Patch 5.3 Dev Interview, May 29 Hotfixes, Battle Pet Abilities Adjustments, Fan Art

[chaud]

Diablo III: Book of Tyrael Coming This October, CMs and Their Personal D3 Accounts, Titan Project Delayed Until 2016

Wall of Blue Posts

Patch 5.3 Dev Interview
Today we are taking a look at an interview over on Game Diplomat with Cory Stockton.

Pet Battles

• There aren't any developers that work only on pet battles, so the entire team contributes.
• The Lurker Below was going to be a Patch 5.3 battle pet, but it didn't look good when scaled down.
• Patch 5.3 enhanced pet battle PvP because players were interested in the PvP side of pet battles, doing things like forming tournaments.
• A very large percentage of level 90 players are doing pet battles, or at least trying them.
• Patch 5.4 will let you see the health of pets when other players are doing pet battles in the world, as the spectating added in 5.3 does not let you target any of the pets.
• If players are enthusiastic about pet battle PvP, there will have to be more focus on pet balance than there is now.
• Miss and Dodge had been recognized as a problem since Patch 5.1 and were going to be addressed in Patch 5.2, but the devs ran out of time. The changes were finally put into place in Patch 5.3.
• Pets dropping from old raid bosses worked well, as most people enjoyed collecting them.
• Wrath of the Lich King raid bosses would be next for pet drops after the second set of Burning Crusade raid bosses get pets. This isn't guaranteed though, as there aren't solid plans in place yet for when the second set of Burning Crusade raid bosses will get pets.
• Catching a Unborn Val'kyr will affect the spawn time and location of the next one.

Patch 5.3 Hotfixes - May 29

Classes

• Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • General
    
    • Pets will now correctly auto-cast Bite, Claw, and Smack again.
      
  • Talents
    
    • Blink Strike' teleportation will no longer work for pets that have been rooted.
      
  • Beast Mastery
    
    • Beast Cleave damage against nearby targets will no longer be affected by damage taken modifiers on the primary target.
      
  
  
• Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Windwalker
    
    • Fists of Fury is now able to be cast while affected by a Silence effect and Silence effects will not interrupt the ability while it's being channeled.
      

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• Wailing Caverns
  
  • Fixed an issue where Muyoh could be killed, preventing players from completing the dungeon.
    

PvP

• Conquest Quartermasters (Armsmaster Holinka and Roo Desvin) should be available once again.

Items

• Meta and yellow gem sockets have been added to helmets created by combining Radical Mojo with a Latent Kor'kron Helm.
  
• Greater Cache of Treasures, awarded for completing Normal difficulty Scenario should now properly have a chance to contain Motes of Harmony.
  
• Tyrannical Gladiator's Greatsword and Tyrannical Gladiator's Decapitator now give 6,195 PvP Power. This is in-line with other Season 13 ilevel 498 two-handed weapons.
  
• Ra'sha's Sacrificial Dagger can no longer be used while in Bizmo's Brawlpub or Brawl'gar Arena.
  
• (CN, TW, KR) Upgrades for items from Terrace of Endless Spring on 25-player normal difficulty now should correctly cost 250 Valor Points.

Battlefield: Barrens

• Markers on the World Map for Barrens Commanders are now properly removed when defeated.
  
• Jessina the Blazing's Unstable Magma Totem now has an arming time after spawning and can no longer be hit by area-of-effect damage.
  
• Kor'kron Immolators and Kor'kron Earthshakers no longer use Corrupted Fire Nova or Corrupted Stoneskin totems.
  
• Kor'kron Motivators, Kor'kron Grunts, and Kor'kron Spotters now use Mortal Strike instead of Wild Cleave.

Brawler's Guild

• Grandpa Grumplefloot's Bad Luckydos will no longer hop towards players that are not in the arena.

Patch 5.4 Battle Pet Abilities Adjustments

Thank you to everyone who has shared their feedback with us so far, we appreciate it. Based on some of the comments we’ve received, here is an updated list of potential changes we’re hoping to include in Patch 5.4:

• The Magic passive now caps damage taken at 35% of maximum health, buffed from 40%.
• The Dragonkin passive effect now activates when the enemy is taken below 50% health, up from 25%.
• The Aquatic passive now reduces DOT damage by 50%, up from 25%.
• The Elemental passive effect now only affect negative, direct effects of weather (e.g. the accuracy reduction of Sandstorm won’t be applied, but the damage reduction will).
• The Critter passive now makes critters completely immune to roots, stuns, and sleeps.

Keep that feedback rollin’ in!

Blue Posts

Running Out of Bag Space
Adding more space to put more stuff isn't a solution, it's just delaying the problem, and usually not by much. We've been talking about (and even telling all y'all) that solving the storage problem is something we've set our sights on. Of course I'm not going to make an announcement here so no specifics to share yet, or when that relief may surface, but it is something we want to tackle asap. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

4 set pve bonus > pvp Bonus
pls i don't wanna be forced into pve to compete in pvp versus players that take the advantage of pve equip versus pvp.
Firstly, I never said you had to. Secondly, PvE items are worse than PvP gear for instanced PvP. Thirdly, I said that if any outliers were found, we would investigate and make adjustments if we deem it necessary. Fourthly, I said that our goal was for PvP gear to be the best for PvP.

excuse me but I feel cheated!
Because raiders and freshly dinged level 90 characters are able to more easily enter the PvP scene, increasing participation and reducing queue times?

Your issue is that you feel PvE gear is a clear winner over PvP gear, I can assure you that PvP gear is better in pretty much all cases. There may be a few exceptions to this, but they are at best an incredibly minor increase in damage, but you sacrifice other bonuses to get that minor damage increase. All in all, no PvE items are a clear upgrade to PvP gear with almost all of them being a downgrade. To quote my last post: "If we find some PvE gear that is clearly outperforming PvP gear in instanced PvP, we will investigate it and take action if it's deemed necessary."

The difference so far is so minimal that pvp players feel shafted and feel as if they have grinded PVP gear for little to no difference when in competition with PVE players.
I think that an additional 35% damage through PvP power is definitely nothing to be sneezed at.

PVP gear feels useless, PVPing feels pointless. There is no reward, pvp players feels like they are always on par if not worse off than that of pve players. Just READ the forums, look at how people are feeling, screw the statistics, look at how fed up the PVP player base is with these changes!
I read this forum daily and I can tell you that I am well aware of the communities feelings on the topic and I do share some of those feelings and concerns as a PvP'er myself. However, many of the arguments that are used are either not rationalized, done in the heat of the moment with no reasoning and don't take into account all of the facts. We post here to try and help clearing up those concerns and preventing information that helps as well as passing on all of the feedback that we get and the developers regularly incorporate that feedback into design decisions.

Honour gear is USELESS!, it is POINTLESS. Anyone who grinds out honour for malevolent gear is kicking themselves in the teeth.
Why is it pointless? As I gear up a new alt, I use the honor gear and I find that while it is not optimal, it suffices till I get conquest gear. Honor gear to Conquest gear is a basic path of progression for gearing and without it you end up with the flipside of the coin: If there is no progression path for gearing, then some of the enjoyment is gone for players losing that opportunity to increase their characters power. You start out, you run battlegrounds to get honor and a bit of conquest on the side which you use to buy gear that allows you to participate in arena and RBG's, the conquest you get from that then goes into Conquest gear.

If you are struggling to find partners or teams, there are sources you can use to find some. You can use the "Looking for players - PvP" forum, Arena Junkies forums, General chat, Anook, Teamfind, your guild and more. The main idea is just to find like-minded players to play with.

Its just terrible at the moment, whats the point, i'm asking you, right now Nakatoir, WHY should i PVP when there is NO gear, NO rewards and a stalemate at 2k rating!
The progression pathing for gear has not really changed, crafted to honor to conquest, just the Elite weapon has been toned down to avoid ilvl inflation and gear disparity. So there is gear, 3 sets of it different sets. There are rewards, the PvP enchant, the cloak, the tabard, the elite gear and end-of-season rewards. We are also looking to add more rewards into PvP in the future.

I accept that the 2k rating push and beyond is a challenge, but it's not impossible. If you already have full Tyrannical, then it is simply a matter of skill and knowledge of the game that is holding you back. Just keep trying, learning from mistakes and pushing to get better and you will break past that window. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Fan Art
Here are some more unofficial Fan Art pieces!

[moveth]

I think Pet Battles were a great addition. I have a lot of fun whenever I decide to do one or two.

[Deleted]

Fking pet battles, seriously, this is not pokemon

[Deleted]

Look, when they say 90% of people play pet battle or have tried them, what this means :
"- We have seen that 90% of people have entered a pet battle at least once"

What does this mean ?? NOTHING. Everyone tries the new features. Doesn't mean they keep playing it. Like scenarios before 5.3, only very very very very very very bored people would run them.

[Deleted]

Fking pet battles, seriously, this is not pokemon

If you don't like pet battles; Don't do them.

If you don't like any aspect of the game; don't do it.

But your energy is probably better spent elsewhere than QQing about game features that a lot of people find fun.

[Varieses]

Uh, guys...

"World-Of-Warcraft-Blood-Elf-368815228" (The 4th artwork listed.)

This person did not draw this piece of artwork. Might wanna remove the reference link

EDIT: Thanks.

[Exac]

Massive hunter nerf there.

[Zannypants]

I said that our goal was for PvP gear to be the best for PvP.

Then why are you removing PvP stats from PvP gear?

Every single one of those blue posts makes me want to spit in your face.
You're continuously dumping PvP farther and farther down the toilet, and you refuse to admit it.

[Beroendet]

Fking pet battles, seriously, this is not pokemon

Hey! I actually love pet battles.. I enjoy it on the moments I do not raid, makes me relax while I still wanna play.

[Amerissis]

Fking pet battles, seriously, this is not pokemon

I suggest you check http://www.warcraftpets.com and see how many people actually like pet battles. Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean nobody does. Obviously enough people actually play them to warrant Dev time spend on fixing bugs and balance.

[MasterHamster]

Look, when they say 90% of people play pet battle or have tried them, what this means :
"- We have seen that 90% of people have entered a pet battle at least once"

What does this mean ?? NOTHING. Everyone tries the new features. Doesn't mean they keep playing it. Like scenarios before 5.3, only very very very very very very bored people would run them.

Most means 90% now?

[hiragana]

that 3rd fan art thumbnail looks a bit er dodgy.

[Quentilly]

Look, when they say 90% of people play pet battle or have tried them, what this means :
"- We have seen that 90% of people have entered a pet battle at least once"

What does this mean ?? NOTHING. Everyone tries the new features. Doesn't mean they keep playing it. Like scenarios before 5.3, only very very very very very very bored people would run them.

Where did you get 90% from? they say "A very large percentage of level 90 players are doing pet battles, or at least trying them"

[Yarathir]

A Lurker Below pet is what I was pining for and I was sad to see it didn't happen. Now I wish I didn't know that it was planned. Laaaaaame. The other SSC pets are sort of lackluster in comparison, except maybe the Tideskipper. The other two models are already available, whereas the oldschool Kraken model has never been seen as a pet before and probably never will now. Laaa-laa-laaame. :<

[greyghost]

that 3rd fan art thumbnail looks a bit er dodgy.

Huhu's Stinger has always looked questionable, at best.

Also: could we all try to be a little less twelve years old when it comes to handling the idea that this game is huge and has many aspects of it that appeals to different types of gameplay?

I hate doing PvP in this game, but I don't throw a fit each time they put in PvP content or changes, as I don't see most PvP people throw fits about each time a new raid, dungeon or scenario is brought out. The patches for MoP have been coming out once every 3 months -- a huge improvement over the past -- all while all those devs are on the side making changes for the Pet Battles, thus making a strong case against there being some sort of zero-sum conspiracy against your favorite whatever in WoW.

And about Pet Battles having a broad appeal -- or a large percentage of players participating. It's just like scenarios and arenas have broad appeal. Broad appeal doesn't have to mean 90% of players, or even 50% of players. But even if this is just say.... 10% of players, that's a huge amount of people, and that's content that's worth developing. I mean, hell, Game of Thrones has broad appeal with their season 3 premiere having just 6.7 million viewers (link) out of.... how many cable viewers? There's well over 60 million premium cable subscribers just in the US alone (see here). Capturing the sustained attention of even 10% of that many people isn't something to scoff at. And 10% of 8 to 10 million people isn't something to scoff at either.

Just something worth keeping in mind.

[ONISUKA]

The hyperlink of the interview is wrong, it links to wowinsider.
The correct one is : goo.gl/VRYx2

[ItachiZaku]

Wow, I don't even see why blues replied to any of these questions. Felt like they decided to reply to the biggest cry babies.

[Salech]

If they tell you a large percentage of 90s do it, then you can be assured that this forum really is not representative for the hate of pet battles. I have everyone of my alts except my AH alt and my main on locations of daily pet battles. 480 pets collected, 75 raised to 10, almost 30 at 25 and I think it is a great way to waste time while watching a film or while queueing. Let the haters hate. It is not like I go around asking for the abolishment of pvp because I don't like it. Companion pets like mounts and pvp are part of the game since day 1. You could claim they are there longer than Maraudon or raids

Ohh, i got an idea after reading this, mount battles!

[Ironscroll]

Whoooooooooooa Pure PvP players (as I do both) are some of the most self entitled cry babies I have ever seen. Jeebus. Personally I'm not seeing the huge deal, statistically PvP gear is better than PvE gear in PvP it's not a huge margin, but it's enough that a truly skilled player in PvP gear vs a Truely skilled player in PvE gear (same class ve same class to make arguments sake easier.) The PvP player of equal skill will still trounce the PvE player. Just not by as large amount as before. This change only makes it so more people will be willing to try PvP out because it doesn't require a whole new set of gear to get your feet wet (and not feel like a wet noodle.)

[Thorim]

Whoooooooooooa Pure PvP players (as I do both) are some of the most self entitled cry babies I have ever seen. Jeebus. Personally I'm not seeing the huge deal, statistically PvP gear is better than PvE gear in PvP it's not a huge margin, but it's enough that a truly skilled player in PvP gear vs a Truely skilled player in PvE gear (same class ve same class to make arguments sake easier.) The PvP player of equal skill will still trounce the PvE player. Just not by as large amount as before. This change only makes it so more people will be willing to try PvP out because it doesn't require a whole new set of gear to get your feet wet (and not feel like a wet noodle.)

As people have said, don't do pet battles if you don't want to do them, warcrafftpets shows how many people DO like it.

And as the above poster said, they did seem to be a bit whiny If you look at their armouries too, I don't think I saw a single one of them above or close to 2k rating, are there really people 2200+ in 3s and 5s crying about how much better PVE gear is over the PVP 4 sets?