World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

Classes

• Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • When Fire Blast modified by Glyph of Fire Blast is used to detonate a Frost Bomb, the resulting Frost Bomb now deals 50% less damage.
    
  
  
• Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Taste for Blood now only stacks 1 time versus other players (was 3 times).
    

Quests

• "Bad Blood", "Bloodlines", "The Korune", "Ancient Guardians", and "The Source of Korune Power" will no longer sometimes place players into the wrong phase.
  

PvP

• The Battle Fatigue healing reduction debuff has been increased to 30% (was 15%).
  

Creatures

• The Mogu enemies in the Ruins of Ogudei now drop correctly drop loot when slain

Dungeons, Raids & Scenarios

• Creatures in the Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, and Ahn'Qiraj raid dungeons now deal damage according to their intended pre-Mists of Pandaria melee damage values.
  

Bug Fixes

• Several abilities that should break on damage will now correctly have a chance to break when damage is absorbed, including: Psychic Scream, Hex, Howl of Terror, Intimidating Shout, Blinding Light, Frost Nova, Freeze, Ring of Frost, Entangling Roots, and Mass Entanglement.
  

PvP CC Feedback
First things first, I want to make sure you’re aware that the information below reflects both short and long-term design considerations on our end. This isn’t all on the table for patch 5.2 for a number of reasons.

To make this clear right off the bat: This shift of instant casts back to cast times is not just targeted at crowd control. We also wish to start moving some heals back to having a cast time rather than being instant. That said, we’re not necessarily planning on overhauling many of the spells and abilities that have been instant for a long time now, such as Hand of Justice. We’re looking at some of the big outliers that we see brought up a lot, which are instant-cast, area-of-effect abilities like Blinding Light, or Presence of Mind in combination with Ring of Frost.

We think that there are too many of these AoE CC spells at this time, especially instant AoE CC, which can create some frustrating gameplay experiences. Some other particular crowd-control effects that are on our radar are abilities like Blood Fear, which we’re considering redesigning altogether, and Predatory Swiftness in combination with Cyclone, which feels virtually impossible to counter.

While we are talking about cc what about having some more spells share DR with each other. A pala can repentance/blinding light/ hammer. No Dr at all. Why is it that fear and blind share a DR and polly/fear and cycone dont? and many more examples like this.
We’re looking at diminishing returns for CC right now as a possible way to help with CC in PvP combat, but it’s the type of gameplay overhaul that can be risky to implement in the middle of an expansion cycle if the change is too drastic. We are, however, taking a look right now at the DRs within particular classes, as well as special snowflakes like Cyclone. Either way, the design discussion will undoubtedly continue! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Pandaria Pet Battle Daily Quest Bug
If you’re encountering issues with obtaining the Pandaria Pet Battle dailies, the Grand Master Aki quest chain, or the Pandaren Spirit Tamer quest (started by Sara Finkleswith for the Alliance or Gentle San for the Horde), there is a workaround that we’ve had some success with.

Abandon all Pet Battle related quests and restart the Pet Tamer quest chain from the beginning (Audrey Burhep for the Alliance in Stormwind or Varzok for the Horde in Orgrimmar). This issue could be caused by making Pet Battle quest progress on multiple characters at the same time, and so we strongly recommend sticking with one character until the end to try to avoid encountering the issue again.

We realize the workaround isn’t ideal, and we’re continuing to investigate the cause. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

PvE
How can we expect ilvl upgrading to affect the tuning of future raid tiers?
Philosophically we want raids to be more about progression and less about instant catch up. (Source)
Going back to the old model where you have to progress linear through the raids from release of current expac?
That's the plan. We have older Raid Finder tiers now to provide the necessary gear. (Source)

Appreciate Lesser Charms move 2 currency but 5.1 has filled that bag slot w Commndtions. Any chance they move to currency too?
We wanted you to be able to loot them from players, which currency can't do yet. In the future we should be able to. (Source)

What about people that want to raid but don't want to deal with dailies? Add other ways to get charms pls.
You can raid without charms. You will gear up faster with charms, which seems fine: you can choose to play more or less. (Source)

Using multiple charms on the same boss per week in lfr (by repeated q'ing) intended or bug? Same chance every time?
we're fine with it. You'll eventually run out of charms. Same chance every time. (Source)
Will that also worlk on world bosses like Sha of Anger and Galleon?
Not on Sha. When we made him spawn regularly, we didn't think infinite Charms made sense any longer. (Source)

Haven't killed Galloen yet on my server. Horde camp, etc. GMs considered a month-long guild summoning quest or the like?
G is supposed to be the rare boss that not everyone gets. We learned a lot from him and have changes planned for future bosses. (Source)

What's the limit for players inviting other players in brawlers guild?
I believe we started with 1 invite once you reach high rank. (Source)

Does WoW really need obscure glancing blows and crit supression mechanic? It seems really outdated like resists.
Yeah I could see an argument to phase those out. (Source)

How come we dont have the random fight in the Jade Temple anymore? The scroll of strife and peril. I miss the alternative boss
It had bugs we couldn't solve. We hope to bring it back. (Source)

Dont forget to offer alternatives to charms too. Otherwise it would not make sense since dailies would still be required
It's called "bonus roll" for a reason. You don't need it. (Source)

PvP
Do you have a stance on people queuing several groups for a random BG and using timing to ensure they end up together?
You mean using a premade to stomp noobs? What do you think? (Source)

Does Blizzard have plans to clean up CC a little? Getting stunned, feared, again and again can get a bit frustrating.
Most people don't want their CC nerfed, just the other guy. DRs might be a place to look though. (Source)
How would you feel about a bar that fills up and once its full you cant CC that player until its empty?
That's kind of like having one DR (maybe with more variation than just 50%) but we've considered it. (Source)

in the future, any plans for total revamp of pvp? i.e. get rid of arena/RBG(in current form) and implement new pvp structure?
We rarely scrap features and start over. We usually iterate towards what are (we hope!) stronger designs. (Source)

The "PVE vs. PVP issue" is frequently misunderstood and over exaggerated. A balance scapegoat.
Agree. Players would still be mad if we didn't change X, but they wouldn't have a reason for why we didn't change X. (Source)

Idea was: skills remain the same in both contexts; only changes in metrics are isolated. + Less testing.
We do that though. Look at PvP Power, CC durations, the healing debuff, etc. (Source)

Very well said, this game should be about constant steady pressure and healing, not burst.
well, burst should be a strategy too, but not the only strategy. PvP is more interesting, we think, when matches vary. (Source)

This Thursday we’ll be holding our first-ever CoveritLive chat featuring a panel of some of our most veteran customer support representatives. This is your chance to seek clarification on support policies and procedures, understand the philosophies that shape how we assist players, as well as meet a few of the folks behind those tags!

While this chat will be focused on customer support for World of Warcraft, our panelists will be equipped to field some questions about Diablo III and StarCraft II support policies as well.

When: 5:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m. PST Thursday, December 13

Panelists:

• CS Forum Representative Vrakthris
• WoW Game Support Manager Marcus Maczynski
• SC2 Game Support Manager Angelo Concepcion
• D3 Game Support Manager Andreas Unger
• Senior CS Information Specialist Charles Areson
• CS Social Media Manager Antonio Achucarro

Format: The CoveritLive event will be hosted right here as a moderated chat, meaning questions and comments from participants won’t be viewable to the public unless selected by us. Be sure to request an email reminder below so you’ll be alerted before it begins. You’ll be able to log in using Facebook or Twitter credentials, or you can create a temporary username within the CoveritLive client, once the event is live.

Looking for great stocking stuffers for your friends or guildmates? Blizzard’s got you covered. For a limited time only, you can snag the following holiday deals in the online Blizzard Store:

• World of Warcraft Battle Chest for $5 -- 75% Savings
  
• Cataclysm for $10 -- 66% Savings
  
• Mists of Pandaria for $30 -- 25% Savings
  
• Select World of Warcraft pets for $5 -- 50% Savings (Offer includes all Blizzard Pet Store pets except the new Cinder Kitten charity pet...but you should probably adopt a Cinder Kitten anyway since 100% of the purchasing price goes to a great cause).

Be sure to get your Winter Veil shopping done soon, though -- these deals end January 1, 2013 at 11:59 p.m. PST.

Bug Fixes

• Pet Battle Abilities that use a shoot or missile animation will now properly display their visual effect.
  
• Disabling Loss of Control in the Interface menu will now also disable the red cooldown swipes on the action bar in addition to the notification in the center of the screen. Loss of Control Alerts can be disabled in the Game Menu by going to Interface > Combat > and un-checking Loss of Control Alerts.
  
• When Loss of Control Alerts are enabled, the red cooldown swipes will not be displayed for abilities that were already on cooldown and in situations where that cooldown will last longer than the loss of control.
  
• Night will now fall at the proper time on all realms.
  
• Objective icons in Scenarios will no longer incorrectly persist until the Scenario is complete.
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause crashes during Pet Battles.
  
• Mac
  
  • Fixed an issue that could cause a crash to occur during in-game cinematics in OSX v.10.6
    

Classes

• Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Critical Mass now multiplies the critical strike chance of Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Pyroblast, and Scorch by 1.3 (was 1.25).
    
  • Inferno Blast now spreads Ignite, Pyroblast, and Combustion to 3 surrounding targets.
    

Quests

• The Mechanized Fire should now be easier to reach in the course of completing "Dream of a Better Tomorrow".
  
• Players that have completed "Better With Age" and "Crime and Punishment" can now properly acquire the quest "By the Sea, Nevermore" from Zer'ik in the Dread Wastes.
  
• Players on the quest "Sentry Wards" will no longer be placed in the incorrect phase.
  
• The quest "Enemies At Our Door" can no longer be shared.
  

Pet Battles

• The Battle Pet ability Stone Rush now has a 1 round cooldown (was 0).
  
• The Cinder Kitten is now has increased health. It looks like that armor helps a little after all.
  
• Several Battle Pets now appear during times of day more appropriate to their ecology.
  
• Singing Crickets are now considered Rare pets. This change does not apply to pets that have already been acquired.
  
• Silithid Hatchlings should now be less elusive.
  

Brawler's Guild

• Fixed an issue that could cause Zen'shar's Eyes of Warding to persist after he despawns.
  

Professions

• Alchemy
  
  • Players that have deleted their Zen Alchemist Stone can now obtain the Strange Spherical Stone to repeat the quest "Strange Spherical Stone" to earn a new one.
    
• Jewelcrafting
  
  • Newly created Sapphire Cubs will now always be of Uncommon quality.
    

Items

• The following PvP trinkets now have less powerful on-use effects and reduced cooldowns:
  
  • Dreadful Gladiator's Badge of Conquest
  • Dreadful Gladiator's Badge of Dominance
  • Dreadful Gladiator's Badge of Victory
  • Malevolent Gladiator's Badge of Conquest
  • Malevolent Gladiator's Badge of Dominance
  • Malevolent Gladiator's Badge of Victory
    
  
  
• The following PvP trinkets now have a less powerful on-use effect, but the duration of that effect has been increased:
  
  • SI:7 Operative's Manual
    
  • Kor'kron Book of Hurting
    

Creatures

• Various Hozen rare spawn creatures are now less likely to evade and despawn.
  
• Clawlord Kril'mandar will now be visible to players that have completed the quests "Domination Point" or "Lion's Landing".
  
• Huntress Vael'yrie in the Krasarang Wilds now properly offers Stable Master services.
  

Dungeons, Raids & Scenarios

• Normal and Heroic mode raid bosses now grant 40 Valor Points each upon being defeated.
  
• Terrace of Endless Spring
  
  • Tsulong
    
    • Elemental Shaman will now always be properly eligible for loot after defeating the Raid Finder version of this encounter.
      
  
  
• Mogu'shan Vaults
  
  • The floor of Elegon's chamber should now always reappear after he is defeated.
    

Bug Fixes

• Classes
  
  • Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
    
    • Pets
      
      • The Sporebat's Energizing Spores ability will no longer stack with other similar sources of spell haste.
        
    
    
  • Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
    
    • It is no longer possible to dispel or Spell Steal Xuen's Crackling Jade Lightning.
      
    
    
  • Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
    
    • Fixed an issue that could cause Rapture to stop activating normally if it was triggered while the Priest was subject to crowd control.
      
    
    
  • Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
    
    • Fixed an issue that allowed several spells and abilities to continue to be available while Hexed.
      
    
    
  • Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
    
    • Damage from Rain of Fire will no longer prevent enemy players from capturing flag objectives.
      
    • Havoc will no longer duplicate attacks directed against targets that are affected by Banish or Cyclone. These attacks will not consume any charge of the spell.
      
    
    
• Fixed an issue that could cause in-game cut-scenes to be skipped when sound is disabled.
  
• Fixed an issue that allowed players below level 85 to see and loot certain Treasures of Pandaria.
  
• Fixed an issue that could allow the Healing Ward provided by Vol'jin during the Dagger in the Dark Scenario to function outside of the instance.
  

Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Patch 5.2 Monk Changes
The following changes are currently on the table for 5.2:

• Life Cocoon will be undispellable and won’t interrupt the cast at the end of the effect (and players will also be able to jump as well).
• We’re working to resolve the issues with Renewing Mist not being able to be used while mounted, though it will dismount the caster after it is cast.
• Soothing Mist will no longer be able to be Purged, so it will work in a manner similar to the Priest's Penance. It will still be considered a periodic Heal.

(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

CC in PvP
CC in general is totally out of control, too much instant !@#$ going on
We would very much like to make it so that more crowd controls start going back to having a cast time. We feel that instant cast spells should be something that's rare to see and we admit that they have become far too common. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

LFR Boss Counter Removal Feedback
"oh no someone decided they didn't want to chaperone the mouth-breathing astounding idiots, we better penalise them for valuing their own time." Your logic, and apparently Blizzard's too.
One of the reasons why the counter was removed was to reduce the amount of players fishing for a fresh instance. It was something that was becoming an issue for all the players that were stuck in on-going groups waiting for new players to join.

When those groups were waiting at, say 2/3, the queue would start looking for new replacements, those replacements would see the queue and decided to skip it in favor of a fresh instance, creating and endless loop for the guys inside the instance where more people would leave as they grew impatient, making it harder to complete the run.

As it is right now, if you enter an on-going run, you're pretty much guaranteed a fresh instance on your next visit. In addition, the developers are considering adding a buff that players in LFR might receive if they wipe on a boss that would boost their stats, which they also hope it might help those impatient players that will leave their current LFR run after a wipe. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Future Challenge Modes
Will you guys ever consider adding more CMs, perhaps old dungeons like Ragefire Chasm/Wailing Caverns?
Actually, the developers would like to add Challenge Modes to existing dungeons from previous expansions. No timelines or anything, though, but it's definitely something they're considering. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Bonus Roll Feedback
While I understand that getting an item that you already have can be somewhat frustrating, this is actually nothing new, since the very beginning of WoW that players have been killing bosses and getting completely randomized loot.

The Elder Charms of Good Fortune are supposed to be an extra chance at getting loot, if anything, having this option the way it currently is, might be already too loot “friendly” in my opinion.

This option was added because we understand that sometimes players can be after a specific item (remember those Dragonspine Trophy hunting days…), this way they get to decide which bosses are the most important for their characters and have a higher chance of grabbing a specific item that they’re so anxious to get their hands on. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Character
RE: Player Model Upgrade difficulty; Greg, can you elaborate for laymen what makes the project "huge"? Implies more than skin.
Look at the Pandaren as an example. New textures need new models which need new animations. (Source)

I would say overall "too little to do" has not been feedback we have heard often for MoP. For Cataclysm, yes. (Source)

Can a new 90 alt catch up gear-wise this arena season with conquest being usable for item upgrades? MoP seems alt-unfriendly.
We agree we need more alt solutions. MoP was designed to be compelling without alts. That means if you have alts, there's too much (Source)

Hey can we get an option to mail guild invites to alts?
Would love to see that (with some kind of guildmaster control). (Source)

Yes that may be true but did you guys ever stop to think and listen to people saying gating isn't fun.
Yes. The opposite of gating tends to be epic grinding followed by nothing to do. We try to strike a balance. (Source)

"There was no alternative to the head enchant. There are plenty of alternatives to valor gear." what are they?
Killing raid bosses for one. (Source)

UI / Addons
The new item tooltips are a mess. Whoever though this looked or conveyed information better was wrong. Please revert.
We like it. Can you elaborate? (Source)

The addon that let us paint the world? That could've been fun, but you engineered the game to stop that.
it wasn't to nerf fun. It took all the individual responsibility out of raiding. (Source)

Talent/Glyph + D.Journal taint bug is starting to drive me nuts. Reload UI 2-3 times to use stuff Bliz pushed as key features?
Taint bugs are almost certainly caused by mods trying to access stuff they shouldn't. (Source)

Hey will WoW's taint detection be worked on? I am pretty fed up of my addons being blamed for things they don't even look at.
If the addon goes after a protected feature, it gets the taint. It's pretty cut and dried as far as I know. (Source)
75% of my raid has to /reloadui to change glyphs/talents. Taint spreads like defile! Very difficult to debug.
I am sympathetic, but we can't debug all of the addons players develop. There are great sites out there that attempt to do so. (Source)

Why are UX /UI changes slow in WoW vs. system changes?
Depends on the change, but UI often involves code changes while many class changes can be done through data (by designers). (Source)

Can we have a UI feature to show how much of an enemy absorb we have left to break through? Absorb Absorb Absorb isn't helpful
Yes that's definitely on our wish list. (Source)

Classes
On a related note: Do you still feel that number changes are preferable over mechanical changes for all specs during an XP?
Ya. More players quit because of constant class changes than quit because of balance concerns. Hard to believe maybe but true. (Source)

But GC in all fairness we have other classes standing up for us, its not us shamans vs the world
Also "my warrior alt agrees with my shaman main." See the problem? That's not the same as an actual discussion with back and forth from both sides. Players never agree 100% with anything. (Source)
Yo GC, try and show some respect to your playerbase /cast Busshock
I respect our players a great deal or I wouldn't make such an effort to do this. That does not mean game design is up for a vote. (Source)

Why the huge nerf to glyphs in MoP? They seem, well, underwhelming. #wow
They were a DPS increase before, but not an interesting one. Most players picked the highest DPS glyph and never changed them. (Source)

Do you think abilities such as Destro Rain of Fire or Halo should break Rogue's stealth? And if so why? It's too easy to break
I would love to see only Flare and a few others break stealth, but that's a potentially destabilizing change. (Source)

Have you ever considered changing a spec from a pure dps class to a tank/heal spec?
yes, but I don't think every one of those pure players would like that (& you can't just say they can ignore the new roles). (Source)
With druids now having 4 specs to choose from, wouldn't it be possible to add them&not remove any specific spec?
Druids have always been hybrids though. Maybe a rogue doesn't want to have to be considered a tank. (Source)
I dont think most people would have to consider it. I assume if your in a raid you have a designated tank.
Not that simple. If you have a tank as a class might be less room for DPS of same class. Also has gear, DPS, dual spec implications. (Source)

some classes/specs does not bring anything useful generally, hunters rogues come to mind these problems -continued
We don't like balancing around awesome raid utility - just shifts the problem to who has strongest utility. (Source)

Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
¨What do you think of DK survival in pvp? I quit mine because I realized in premop patch that we were going to be easy target
If you can get a DK to blow all def cooldowns, then they're easier to kill, but you still have Blood Presence. (Source)

Why is Blood getting nerfed PvP wise? We have no mobility what so ever.. we are easily kited.WTF. Compensate for the nerf?
We don't like invulnerable tanks in PvP even if they are slow. Blood had too much self-healing in PvP. (Source)

Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
I'm not sure why you just don't throw a 1 min CD on Healing Shrooms and scale them properly and be done with it at this point.
that might get druids to use them, but that makes them like a lot of other spells and the game needs more variety not less. (Source)
why not have mushroom healing to be increased based on a proc you receive by using another spell, like regrowth, etc
potentially. Want to be a little careful not to add too many RNG procs though. (Source)

How long are we going to have to wait to see shifting out of snares removed?
Not on our radar ATM. We don't want to nerf every counter in PvP, just the ones that feel super frustrating. (Source)

Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Is there a possible warlock-style redesign for hunters in future? New talents seem to cause button bloat and spread dps thin.
We don't think hunters need a massive revamp (beyond range and ammo changes they already have). They do have too many buttons. (Source)

Regarding hunters, why is BW, a skill untouched for years suddenly OP? Also 5.1 changes nothing regarding MM being weak in pvp
We don't think defenses used offensively makes good gameplay. They tend to get blown immediately not strategically. (Source)

Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Any chance Mages could get rune of power castable on the move?
Don't want it to be a buff you just hit on cooldown. Agree it needs a little work. (Source)
Any word on IW or Invocation?
Invocation works for Arcane, but feels too maintenancy for others. IW is a bigger topic. (Source)

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Hey GC with the change in 5.1 making totems act as spells was it intended to nerf all specs or just resto ?
it was intended as a nerf to totems. Now that they do things (not just buffs) they were hard to counter. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
How's the banner experiment working out? Have you guys contemplated any other cool banner style abilities for warriors?
honestly, not sure yet. Still like the concept. Not sure if it's delivering on the fantasy. (Source)

PvP
When you or one of the blizzard staff mentioned the 30% healing nerf in Battlegrounds, I hope you mean hybrids only.
Nope. We suspect healing overall is too potent once burst is toned down. You shouldn't need to 100% CC a healer to score a kill. (Source)

Make PvP abilities a mod to PvE abilities = PvP changes isolated. Add PvP Stance for equipment/glyphs, fallback to PvE gear.
We make abilities work differently as a later sort, but I for one don't want to have to earn two different rule sets. (Source)
greg making two rule sets is the only way to fix the PVE vs PVP issue. have you not learned that yet?
Disagree. Also even if true, perfect balance gains us nothing if a bunch of players leave because the rules are inscrutable. (Source)

A flightless Tol Barad-type zone is essential for world pvp. Do you regret not making one for MoP or plan to make one?
We had done those zones 2 expansions in a row so felt it was time to let it rest a bit, but I bet we try them again in the future. (Source)

Why are the PvP achievements so limited? No 2,4k in 2v2. No 1k arenas won? 5k arenas won? Hot Hot Hot streak? #possibilities
We'd like to add more but we need to make sure they don't encourage strange behavior. Ach farming in PvP can get silly fast. (Source)

I believe an open mind is more important than a title, experience after that. Sadly, even glads can be very biased.
People who like to eat don't always make good cooks. That doesn't mean they can't tell you what they like to eat. (Source)
Do you take advice from a master chef or some guy who just happens to enjoy food?
Both. (Source)

So why nerf all specs? Reducing the benefit of mastery in PvP would fix resto, but ele isn't even viable pre-nerfs.
We don't think it's all about the healing, and Resto PvE healing is fine. We think totems are too good. (Source)
people will stop complaining about resto pvp nerfs if you nerf frost bomb/ warrior cd stacking/ resto drood control
There are mage and warrior nerfs in 5.1. Keeping an eye on Cyclone for now. (Source)

I'm not giving up on skirmish arenas, never, ever. You know we want it. inb4 block :<
We aren't either - it's just not going to be super soon. (Source)

Everyone agrees with him/her. This upgrade gear thing is going to make people quit the game. PvP is dying.
claiming to speak for everyone always makes me suspicious. (Source)
well, not everyone but the majority i think. btw, i would love to have that pvp forum on the US.
just make good arguments and don't worry about invoking a huge crowd to agree with you. It's not a vote anyway. (Source)

Misc
MoP was meant to get people out in the world, PvP was supposed to be king this xpac. Why nerf guild perk Quick and the Dead?
dying is supposed to have some penalty. Since you have unlimited lives, downtime is the main one. (Source)

You ruined the joke just like you ruined Age of Empires and WoW...
Changes no one asked for - Rpg home city. Homogenic empires and Clunky/Bad combat. Quite similar to WoW now
.you don't get good games by just giving people what they ask for. Game design isn't just polling. (Source)
Look at League of Legends Mr. Street, I'm sure it'd love to beg to differ.
we're friends with all those guys. Pretty sure they don't turn over design to their community either. (Source)

What happened to balance/bug fix patches (eg 4.0.6)? It's frustrating to wait for next content patch to see much desired fixes
We don't characterize patches that way. There are big patches (new raid tier / PvP season) and smaller ones. 5.1 is the latter. (Source)

But there is something to be said about testing your games.
we do test our games. We have a huge QA department and we invite players to try out betas and PTRs. (Source)

just curious... do you collaborate w/ the other blizzard games, or does everyone stay in their own game areas?
We collaborate a fair amount. Great to get outside opinions and see how others solve problems. Several temp or perma moves too. (Source)

Regarding items that aren't intended to ever go into the game (i.e. heroic raid trash), why are they made? Just curious.
if we change loot tables late, then we already have the items ready. (Source)

... what to listen to, consciuously or not. You reap the results of that (horrible PVP, constant whines).
I read the role and PvP forums regularly. Feedback is always valuable. It just doesn't always result in immediate change. (Source)

You need to listen to the people who play this game even more than the ones who created it.
We do listen to them. We just don't let them order up game changes on their own. That would be interesting though. (Source)

Is there anywhere we can beg an audience with The GC with a longer character limit?
I'd love to in a theoretical sense, but there are too many of you and one of me. (Source)

Trinket Burst Damage Adjustments
Instead of addressing the strong classes
I just want to point out that this is only one step in a process. We will continue to assess classes and individual abilities and make adjustments as necessary. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Trinket Burst Damage Adjustments
Seems a buff for frost dk's, and if human they can align proc with on use and PoF...
You could say the same for several classes where this will help them to align their trinkets with their damaging abilities more often. However smaller burst every 60 seconds is a lot easier to survive than a much larger burst every two minutes.

The same goes for players that play human, they could take two of these trinkets and cycle them every 30 seconds with their burst abilities. Do not forget though, if a human wants to take advantage of these changed on-use trinkets will need to take two of them and give up the not-nerfed proc trinket.

The idea is good, but what gona happen with the proc trinkets?
I just answered that above for you. At this time we have no plans to be nerfing the proc trinkets, but this may change in the future.

But, an idea would be to increase resilience on the "tweaked" trinkets by; I don't know, maybe 20-25% to make them more attractive compared to PvE trinkets etc.!
We're fairly certain that it's unlikely for players to start using PvE trinkets because they would suffer a significant loss in PvP power and resilience. Do understand that we will be keeping a very close eye on the situation when this hotfix goes live and, if necessary, make the appropriate adjustments where we see they're required. This doesn't mean that the change we make would be to increase the resilience on trinkets like you suggested above, however if we do plan to make further adjustments we will let you know about them. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Updating Old Content
I often wondered why blizzard doesn't take advantage of the content people loved. Sure, new content and raids are fun but how much time would it really take to upgrade Kara to current gear levels.

I mean why in gods name wouldn't you do things like this, the Ony upgrade was great but even now its outdated by two expansions. The scarlet monastery was good but you didn't even have to redesign the dungeon, just leave them as they were.

Can you imagine if Apple decided to completely change the Iphone every release? Sure a few things are changed on each version but the core design, style, and functionality are all there and people still flock to get the latest version. Why is that, its because they have a good thing going.
I'm going to sound a bit like a broken record, so forgive me, but when we are working on updates to the game, we're looking at what works well for the ongoing development of it. Sometimes that means taking a look at previous content and updating, and sometimes it means leaving it as it is. Overall though, it's about where we want to take things next, what fits into the larger scheme of development, what can we devote resources to comfortably and still deliver the best possible experience we can in a reasonably solid time frame.

There are a lot of things that people keep bringing up that they'd like to see again, or revisit in a new and fresh way. We're not unaware of this. But, at the same time, we have to keep asking ourselves, "Does it make sense and if it does make sense, does it make sense right now?" In contrast, there are those detractors who are often upset when we do go back and refresh content. In some cases it's because they're new enough that they haven't seen it yet, in others it's because they feel we should leave well enough alone, and to others yet who feel that it's a development "cop out" and a mere recycling effort. That's not to say that these things aren't possibilities "someday", but what seems simple to you may not be quite so simple as all that.

An example of updating things on a very large scale, is Cataclysm. There was so much work done from the starting quests to the environments to the very flight paths, but to those who didn't go through the refreshed content, it was a "waste" of time. We also then had what many felt was far too little at the upper end of content for them. So, despite best efforts to refresh a significant amount of content, not everyone was pleased with it once the immediate blush was off the rose. What we must fight against is time, nostalgia, "What do I get to do/take part in?", or even "where's my challenge?" So, no, it's not as easy as that. In a perfect world, maybe it would be. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Class Forums and Blue Posts
Do blue posters avoid class forums? If so - why?
The main reason that we don't make responses in the class forum is because if we post in the forum of class A, then classes B through K will start complaining about favoritism or something similar. While we may not post in threads on the class forums, we do pay attention to the opinions and feedback presented there.

And where are we supposed to turn in order to get the "official" Blizzard PoV on, for example, major nerfs to a certain spec?
These forums are designed and built in order for players to give their feedback and opinions about the current state of our games or even upcoming changes so that it can be relayed to the developers. They are not for the purpose of having a direct line of communication and discussion with blue posters. If we have some information that we can provide, we will post it, but you should not be actively searching for this as the forums are for you as the players to bring up and discuss topics.

Do we really have to post immature, whiny post in order to get attention?
Definitely not. As said above, if we have information on a given topic of discussion we will provide it. We are also more inclined to do this with more well written and presented threads rather than ranty or "whiny" posts.

you're on EU forums enough said. Blizzard doesn't care about you, they don't want your opinion, the blue post always say the same thing. It is always sad for us to see these types of comments because it is something that is simply so far from the truth, it is unreal. The European community team work tirelessly to forward on and present your feelings, feedback and opinions on to the developers. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Questing
Your ridiculously gated rep AND VP system for gear cost me one of my raid leaders and you a sub. Just an FYI.
players quit for a variety of reasons. We're sad when they do, but can't be held hostage to "change X or I quit." (Source)
No Greg, but if a lot of peple quit for a reason and a lot of us dont quit but dont enjoy it, then somthg is wrong
of course. That's why hearing feedback is so important to us. In fact, it's more useful than threats. (Source)
If your reaction and filtering of feedback wasn't so slow compared to other games, you wouldn't get threats.
A poor justification I'm afraid. Good arguments win arguments, not threats of consequences. (Source)

I dont understand why rep grind has to be one way. Let questers do dailies, raiders do dungeons and pvpers pvp...
We want players out in the world. We don't think WoW will have enough legs as an instance only game. Convenient != best design. (Source)

Mate, don't let the "rep tabard" brigade get you down. We're better off shedding instance only players from the playerbase.
Well, we don't want to shed anyone. Concern is that instance-only is convenient short term but causes loss of interest in the long. (Source)

Making dailies a requirement for rep seems like a VERY poor way to get people out of cities and make the world feel populated.
What do you want to do out in the world? (Source)

For the love of god don't buckle to the "we are forced to do dailies" minority. Don't change a thing!!!
it's just a question of volume. 12 quests a day isn't bad with some optionals. Doing GL and Klaxxi every day felt like a lot. (Source)

Well I'll just try asking again tomorrow, I realize you're busy. If you see this tweet, check my profile for the initial ?
we've heard a lot of feedback on dailies, and we'll likely try some tweaks to keep players out in the world but address concerns. (Source)

For 5.1 can we have a short term (20min?) LFR buff that simulates the rep tabards for the last rep we did dailies with today?
Talking about some ideas. So long as someone can't finish rep in one weekend by chain running, we're open to it. (Source)

Classes
So many classes and specs are overpowered right now, why won't you apply hotfixes rather than waiting months for patch 5.1?
We can't hotfix everything and it's frustrating for players to constantly suspect ninja nerfs. We hotfix egregious stuff. (Source)

Do you think it's still possible to add new class in the game without too much redundancy ?
I hope so. (Source)

Alot of people were complaining about "Stampede". Not the Bestial Wrath ability. Critical mistake on your end
We nerfed Bestial Wrath and Avatar. We're regretting offensive abilities that prevent CC. Encourages tunneling and burst. (Source)

talent system is awesome btw. Way better than anything before.
We agree. A few talents aren't quite there but the system is much better IMO. I see players changing talents for the first time. (Source)

As a rouge i have problems getting a clean opner in arena and duel because of the amount of aoe effects in the game. toughts?
TBH, it kind of bugs me personally that AEs are so efficient at breaking stealth. Would be a huge change to revert though. (Source)

Ever thought of smaller patch changes? Like changing an ability dmg in 5% increments a week instead of 25% all at once?
One risk of small changes is players don't notice. Flashy changes can sometimes get players to try a class / talent / strat. (Source)

Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Any word on healing mushrooms? They are pretty useless but have so much potential.
Agree they aren't there yet, but we want them to be sutiational, and not used on cooldown. (Source)
Any chance for some 5.1 love? Thank you for responding to my first tweet ever!
Maybe not for 5.1. We want to make sure there's time for players to try out any changes. It's on our radar though. (Source)

Did static mana pools really gave you the freedom you needed to design better enocunters? Are we balanced?
The problem with +Int providing infinite mana didn't manifest until later tiers. Still like the change though. (Source)

And of course, would love to hear how you feel healers compare for PvE and how Mistweavers have played out.
Pretty happy with healer balance overall. MW were too good in 5.0. Raiders discovering Disc now and we have to keep an eye on it. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
In your eyes are Shockadins a legitimate form of Raid DPS, or is that unintentional or unwelcome? Not even sure if its viable.
Holy isn't a dps spec. We tried to provide some support for players who like it, but it will likely stay a niche. (Source)

Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
I really like to know what you guys think about Holy and Disc priests perfomance in PvP. Not many people want them.
Most teams just want Resto shaman. We think we'll see more priests in 5.1. (Source)

Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Nobody uses Tricks of the Trade anymore in Raids. You found a way to make that useless too! Get a dev 4 rogues. ur useless.
Quick poll of the raiders in my office, and they all use Tricks of the Trade. Small sample size is small. (Source)

playing devil's advocate a little, if the 5.1 changes don't 'fix' rogues, will further changes happen immediately or in 5.2?
Depends on the degree. If I say "immediately" though, then I'll just hear about how I broke promises, so I can't say. (Source)

serious question, does blizzard have numbers on how many people have taken versatility as a talent? I'm betting its VERY low.
We do, and it is low. We're looking at all unpopular and too popular talents and considering changes. (Source)

Saying Cold Blooded made us not care about crit as a stat is terrible logic since crit is now our worst stat by a long shot.
Last I looked, crit was behind haste and mastery for Combat, but not by much, and even better for the other two. (Source)

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
I'm just a wee bit :O at the totem nerfs. What's the thinking behind it? Will Tremor still break fear? Don't like this change!
We thought they were too hard to counter. Have a lot of utility (not just group buffs) in 5.0 and you just have to endure them (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
with "bring player, not class" policy, why did you implement Stormlash and Skull banner?
They are very minor DPS increases. You don't need them. (Source)

Ever had a thought about warrior's shockwave? Every 20 seconds for an AoE stun and damage seems a bit much versus rogue KS.
It's something we looked at, but we nerfed warriors a lot for PvP and we don't want to overdo it. Not all are taking SW yet. (Source)

Do you not think it's a little unfair that Fury has never been good in Arena? Other specs had their time to shine except Fury.
The bigger topic is whether it's fair to players (or reasonable to balance) to have 34 viable 3v3 Arena specs. (Source)