Season 13 Sets Recap, Ra-den Attempts Limit Feedback, Blue Tweets, Weekly Roundup

[chaud]

Scheduled Game Maintenance - 2/19/2013, Fan Creation of the Week: The 3D Character Art of Marie-Michelle Pepin, Curse Weekly Roundup

Season 13 Armor Sets Recap
With all of the Season 13 sets being in game now, it is time to preview the last one and recap them all! We have seen a few of the off set pieces appear on the BMAH on the PTR, so it is safe to assume that they will be sold on the BMAH once the patch is live, just like the current PvP gear.

The priest set is still missing the belt and there may be other minor issues with the sets, so keep in mind that these are just previews and not the final product.

Class	Male Image	Female Image	Video	Items
Death Knight	Male	Female	Video	WoWDB
Druid	Male	Female	Video	WoWDB
Hunter	Male	Female	Video	WoWDB
Mage	Male	Female	Video	WoWDB
Monk	Male	Female	Video	WoWDB
Paladin	Male	Female	Video	WoWDB
Priest	Male	Female	Video	WoWDB
Rogue	Male	Female	Video	WoWDB
Shaman	Male	Female	Video	WoWDB
Warlock	Male	Female	Video	WoWDB
Warrior	Male	Female	Video	WoWDB

Ra-den Limited Attempts Feedback

Thanks for the ongoing discussion -- the feedback is appreciated. A few brief points/responses to the general direction of the discussion:

This system isn't set in stone. Our intent is to release a well-tuned encounter that doesn't have significant bugs. If the first guilds get there, and it turns out that despite our best efforts, we've failed in that goal (a la Sinestra), we'll turn off the attempt limit, and that will be that. (I mean major bugs -- if there's something small, we'll wait until the weekly reset and fix it for everyone.) There's no scenario in which the first guilds to get there waste their attempts trying to kill something that's broken; we won't let that happen.

When I say that Ra-den is a "bonus boss" I'm not saying he's optional. Of course I know there's no such thing as an optional boss in progression, and people are very much going to count him as part of the progression race. But if you think back to Algalon, he actually wasn't that complicated, or that hard. Firefighter, Freya with 3 Keepers, or Yogg-1 required you to learn and coordinate far more than Algalon. Algalon literally had three mechanics to deal with for the entire fight, and in practice most guilds killed him in around 3 hours or a couple dozen attempts. It's just that they were tuned tightly numbers-wise, and the one-hour weekly limit turned what would have otherwise been a single night of progression into three or four weeks. Heroic Lei Shen is a harder and more complex fight than Ra-den, and I'm not going to claim otherwise. Ra-den is just different; he's a bit of a mystery, and something we haven't tried in a while.

Regarding alts: To engage Heroic Lei Shen, you must have killed 11/12 bosses on Heroic in that lockout. To engage Ra-den, you must have killed Heroic Lei Shen in that lockout. I'm incredibly skeptical that anyone is going to manage that with multiple alt clears in parallel, both due to gear disparity and because doing so would mean forfeiting much of the ability to optimize raid composition for progression on the hardest fights.

Finally, we'll see what we can do to minimize the quality-of-life issues here. I can't promise this will be doable until we've implemented it, but we'll try to make sure that very short attempts don't count (accidental bodypulls and such), and that we make an exception to the usual rules and reset shaman Reincarnation at the start of each Ra-den pull.

Tear Down This Wall! (Horde)
This is the Horde version of the Tear Down This Wall solo storytelling scenario. You can find the Alliance version here.

WoWDB Addon Data Collection
Finding the locations of the new Patch 5.2 Rare Spawn NPCs or adding new data from the other Patch 5.2 additions is done with the help of many players. The more people that contribute data, the more accurate and quickly we can update the database.

To help out, just click here if you have Curse Client already installed.

When you are playing the addon will gather data and save it. When you are done playing, Curse Client will see the game close and upload the collected data from the addon. You can see the last time data was uploaded by looking in the Plugins tab of the options, as well as making sure the addon is enabled there.

If you have any WoWDB related feedback, you can post in this thread or send us an email.

Blue Tweets

Classes
I really liked Cata BM hunt and Arc mage, know others disagree. Is it hard to find middle ground when changing rotations? 1/2
Yes! Very hard. Many players ask for a change, then many more come and ask to have the old way back. (Source)

Do you expect Dodge/Parry to make it to the next Expansion?
Not sure. Maybe only one? Maybe leather tanks dodge and plate tanks parry? More hooks (like GC change) would help. (Source)

Have you compared die by the sword and evasion? 100% parry chance, 20% reduction damage, 2min cd vs 50% dodge. unbalanced
You can't compare abilities in a vacuum -- both classes have several other defenses. (Source)

Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Will the 1 DK per realm restriction ever be removed?
Probably. It has outlived its original purpose. (Source)

Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Willing to acknowledge Rdruid hots are pretty weak vs the amount of pvp burst? What ever happened 2 your desire 2 reduce burst
We buffed Resto druid healing in 5.2, esp. Rejuv. (Source)

Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Frost is almost as populous as Warriors above 2200, what nerfs Don't mages need? Survivability and Burst are crazy
Nerfing a million things just because isn't good design. We hit RoF, Frost Bomb, CS. Those are all noticeable changes. (Source)

Mages didnt need more defences so you give them new def talents. Eles beg for more def, you copy paste sham rage. So unfair...
Do you think it would be fair for mages to just have 2 talents in that one row with a blank space? (Source)

love how you say initially mages burst is a concern but since then all nerfs reverted and buffs actually given, makes sense...
We replaced Glyph of Fire Blast, which let mages detonate their bombs on demand. That is the major burst nerf. (Source)

Scorch used to be a filler spell, low casttime & low dmg. Useable if locked out of frost tree etc, do not remove it.
I can't imagine you get locked out much these days (because that would imply casting) but you still have Frostfire Bolt. (Source)

Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
know you considered monks w/o auto-attack, did you also consider removing it for all? Feels like it wouldn't be a huge deal
It feels weird. Your dude just stands there a lot. Despite all its warts, WoW's success owes a lot to combat responsiveness. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
howbout ret glyphs lolol. Or the ret "rotation" totally not fun.
The glyphs could be better (and there are some buffs in 5.2) but I really like the Ret rotation in MoP. To each their own. (Source)

and what about making hand of salvation dispell things in PVP, instead of sac ( for rets )? This way both would be used
Salv is currently a button you can take off your bar for PvP. We didn't want to require yet another keybind. (Source

Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Speaking of Frostfire Bolt, mages aren't penalized to cast it, Unlike Shadow Priest's Mind Spike. (Removes DoTs)
We don't intend for Mind Spike to be part of the normal rotation. The dot penalty keeps it out of there. (Source)

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
'Thought we were supposed to get the 'full story' for locks in 5.2 but it ends at BT which was already in 5.1. Did it get cut?
There was no warlock quest in 5.1. The entire quest chain is available in 5.2. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
U nerfed warriors rage, control ( DR with warbringer ) and survivability ( D stance nerf ). Nerf just one thing man. C'mon...
Stuns are the most powerful CC in the game. Sitting in Def Stance 100% of the time was never the intention. (Source)

What will it take to convince you new shockwave CD is a poor change for new players, prot warriors and pve in general?
It requires more skillful play, which is a good thing. We don't balance intro content so tight that a new player should struggle. (Source)

Character
This is a mixed msg, vanilla/tbc had that model if because of gear checks/difficulty yet you moved away from it.
IMO loot should be about deciding whether A or B is best, not marking off a checklist of BiS. (Source)

One problem is that stat weights (e.g., Mr. Robot) say that Spirit is top priority. Actual amount needed varies by individual.
Yeah, I don't know how you assign a stat weight to Spirit. So much of it is what you're comfortable with as a healer. (Source)

yes. Gemming more than enchanting. Design has left enchanting at 1 answer per slot. There is no choice.
Is there for gemming? (Source)

Do you think weapons cause too much of a DPS swing? Luck with Weapon RNG more important than class balance now imo
It's a concern for sure. The question is whether it's worth "nerfing the fun" of getting a new weapon. (Source)

In the dev's eyes, what is the purpose of JP these days, especially in 5.2?
JP serves more to help a fresh 90 get geared. They can't provide awesome gear because they are uncapped. (Source)

Will you need to have completed the 5.0 tier legendary to start 5.2 legendary questline?
Yes. It's a progressive quest line. (Source)

I honestly have more fun hunting Transmog-items than raiding anymore. Any chance we'll see more "retired" items return?
Probably, but we'll also probably dole them out slowly so that each patch brings new transmog gear to hunt. (Source)

PvE
Will Throne of Thunder be gated like Tier 14? If so, both modes normal and heroic?
Not gated, but you have to finish normal to start heroic. (Source)

Is Throne of Thunder going to be gated in any way when 5.2 launches?
Just the standard normal required for heroic and LFR will be delayed in chunks. (Source)

will raid groups need to have completed normal TOES to enter normal throne of thunder once its released?
No. (Source)

dear GC can you explain why Korea gets better loot on 25man and we EU and US only get a higher chance in 25man to get TF gear?
More Asian players were asking for separate lockouts than NA / EU players typically do. Much more controversial here. (Source)

so we are going back to the BC/Vanilla wow progression for raiding eh? It sucked then and will suck now.
No, not going back that far. Just want things to feel more like progression and less like episodic content. It's an RPG after all. (Source)

do zerk timers in normal modes still serve a point
They discourage really weird stacking behavior (e.g. 10 healers) but overall we agree they are too short for normal modes. (Source)
Isn't beating a (soft/hard) enrage timer the fundamental point of being DPS? Garalon annoying but essential
It's frustrating for a N group to execute the fight mechanics perfectly but wipe to a tight DPS check. For H, it should be tight. (Source)

Do class tokens still serve a purpose? In 10m they cause issues when recruitment causes an imbalance in class distribution
Design-wise, they slow players down from gearing up instantly and encourage a diverse raid comp. (Source)

Is one of the consequencies of the wipe buff in lfr you are going to balance lfr bosses to be harder?
We're not going to go buff them all, but when we hit an LFR Elegon or Garalon in the future, hopefully the group won't collapse. (Source)
lack of damage/healing isn't the problem with garalon, it simply requires too much coordination for a group of random people
That is probably true, but seeing the light at the end of the tunnel (the buff) might encourage the group not to break up. (Source)

PvP
If more BGs are implemented, will you increase the amount we can blacklist?
We want to get some good data on which ones are being blacklisted first. Maybe that can help us create more popular BGs overall. (Source)

Blizzard made a blog for pvers to help them balance pve, why do you STRICTLY REFUSE to do this for pvp? Its unfair and neglect
PvE balance often comes down to numbers which can be empirically tested. PvP balance is subjective. Numbers matter much less. (Source)
If the balance for pvp is so simple and small then why don't you do it? all cc 1 dr fixes a lot of shit.
I said PvP balance wasn't simple. In any case, we think a single DR takes out a lot of the learning and depth from PvP. (Source)

Hi GC, would it be a good idea to add some gold to PvP rewards? We could use some gold from PvP imo, even just a little bit
Fundamentally we like the idea. The risk is that it combines botters two favorite activities. (Source)

Do you think a 1v1 arena could work (can get conquest)- with some rules like no tank or healing specs allowed?
As long as players didn't expect much balance. Would come down to individual CC breaks etc. (Source)

moreover, according to scoreboards, PW:S is damage prevention, and it doesnt event count it.(Yeah, I know it 'doesnt matter'.)
The BG scoreboard needs to include absorbs as healing. It's in the works. (Source)

Players already gravitate more towards RBGs. There are more players playing RBGs than Arena at any given time.
Possibly because of the huge time commitment, the Arena players just finish faster and then go do something else. (Source)

I can read between the lines. For some reason you're motivated toward making RBGs more popular.
You don't have to read between the lines. We want more RBG participation. (Source)

I dearly hope you halve the amount of cc we have today in the next expansion
We LIKE CC. Layering and countering CC is what gives PvP depth. Else, it's just who can blow each other up faster. (Source)
Now, less uncounterable CC, I totally agree would be a good thing. (Source)

Curse Weekly Roundup
Valve sits down with JJ Abrams to talk about a possible Half Life or Portal movie at this years DICE. James from Curse Entertainment wants to show you he can do stuff IRL and Gamestop is shutting their doors for a number of stores.

[moveth]

I didnt like the limited attempts before, but at least they are listening and are willing to revert it if it just plain doesnt work. However, I dont like that they are going to differentiate against what is and isnt an attempt. That just opens the door for a million different exploits.

"Guys. Warlocks and Paladins didnt get good trinket procs, wipe so we dont waste an attempt."

[Ihnasir]

The Shaman set looks like the Druid Challenge Mode set, just more dull...

[celinamuna]

I didnt like the limited attempts before, but at least they are listening and are willing to revert it if it just plain doesnt work. However, I dont like that they are going to differentiate against what is and isnt an attempt. That just opens the door for a million different exploits.

"Guys. Warlocks and Paladins didnt get good trinket procs, wipe so we dont waste an attempt."

If the attempts will stay wipe will be wipe for all, and since GM's will be observing the few first kills (or even attempts at him) in-game, i highly doubt that they'll take that as an acceptable reason for wasted attempt.

[nimryas]

I love that warlock pvp set! Must level my lock now ^^;

[Bawk]

The Shaman set looks like the Druid Challenge Mode set, just more dull...

If you look at it from the front, it even looks like a BOOMKIN w/ the antlers, shoulders and 'ears'.

Why isn't this a druid set? :/ wtf.

[Azrile]

I didnt like the limited attempts before, but at least they are listening and are willing to revert it if it just plain doesnt work. However, I dont like that they are going to differentiate against what is and isnt an attempt. That just opens the door for a million different exploits.

"Guys. Warlocks and Paladins didnt get good trinket procs, wipe so we dont waste an attempt."

My guess is that if the wipes involves more than 5 people, it will count as a wipe. Of if the boss gets below 98% health it will count as a wipe.

It will probably be ´opposite´ rules as what LFR can do in order to get the 5% buff... ie.. if one person runs in and dies to the boss, it doesn´t count as a wipe and the LFR doesn´t get the 5% buff.

[Orisai]

Shaman S13 looks a lot like Rita Repulsa's outfit from Power Rangers.

[zorothusian]

What the heck is wrong with this site. Only one Video showing the Alliance Tear down the wall I believe no introduction like they showed for the horde are you people just prejudice or what you always give one side. Pathetic.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

What the heck is wrong with this site. Only one Video showing the Alliance Tear down the wall I believe no introduction like they showed for the horde are you people just prejudice or what you always give one side. Pathetic.

If you have a problem with the site then why not leave?

[zorothusian]

Lol you leave

[Azgraal]

after reading the warlock comment i ask: Where the hell did the warlock island go???

---------- Post added 2013-02-17 at 11:26 PM ----------

Lol you leave

Best comeback i've seen in a decade.

[Tiye]

If you look at it from the front, it even looks like a BOOMKIN w/ the antlers, shoulders and 'ears'.

Why isn't this a druid set? :/ wtf.

You mean you didn't like the druid sets "Cod" piece??? Oh come on, it's totally cool. You can totally thrash someone with a few pelvic thrusts! (I am being facetious, btw)

[chaud]

What the heck is wrong with this site. Only one Video showing the Alliance Tear down the wall I believe no introduction like they showed for the horde are you people just prejudice or what you always give one side. Pathetic.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/...ts-Short-Story ?

Both videos show that intro and are very similar. The major difference is the increased amount of fighting that I sped up in the Horde version.

[Deleted]

is it just me or does anyone else think those 2 presenters on curse weekly round-up are complete dickheads, 1. stop trying to be funny its game news not comedy night 2. get a haircut 3. i miss pico she was good pity she left curse

[Apollion]

Don't know if it's the nikka whiskey talking but the war S13 looks like an unshaved pu$$y to me...

[Sevyvia]

The PvP comments make me rage so hard. What a fucking idiot.

[sociald1077]

Don't know if it's the nikka whiskey talking but the war S13 looks like an unshaved pu$$y to me...

Thats one fierce piece of lady bits you have encountered to see that in that tier set.

[velde046]

Damn, so hoped I missed a PM about the loot giveaway.... but no PM for me unfortunately.

[Deleted]

The PvP comments make me rage so hard. What a fucking idiot.

It does get pretty frustrating reading the moronic crap they post about pvp