Warlords of Draenor - Darker Nights, New Character Models, Blue Tweets, News Recap

[chaud]

This Week in Review - Popular Decks & News, Funny and Lucky Moments #52

Skin Spotlight: Spectre Illidan

Warlords of Draenor - Darker Nights
Mumper recently let us know that some work related to darker nights is underway, so we took a look at what nights look like in several parts of Draenor. These screenshots show the areas with bigger differences between night and day, so keep in mind many areas currently don't change much at all.

Warlords of Draenor - New Character Model Faces
We got some more updates this weekend from Chris Robinson on plans for new character models and faces.

Blue Tweets

Classes
Druid (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
the new feral DoC... will we just receive healing from rejuv when put on someone else or will there be a buff gained when casted
You gain a Rejuv as well. (Celestalon)
Thanks and also will there be any snapshotting for feral bleeds with TF or bloodtalons, or is it entirely gone? Thanks
Those will explicitly snapshot. (Celestalon)
Ok, so pretty much just snapshotting bleeds from trinkets procs are gone?
Correct. (Celestalon)

This is a horrible change, please revert. There are loads of situations where I might choose "inappropriate one". How about RP?
Plan for travel form: one button does Aqua+Stag+Flight, baseline. Glyph splits it into Aqua+RideableStag and Flight. (Celestalon)
Seriously? I need to glyph out of that mess? ugh...
I'm guessing the 'mess' you're referring to is the bugs that there currently are with it. We'll fix those. (Celestalon)
in places where I can fly, I still don't always want flight form with no ground travel form available.
Then grats, your desire will be satisfied by this solution. (Celestalon)
I dont see why youre trying so hard to make it work as 1 button. Is it the end of the world if the forms are seperate?
Because constantly iterating and improving the game is what we strive to do. (Celestalon)
I'm not sure constantly iterating is something that's good to strive for, without the improvement part
Of course not. Change for change's sake is bad. However, it's sometimes hard for each individual to see improvement. (Celestalon)

Mage (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
clarification on pris crystal. manual target or auto redirect? concerns about clunkiness and/or movement fights?
It will automatically target it when you place it, but you can still swap targets off of it if you want. (Celestalon)

Ever thought about stacking pyroblasts, like arcane missiles or ice lances do already?
Yeah, but you kind of already get that with Heating Up, and stacking further would lose the gameplay of spending vs saving. (Celestalon)

Priest (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
while DP is active. Also, it forces us to pick Solace /Insanity so we don't feel gimped while we mindflay.
It doesn't force you into that at all. MSpike still removes DoTs to ensure rotational variety. (Celestalon)
Don't find it odd while our "burst" window is up (DP) we are forced to use a weaker spell - MindFlay- instead of MSpike w/ CoP?
In a playstyle that otherwise has higher burst? No, not really. (Celestalon)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Whirlwind as part of ST rotation just shows how little idea you have of what to do with warriors. No other class has AOE for ST.
Right, except for Arcane, Fire, Frost, Demo, DfA Rogues, Ferals, Enhance, Windwalkers, Frost DKs, T16 Rets, and all tanks. (Celestalon)
Fire? If you mean Ignite/Combustion spreads, I don't think splash dmg from ST spell = primarily AE spell.
Living Bomb / Unstable Fireball / Blast Wave. (Celestalon)
Ok, that's kinda my point: Fireball isn't primarily AE; Unstable is a bonus to it. Bomb, I'd agree. BW, worth using ST?
Absolutely. (Celestalon)

PvE
with the responsiveness change will we see more "twitch" mechanics in raids ie wrack, defile, interrupts on Maloriak?
I wouldn't say "more" - but dealing with the ones we do have will feel better. (WatcherDev)
I can't promise there won't still be that "but I was out of it on my screen, look at my corpse!" guy in your raid, though. (WatcherDev)

PvP
Agree with shared sets for pve and pvp but they should be different for the factions. I like glorious ones for ally
The plan is to color them different by faction (holinka)

So will there be lag problems with the Huge pvp zone and capital zones sharing the same area? We did shy from that in WOTLK
Ashran is on a different instance. The staging areas are on your home realm. (holinka)

Is Mekkatorque still going to be kind of "open beta" server, or you changed your mind?
We haven't changed our mind. It was always a second server for those with beta access. (holinka)
I mean, what about that PvP server, with broad access, for more precise testing purposes; still in plans?
that was never the plan. I think some people misinterpreted what we said about a separate PvP realm during beta. (holinka)

ever any talk about rated/queued 1v1s? Queue up just how you would 2s/3s/5s but you queue into just a duel?
.No plans for a 1v1 queue but one awesome change in Warlords for duelers is we can reset cooldowns at the start of a duel now! (holinka)

how will the new pvp toggle affect cross realm raid groups? I was thinking pvp player gets pulled to pve server how will that work?
it uses the host realms rules (holinka)

Will Skirmishes be available for lower levels aswell or just max?
the plan is lower level as well (holinka)

Reputation / Questing
I really feel the introductory Tanaan quest chain should be phased. Really breaks immersion, otherwise.
Phased, or instanced, where it's your own personal storyline? It's similar to the DK start experience, which had other players. (WatcherDev)

Weekly News Recap
It has been a busy week, so here is your chance to catch up on any news you may have missed!

• June 29
  
  • Guild leveling was removed, we looked at the Death Knight and Rogue Tier 17 armor sets, as well as the latest version of the Horde garrison.
• June 30
  
  • We looked at Shadowmoon Valley and the latest version of the Alliance Garrison.
• July 1
  
  • The auction house will be cross-faction in Warlords of Draenor.
  • We looked at Spires of Arak and a blue post about warrior design for Warlords of Draenor.
• July 2
  
  • Warlords of Draenor Beta Build 18505 was released, with many new additions:
    
    • A new legendary item: Corrupted Blood of Teron'gor
    • Hunter and Paladin Mythic Tier 17 sets.
    • Warlock Tier 17 sets.
    • Paladin and Rogue Elite Season 16 sets.
    • Monk Season 16 set.
    • Several new creatures and items.
• July 3
  
  • Rob Pardo announced that he is leaving Blizzard Entertainment.
  • Jonathan LeCraft shared a Molten Corgi pet on Twitter.
  • Blizzard posted an official preview of Frostfire Ridge.
• July 4
  
  • Blizzard shared a little bit more of the Mists of Pandaria cinematic.
  • Chris Robinson gave us another update on the same face issue.
  • Blizzard posted about the creatures found in Frostfire Ridge.
  • Celestalon shared some upcoming warrior changes.
  • The Heart of the Valorous buff returned for the weekend.

[moveth]

Im glad they are relooking at the faces.

[Vargur]

Ashran sounds like Aslan....

[Deleted]

These slightly darker nights are a good start! I thought they had completely forgotten about that topic (actually I forgot it myself). Just slightly more darker would be nice - and seeing that torch near the path makes me thinking about dynamic lightning and shadows, but that would be wishful thinking, I guess.
Nonetheless, good job Blizz!

[Jewelofthesea]

Step in the right direction for nights I think. I'd like to see darker nights outside Draenor as well.

[Aqua]

Woo some darkness at last. I mean ...'not being able to see other players' is completely bullshit of a reason to lighten up the night when everyone uses bars to determine where another player is.

[Deleted]

As people said, these nights are a step in the right direction. Not the final product I would like to see but definitely a nice start.

[TheBaron87]

Im glad they are relooking at the faces.

It's not a relook. Work in progress means in progress. It would be ridiculous not to put anything on beta until it's "done." Kind of defeats the purpose.

[SteveZombie]

I think they could take it a bit further by adding it as an adjustable setting. For those that want truly DARK nights, and for those that prefer the current set and go.

Turn the brightness all the way down on your monitor for all the thrill of trying to kill stuff through audio cues alone all while staring at your own dopey reflection. The answer was in front of us all along!

[Ibbi]

I know it's still in the works, but the difference between night and day in those Draenor pics is laughable.

[Puffah]

Didn't we have night effects some years ago before it suddenly disappeared? I distinctly remember cozy night times while questing or wandering cities

[Koala]

makes me want night elf males sooner so we can give them feed back aghhh

[SteveZombie]

Difference between adjusting light sources and overall screen brightness. Nice attempt at being humorous... not.. quite there yet though.

I suppose I should apologise for having a friendly chuckle.

[Tornwar]

Just edited one of the night pictures and this is what I feel could be more like real night!



Maybe too dark? Would be cool if we could use torches and maybe even flashlights to light our way!

[Scarletlion]

Still, it's not the dark as night. It looks like a cloudy afternoon, not night. You can barely see the around in a place with poorly lighted up. But in those pictures, you can see a very far distance with many details, it's just so bright. Blizzard needs to work more on that.

[Deleted]

i'm digging the "darkerNightsSpire1.jpg" one. the rest is just meh. there is still some hope left though.

[tumppu]

"Darker nights". Sounds really good. However, when a 12 year old goes from Elwynn to Duskwood and pees his/her pants, THAT is when we have nights dark enough.

[Vargur]

Just edited one of the night pictures and this is what I feel could be more like real night!



Maybe too dark? Would be cool if we could use torches and maybe even flashlights to light our way!

But then you'd see nothing while flying....

[Rukario]

Holy Jesus whats wrong with these guys bashing on the faces,that forsaken side by side pic looks close enough to me...OFC its not the same,because...its not the same(duh)whats so hard to understand about that.
I understand now why they were so unsure about updating those models...it seems ppl find reasons to complain about everything,im sure they will try to make them as close as possible but it will never be the same,if you want to look at the extremely outdated model be my guest,last time i checked they said it would be made available.

[DechCJC]

Darker nights?!?!?!?opw34nw35opnsop nso tthank you