Patch 7.2 Preview - A Challenging Appearance, Mar 20 Legendary Item Changes, Tweets

[chaud]

Your Questions for Hearthstone Game Designer Dean Ayala!

Patch 7.2 Preview - A Challenging Appearance!
In the recent developer interview, it was revealed that these are going to be very difficult challenges that don't scale with gear.

Artifact Weapons have been proven to be powerful tools against the Burning Legion. With the release of patch 7.2, we are not only adding an Artifact questline to unlock new traits, but we’re also adding a new Artifact challenge appearance. But, you’re going to have to earn it — the hard way.

‘You Must Be This Tall’
To be able to take on the challenge before you and earn your new Artifact appearance, you’re going to need to meet a few requirements first. You must be level 110, purchase all 35 of the ranks for your Artifact weapon, and complete the questline to unlock access to the four new traits available with patch 7.2.

A Towering Achievement
Returning to the Broken Shore has a lot to offer including new structures that open additional benefits for those adventuring through the island. For those who plan to earn their Challenge Appearance the Mage Tower is going to be an important building to invest your Legionfall War Supplies in. When the tower is active and you’ve met all of the requirements, a new quest will become available to you. This quest is a continuation of your Class Order campaign and will ask you to take care of a little unfinished business via a solo encounter. You’ll need to face a powerful foe to earn your new appearance — but it’s not going to be easy.

This encounter will provide players with the opportunity to show their mastery of their class with a solo skill challenge. There are 7 different challenges available which are tailored to your class role. Each role’s challenge will vary slightly whether it’s healing a group of support npcs, tanking and keeping your group npcs from being killed, or straight dps to kill the boss. There’s no gear requirement, but you’re going to want to invest in getting the best gear you possibly can if you’re going to walk out of the encounter with a brand-new look for your weapon.

The Cost of Success
The first time you get the quest, you’ll be able to enter the encounter for free. If you fail—and there’s a good chance you will—the next (and the next) time is going to cost. If you’ve been active within the Broken Shore, you’ll have started to accumulate Nethershards. You can use these Nethershards to purchase additional chances at the encounter. The Mage Tower is active for three days before it’s destroyed, so time is limited. If you’re determined to give it a good run each time the tower is available, you might want to spend some time under the shadow of the Sentinax to gather as many Nethershards as you can. Success with earning your Artifact weapon’s Challenge Appearance is going to cost — but bragging rights will be yours when you do succeed.

Get the Look
These appearances have been inspired by previous class questlines that led to weapons like Anathema/Benediction, and Rhok’delar. No grouping is required—or allowed—and completing the challenge will reward a truly distinctive appearance.

Good luck out there! You’re going to need it.

Patch 7.2 PTR Legendary Items Changes - March 20
Most of these legendary changes have been in recent PTR builds. The March 14th version of this change list has the rest of the changes.

• Multiple Classes
  
  • Norgannon's Foresight: Now triggers after standing still for 6 seconds (was 8 seconds), granting you the ability to cast while moving for 4 seconds (was 5 seconds). Now has a new visual indicating when you gain its ability to cast while moving. Now has an additional 617 Critical Strike (@ ilvl 940) as a third bonus secondary stat.
    
  • Sephuz's Secret: Now always grants 10% increased movement speed and 2% Haste. When triggered, this bonus is increased to the current values of 70% movement speed and 25% Haste. Movement speed bonuses now stack with other movement speed bonuses.
  
  
• Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
  
  • Frost
    
    • Perseverance of the Ebon Martyr: Howling Blast deals 20% increased damage to enemies recently damaged by your Remorseless Winter (was 40%).
      
  • Unholy
    
    • Tak'theritrix's Shoulderpads: Damage bonus duration increased to 30 seconds (was 20 seconds).
      
  
  
• Demon Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
  
  • Havoc
    
    • Anger of the Half-Giants: Demon Blades generates an additional 1-6 Fury (was 1-8 Fury).
      
  
  
• Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
  
  • Restoration
    
    • X'oni's Caress: Now also reduces Ironbark’s cooldown by 20%.
      
  
  
• Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
  
  • All Specs
    
    • Belo'vir's Final Stand: Change removed
      
    
    
  • Arcane
    
    • Cord of Infinity: Each time Arcane Missiles hits an enemy, the damage of your next Mark of Aluneth is increased by 1%. This effect stacks.
      
    
    
  • Fire
    
    • Darckli's Dragonfire Diadem: Now has a new visual when Dragon’s Breath is cast.
      
    • Pyrotex Ignition Cloth: Change removed
      
  
  
• Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
  
  • If you have either Cinidaria, the Symbiote or Gai Plin’s Soothing Sash, your odds of getting the other belt are significantly reduced.
    
    
  • Mistweaver
    
    • Ei'thas, Lunar Glides of Eramas: Uplifting Trance increases your Vivify healing by an additional 10% and causes it to heal 1 additional target.
      
    
    
  • Windwalker
    
    • Drinking Horn Cover: The duration of Storm, Earth, and Fire is increased by 0.4 seconds (was 0.6 seconds) for every Chi you spend. The duration of Serenity is now extended by 0.3 seconds every time you cast a Chi spender.
      
    • The Emperor's Capacitor: Damage bonus per stack increased to 100% (was 50%).
      
    • March of the Legion: Now has an additional 1068 Mastery (@ ilvl 940) as a third bonus secondary stat. Haste stat reduced slightly.
      
  
  
• Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
  
  • Holy/Protection
    
    • Uther's Guard: Now has an additional 617 Haste (@ ilvl 940) as a third bonus secondary stat.
      
    
    
  • Retribution
    
    • Aegisjalmur, the Armguards of Awe: Now has an additional 617 Critical Strike (@ ilvl 940) as a third bonus secondary stat.
      
    • Justice Gaze: Now also causes Hammer of Justice to generate 1 Holy Power when used against targets above 75% health. Mastery reduced by 412 (@ ilvl 940) and Haste increased by 412.
      
  
  
• Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
  
  • Discipline
    
    • Skjoldr, Sanctuary of Ivagont: Now also increases Power Word: Shield’s absorb amount by 15%.
      
  
  
• Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
  
  • All Specs
    
    • Will of Valeera: Now has an additional 658 Mastery (@ ilvl 940) as a third bonus secondary stat.* Haste reduced by 412 and Critical Strike increased by 412.
      
  
  
• Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
  
  • Demonology
    
    • Sin'dorei Spite: With Grimoire of Supremacy, there is now a visual debuff that displays the 3-minute cooldown.
      
  
  
• Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
  
  • All Specs
    
    • Timeless Stratagem: Now has an additional 717 Versatility (@ ilvl 940) as a third bonus secondary stat.
    • Mannoroth's Bloodletting Manacles: Now has an additional 771 Versatility (@ ilvl 940) as a third bonus secondary stat.
      
    
    
  • Protection
    
    • Thundergod's Vigor: Each enemy you hit with Thunder Clap reduces the remaining cooldown on Demoralizing Shout by 3 seconds (was 1 second).
      

Blue Tweets

So when 7.2 hits we can only obliterum pvp season 3 gear and not season 2?
Correct (holinka)

FinalBossTV Episode #132 - Legion Shadow Priests
FinalBossTV covered Shadow Priests this week.

[Zabatakis]

Nice, I wish they would do more quest that are solo only and require skill. The green fire thing was neat, sad they didn't expand on it till now.

Edit: nvm, apparently going to be balanced by role (so essentially, not balanced) instead of class/spec. Disappoint.

[Super Kami Dende]

Fuck yeah, keen as to do this Quest on my Veng DH. I've pretty much got my tanking on it down pat. look forward to unlocking those cool Winged blades.

[schwarzkopf]

Nice, I wish they would do more quest that are solo only and require skill. The green fire thing was neat, sad they didn't expand on it till now.

As long as they are balanced for each class and spec, not like the stupid proving grounds that were face roll for one class/spec and a real headache for others.

[Doomchicken]

As long as they are balanced for each class and spec, not like the stupid proving grounds that were face roll for one class/spec and a real headache for others.

That would be nice. I don't think it's going to be balanced though, which is a shame.

[Regalbeast]

Worst things to do in an mmorpg - stop players from coming back by making content for a certain expac and remove that content afterwards. I have Benediction on my classic priest, I have my Amani Warbear and I can carry the rank 14 armor and weapons, but I will never have those new dread blades on my rogue. So, after this korean-style grind expac there is another reason not to come back.

Best thing to do in an MMO...make some things exclusive and not obtainable after the current xpac is over. It makes players feel awesome and gives them something that makes them feel unique.

[meroko]

Best thing to do in an MMO...make some things exclusive and not obtainable after the current xpac is over. It makes players feel awesome and gives them something that makes them feel unique.

my thoughts exactly, if anything there isn't enough anymore in WoW that makes players feel unique.

[arcaneshot]

Best thing to do in an MMO...make some things exclusive and not obtainable after the current xpac is over. It makes players feel awesome and gives them something that makes them feel unique.

This. I laugh at the people who missed out on the Pandaria cloaks.

[kamuimac]

not really a problem as long as you play - the quest doesnt scale which means that you can come in lfr gear of next raid after Tobm and rtoflstomp the place for appearance.

just like with green fire.

[Tygerman]

I think this will be a good addition to Legion. It could give some people another reason to come back to the game (could be wishful thinking). People have been wanting good solo content for some time now (in an MMO, which is weird but I'm ok with) and I think this is a good compromise. It provides a good reward (which is subjective of course) and could give casual players a decent challenge they can work towards that doesn't involve a large time commitment or raiding.

This could also provide a way for people to get into Alts that have been ignored this expansion. For example, I don't play many alts, but because of these new skins I will be playing other characters to get the additional skin, namely the Guardian Druid skin. Not only is that druid skin the craziest thing I've seen added to the game, but I will look forward to future expansions when I can say that I did this challenge and have something "unobtainable".

As someone that has played since TBC, yet didn't really get into the game until MoP, I don't have anything that's really unobtainable anymore apart from the MoP and WoD legendary items, so this definitely has my attention as I'm always looking to expand my collection (BMAH or regular AH items). The cost per attempt system also reminds me that every attempt counts, and that I should only try for it if I'm ready, although if Nethershards are easily farmable in 7.2 it won't matter so much.

TLDR: Optimistic of the system, hope they don't change it too much when 7.2 goes live.

Edit: Someone mentioned the Green Fire quest for Warlocks in MoP, and heard that once you got enough gear it became a cakewalk, so looking at the phrase "Doesn't scale with gear" does concern me to some extent. But I suppose if you're good enough to get heroic raiding gear, you should be somewhat good enough to get these skins anyways.

[Serissa]

Yay! Moar grind!

We all know that this grind is just reason for monthly sub so gating like limited tries per week should be fine. Seriosly just lock it like 2-3 tries per week. There's no real reason to lock it behind mindless nethershard grind.

- - - Updated - - -

Best thing to do in an MMO...make some things exclusive and not obtainable after the current xpac is over. It makes players feel awesome and gives them something that makes them feel unique.

Well that's heavily depends on POV. It maybe good for you, old player, but it's bad for MMO-health in general IMO.

Let's imagine new player, he meets some veteran in awesome armor...
- Hey, your armor is so awesome where did you get it?
- Blah-bla-blah
- Oh it's unavailable?
...
- Oh another person on awesome mount, where did you get it?
- Blah-bla-blah
- Oh it's unavailable?
... repeat many times
- DAMN, SCREW THIS SHITTY GAME WHERE I CAN'T GET ANYTHING COOL!!!!
(deletes wow)

A bit exagerrated scenario of course but perfectly viable when you delete everything after expansion ends.

[schwarzkopf]

I can see it now:

LF4M Normal EN - must have all Broken Shore appearances unlocked, link achieve.

- - - Updated - - -

my thoughts exactly, if anything there isn't enough anymore in WoW that makes players feel unique.

By unique, you mean lucky ... like all the Vanilla stuff that made you feel unique, sorry - I mean lucky.

The cool thing about these new quests is that getting them or not will only depend on you - no more raid carries to glory like vanilla -> LK etc.

[Zyrosis]

Worst things to do in an mmorpg - stop players from coming back by making content for a certain expac and remove that content afterwards. I have Benediction on my classic priest, I have my Amani Warbear and I can carry the rank 14 armor and weapons, but I will never have those new dread blades on my rogue. So, after this korean-style grind expac there is another reason not to come back.

Wait, what? Your comment seems very contradictory. You like that you have stuff that can't be acquired anymore, but the killing point for you is that you won't be able to get stuff that's going to, maybe, be made unavailable in a future xpac? What?

[Super Kami Dende]

Yay! Moar grind!

We all know that this grind is just reason for monthly sub so gating like limited tries per week should be fine. Seriosly just lock it like 2-3 tries per week. There's no real reason to lock it behind mindless nethershard grind.

Or get good and do it without taking tons of tries :^)

[Deleted]

challenge, no fixed gear/stats? lol

[JabJack]

Finally an affliction artifact appearance that isn't clunky

[Deleted]

Best thing to do in an MMO...make some things exclusive and not obtainable after the current xpac is over. It makes players feel awesome and gives them something that makes them feel unique.

You get unique by combining things your own way. If you need exclusive things to feel special, then I suggest that you work on your self-esteem instead.

If anything, your special snowflake status is pampered when you get something earlier than others.

And just to clarify - I got the MoP CM birds and one of the class sets (being too late to the party after a long burnout break), I could have got an original Amani bear if I had better luck on rolls, and I have Benediction/Anathema on my priest.

Things should be available to all players besides some temporary promotions. I get that titles for special achievements are exclusive - like the warlock title for the green fire quest (which I also got btw), but other things should stay. If anything, it keeps people occupied and paying subs...

- - - Updated - - -

challenge, no fixed gear/stats? lol

Since these "challenges" probably won't be balanced equally for all specs, you will probably have to overgear some to make it work.

Temporary access to this challenges are very bad, though. As if burning gold with repair costs and consumables is not enough...

Guess I will be waiting for guides.

- - - Updated - - -

Wait, what? Your comment seems very contradictory. You like that you have stuff that can't be acquired anymore, but the killing point for you is that you won't be able to get stuff that's going to, maybe, be made unavailable in a future xpac? What?

He is clearly thinking of other people's motivation to spend time in the game - which some people seem to not be able to.

[Hodacia]

Not scaling SOLO challenge quests for appearance is a joke. "Hi, look, we have this awesome new SOLO CHALLENGE for you guys, but you need to be a Heroic/Mythic+ raider to have any chance on doing them". Really odd IMO.

Also, is only makes them "special" for a very limited time, cause after some time the gear will be trivialized and everyone can do them. So it effects everyone in a negative way. Bragging rights? Not really, first only high end raiders will have them, then everyone will.

Maybe I'm just mad since I'm not a raider and was really looking forward to the new Guardian druid form. I always loved doing scaled solo challenges like proving grounds/green fire Q. This was bad news for me

[FelPlague]

OK blizzard can you tell us what the fuck you are doing with warlocks.
So with the sindori bite with aupremecy it has a 3 minute cooldoen for odvious reasons. And it tells you it does. But once you remove supremecy the cooldown disappears. So you think it would pair amazingly with willfreds band. But fucki g nope. It has a hidden cooldown.

Bliss fucking. Fix it so it works with willfreds. Or just make it so it always says 3 minute cooldown and shows this.

[Deleted]

how the heck did they decide to not scale the gear?! it's not a challenge then. at least cap the gear at some point. jeez. I got like 900 gear on my disc but I was really looking forward to a challenge. meh