Patch 5.3 PTR - Build 16924, 5.3 Official PTR Notes Update, Pet Battle Spectating

[Halland]

I'm certainly glad to see the shuriken toss nerf.

[flak]

Didn't he just say the other day on twitter he's fine with festerblight and now he's nerfing the hell out of it? o.O

No, he said it was ok to have moderate reward, not "it's fine to outdps everyone by changing your rotation slightly".

[iphigenia]

In order for us to create a system for arena spectating we would need to build a system from the ground up. While the ability to spectate arena matches is something that we would definitely love to implement into World of Warcraft, at this current point we have no plans for it.

This sounds like it's some sort of massive undertaking comparable to rebuilding Tokio, lol. Bunch of private realms already have a system for arena spectating that works brilliantly. It's just the typical case of CBA.

[Granyala]

wtf?
quite sure I did both of those at 84 already 2 weeks ago when leveling my shaman

They are 84 since their creation. But only when you specifically queue. LFD only lets you in there randomly when you're 85.

[Deleted]

And with one simple change, Blizzard has killed the most fun talent ever added to the game. (C&D)

How is it the most fun talent ever? It is a faceroll ability and promotes bad gameplay.

[quras]

If you missed out on getting your own Mists of Pandaria® Collector’s Edition, here’s your second chance. We have a limited quantity in our warehouse that we will be making available on a first-come, first-served basis on the Blizzard Store for $69.99. We won’t be printing any more of these exclusive sets, so pick one up before they disappear into the mists forever.

Sure. They just HAPPEN TO HAVE a few more!

Give me 5.3 already!

I find it funny that their trying to push out unsold collectors editions that didn't sale with a nice sale tactic of first come, first serve.

As if I couldn't go to any of the 3 local Best Buys or either of the two game stops and in town and just grab one off the shelf. Of course there on the bottom and covered up with something more interesting but they are there, collecting dust. Right along with the MOP guide and regular edition.

[eldritchforeshadow]

So what will this BM nerf reduction from 30% to 1% do? Sorry for being confused.

[inyu]

I hope that exotic beast change is just a typo... wouldn't make any sense apply 1% cd reduction.

[raffie]

I came here for frost nerf QQ

[CaptainArlong]

Oh that's cute, Blizzard thinks the MoP CE is rare. The local EB still has them in stock, along with Diablo 3 CE and Cataclysm CE.

[wxcopy]

Did they really need to adjust UH DK's? I get the impression they just tweak numbers for no real reason. It's not like the forums are howling with how OP UH's are, for example.

[Alayea]

My PvE BM hunter is sad.

[lifetapt]

This sounds like it's some sort of massive undertaking comparable to rebuilding Tokio, lol. Bunch of private realms already have a system for arena spectating that works brilliantly. It's just the typical case of CBA.

Except it would be a huge undertaking. Enormous. It'd probably be a project on the same scale as cross-realm zones, likely larger.

The spectator mode you see on private servers is a really ghetto jerry-rigged setup that simply sticks spectators in the actual arena instance as invisible players. All movement/combat events the server is processing for the match have to be dispatched to each spectator in real-time, which would increase load on the server and possibly make matches lag for the combatants if there are a lot of people watching. Additionally, there is no time delay to prevent cheating, and it's impossible to implement one since the server "forgets" about events as soon as it has processed them. Blizzard will never implement a spectator mode in this way.

Practically every other MMO/FPS/RTS/MOBA/whatever that has a spectator mode does it in the same way. Events from a match are recorded as a "replay" and then played back to spectators at a later time. This allows spectators to pause, resume, rewind, and fast forward through a match, because the server has a record of what happened during the match. There can also be a time delay to prevent cheating. Additionally, the replay is almost certainly being hosted and processed by a separate server dedicated to nothing but spectator mode, so even if there are 100 people watching and the server is lagging, the original arena match was still only processing events for the six combatants (plus of course whatever other arenas were running at the time on that server).

This system is much more flexible and less open to abuse/lag, but it is way more work. Every single action has to be recorded to make sure an accurate replay can be played back later, anything that is random (damage values, crits, procs, dodges, fear pathing, etc.) needs to play out the same way. For something like an RTS this isn't so bad because of the peer-to-peer lockstep model they typically use, and it is fairly easy to generate a replay that plays out exactly the same every time simply by recording player input and keeping RNG synchronized (with the downside that you usually . For an MMO this is a much bigger challenge, and simply recording player input may not be enough to create a deterministic replay due to latency or other influences (as described above, there's a lot more randomness to account for in an MMORPG). It's not impossible for an MMO (GW1 and 2 do it), but they generally have to be made with it in mind from the start. Shoehorning this into 8 year server software will be a challenge.

I would freaking love a spectator mode, but I also realize that it IS a ton of work. And on top of that, it's something many, many players will never even touch. And on top of that, many of those who do won't think of it as much more than a neat toy. I just don't see it happening anytime even remotely soon, if it ever even happens at all.

[Rolly]

My PvE BM hunter is sad.

Mine too, getting really really tired of pve nerfs because of pvp.

[Tarx]

My BM hunter too, one more reason to leave this game....

[Prokne]

wait...if you decrease the cd on pet special abilities, doesn't that mean they'll be giving buffs to parties/raids a lot less frequently? why do that? wouldn't that cause raid leaders in the hardercore-end of raiding to not choose hunters, if they can fill a spot with someone who gives a buff?

The buff abilities already refresh before they expire. Besides MM and Surv hunters dont have a problem with raid buffs.

---------- Post added 2013-05-09 at 12:02 AM ----------

Mine too, getting really really tired of pve nerfs because of pvp.

My MM/Surv hunter is tired of not being buffed because BM is op too. I would rather they were buffed to bring them up to BM intead of nerfing BM to make it more in line with the rest of the specs. Although they are reducing the CD on rabid so thats a buff.

[Grizzly UK]

Will all these "Balance adjustments/changes" for PvP that are coming in 5.3 end up having a negative effect on PvE gameplay? If so then I guess patch 5.4 will be including some PvE "Balance adjustments/changes".

[Deleted]

GG Blizzard, you made Cloak and Dagger completely useless talent. At least you lost 1.3 subscribers, take that sh*t scrubs.

[brothernads]

Anyone know whether this build is marked as a release candidate?

I had thought 5.3 was going live next Tuesday 5/14 - but without a release candidate yet, I'm beginning to doubt it.

[Tomana]

I had thought 5.3 was going live next Tuesday 5/14 - but without a release candidate yet, I'm beginning to doubt it.

They want it to go live this month, but it probably won't be on the 14th. More like 21st or 28th