planning to remove or severely gut LFR in 6.0 so I can go ahead and walk away for good.
We haven't talked about future expansion plans much yet, but I don't imagine LFR will change fundamentally. (Source)
We'd like to entice more players into Flex (B/C we think they will have more fun) but want to do that with carrots, not sticks. (Source)

For LFR/coins, big loot table feels like a penalty. Harder to get item you want. What if 7.5% per item, instead of flat 15%?
Big loot tables are a challenge. But, we like lots of options instead of one slot per customer. Bigger raids helps some. (Source)

Patch 5.4 PvE
5.4 Ahead of the Curve FoS split into 10 and 25 (or datamining shenanigans?); are we looking at separate server 1st achieves?
Overall we just want to make it easier for players to be able to identify in which raid someone earned an achievement. (Source)

Please stop wasting resources on side games and distractions. PvP brawler's pet battles. How many 5 mans with those hours?
None actually from those two examples. Different teams. (Source)
Honestly dailies are the quickest way to get lesser charms, I know there are other ways, but rng on those, dailies are boring
I'm not sure that's true. Last week I got my charms by making a group and farming Barrens bosses. (Source)
GC seems to be missing the point, what is the difference between farming barrens and dailies? Same thing.
If you never want to leave instances, just understand you're going to have a lot less content than other players. (Source)
Just explain why, to be most efficient in instances, I _have_ to do unrelated content like dailies or farming the Barrens?
We want to reward players for participating in a wide variety of content rather than risking burn out by tunneling on one thing. (Source)
By making the additional content a bonus we give players the option to opt out if they only want to do the bare minimum. (Source)

Looks like we're fighting UNDER Org in the "never before seen cavern of dark hallways"... instead of in the streets, sigh
In the streets too, but if we had left it at that, we would have heard "Rehashed raid zone." (Source)

will SoO have a linear or a non linear progression path ?
Less linear than ToT. (Source)
To be clear, it's not super non-linear. We want to make future raids more like BWD or UIduar in terms of linearity. (Source)

PvP
Nobody is taking real tanks anymore in pvp post 5.3. I want to tank in pvp but im not allowed to. Could we get a nerf 2 debuff
The problem is that when tanks are having fun in PvP, I'm not sure anyone else is. (Source)

Ever given thought to the GW2 style of PVP gearing? Would remove all the bickering over pve vs pvp gear and focus on skill
It is one of those heated arguments where both sides seem eager to dismiss the other view point as wrong. (Source)
Gear should matter since I worked hard and want goals vs only skill should matter. (Source)
As a counterpoint, look at how many PvP players didn't like the 5.3 change that lessened the impact of their hard-earned gear. (Source)

removing every fun factor out of hunters for pve because you can't balance pvp. hypocritical when you revert warlocks nerf
That sounds like we're not allowed to make any class changes because it would be hypocritical. (Source)

how do you want pvpers to make money? I see my 150g repair bill after a day of bgs and can't afford it.
How do PvE'rs make money? Unless their guild is very generous, it's not from running instances.... (Source)

The more offensive cds you add to the game, the less skill required the game becomes. It just promotes Swifty macros
It depends if they can all be lined up or not. We're really souring on the gameplay of lining everything up all the time. (Source)
Lining up CDs represents strategic play. Mutually exclusive or randomised CDs converts it to FCFS tactics =(
The synergistic effects of all those CDs at once overrides using them intelligently over time. That removes strategy IM(O)O. (Source)

Computers - Setup of the Month (by chaud)
Each month or every 2 months, depending on the hardware evolutions, the lovely chaud will work on a couple of hardware setups for those of you who are thinking of upgrading their computer!

This month
The current SSD prices are stable or slightly increasing, with most SSDs under $1 per gigabyte when on sale. RAM prices are continuing to go up, so if you were thinking about adding RAM anytime soon, now is the time.

The new Haswell CPUs from Intel are here and they run a little bit on the warmer side. Depending on how much you want to overclock, you may need to spend a bit more for a better CPU cooler like the NH-D14 or H90.

Unless you are doing a lot of video rendering or something that is similarly multithreaded, you do not need the 4770K and should spend that money elsewhere.

Make sure to keep your AMD and Nvidia drivers up to date.

Don't hesitate to post any feedback in the comments of that news post, and don't forget to visit the Computer Forum for any extra questions! If you are interested in Folding@home, take a look in our team's thread.


Peripherals/Monitors
ComponentPuppy Dolphin
MonitorAsus VS229H-P 21.5" LED IPS Monitor - $135ASUS VS248H-P 24-Inch Monitor - $170
KeyboardKensington Pro Fit Media Keyboard - $18Cyborg V.5 - $47
MouseLogitech G400 - $47Razer Deathadder - $50
SpeakersCreative A220 2.1 Speaker System - $26Logitech Z313 Speaker System - $39
ComponentNarwhal Unicorn
MonitorASUS VE278Q 27-Inch - $240HP ZR2440W 24-inch (IPS Panel) - $350
KeyboardLogitech G510 - $95Razer BlackWidow (Backlit)- $80 ($121)
MouseLogitech G500 - $45Razer Naga (Buttons on the Side) - $65
SpeakersLogitech Z323 2.1 Speaker System - $56Logitech Speaker System Z523 - $75


Puppy and Dolphin
ComponentPuppy Dolphin
CaseNZXT Source 210 - $40NZXT Source 210 - $40
Power SupplyCorsair CX500 - $58XFX Core Edition PRO 550W - $61
CPUAMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition- $99AMD FX-6300 - $120
HeatsinkCooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - $24Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - $35
MotherboardGIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 AM3+ 970 - $110GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ 990FX - $138
MemoryKingston HyperX Blu 4GB 1333 - $378GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 - $74
Graphics CardXFX 7770 - $101MSI 7850 2 GB or Gigabyte GTX 660 2GB OC - $197 / $190
Hard DriveWestern Digital Caviar Blue 500GB - $55Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB - $87
DVDAsus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $22Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $22
Total$546$765


Narwhal and Unicorn
All of these parts can be mixed and matched to create a build between Narwhal and Unicorn. SSDs are always optional.
ComponentNarwhal Unicorn
CaseCooler Master HAF 912 - $55Cooler Master HAF 932 - $160
Power SupplyCorsair 650TX V2 - $90Corsair 750HX - $125
CPUIntel i5-4670K - $226Intel i7-4770K - $335
HeatsinkThermaltake Frio - $59Noctua 6 NH-D14 - $79
MotherboardASUS Z87-A - $150ASUS Z87-PLUS - $169
Memory8GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 - $7416GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 - $135
Graphics CardGigabyte 7950 OR Gigabyte GTX 660 Ti - $295 / $245Gigabyte 7970 OR Gigabyte GTX 770 - $400 / $410
Hard DriveWestern Digital 1TB Caviar Black - $87Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black - $87
SSDSAMSUNG 840 128GB (Review) - $105
OR
Plextor 128 GB M5 Pro (Review) - $120		Intel 335 180GB (Review) - $184
OR
SAMSUNG 840 Pro 128GB (Review) - $138
DVDAsus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $22Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $22
Total$1073 - $1138$1680


Weekly News Recap
Lots of news this week, so here is your chance to catch up!
104 Comments

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