Patch 8.1 Hotfixes - Jan 9, Jan 10 Raid Testing, Mythic+ Feedback, Blue Posts

[chaud]

Challenge Rift - Week 81

Hearthstone Patch Changes - Rumble Run Updates, Arena Bucket Changes

Patch 8.1 Hotfixes - January 9, 2019

Dungeons and Raids

• Raid group size no longer affects the drop rates of Mythic-only mounts.
  
• Nighthold
  
  • Resolved an issue that caused Skorpyron's Broken Shard to not apply correctly to those standing behind it.
    
• Shrine of the Storm
  
  • Lord Stormsong’s Mind Rend impact damage significantly reduced.
    
  • Vol'zith the Whisperer’s health reduced by 10%.
    

Island Expeditions

• Lootable Seafarer's Dubloons can once again spawn on the ground in Island Expeditions.

Items

• Armor items purchasable for Titan Residuum from Thaumatuge Vashreen are now refundable.
  
• Heart of Azeroth
  
  • Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
    
    • Quick Thinking will now correctly activate when casting Frozen Orb, or when casting Blizzard with Freezing Rain, and will no longer sometimes incorrectly activate multiple times on a single spell cast.
      
    
    
  • Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
    
    • Fixed an issue which caused Primal Primer to misbehave when used by multiple players against the same target.
      

Player versus Player

• Isle of Conquest
  
  • Fixed a bug causing Generals to take too much damage from the Glaive Thrower vehicle
    
  • Significantly reduced the damage done to players by Generals’ Dagger Throw ability.
    
  • Generals will no longer reset their health to full when returning to their spawn point after being pulled.
    
  • Repairing a Keep Cannon can no longer be interrupted by damage.
    
  • Glaive Throwers health increased by 30%, and their damage done to players has been increased.
    
  
  
• Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Windwalker
    
    • Fixed a bug that caused Monks to not parry some attacks with Fists of Fury modified by Turbo Fists.
      
  
  
• Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Holy
    
    • Fixed a bug that caused Divine Favor to be consumed incorrectly when queued immediately after a Flash of Light or Holy Light.
      
  • Retribution
    
    • Ultimate Retribution no longer incorrectly triggers Crusade's cooldown when a nearby player falls below 25% health.
      
  
  
• Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Resolved an issue that could cause Vanish to be incorrectly removed early by Azerite Traits such as Dagger in the Back.
    

Quests

• Players who have completed the "Pre-Flight Checklist" can now complete "Twilight Skies."

Raid Testing Schedule - January 10th

On Thursday, January 10th we will be conducting our first raid tests of the Crucible of Storms.

Thursday, January 10th
The Restless Cabal - Heroic Crucible of Storms
13:00 PST (16:00 EST, 22:00 CET)

As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a test environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session, change the bosses being tested, or cancel a test entirely, due to bugs, server hardware issues, etc. Keep an eye on this forum for the latest information, and thank you in advance for testing and providing feedback.

Q: How do I get into the raid zone?
A: In Zuldazar, Boralus, Dalaran, Orgrimmar, or Stormwind, you may speak to Nexus-Lord Donjon Rade III in order to teleport into the raid zone while it is open for testing. (The option to teleport into a zone will not be available when the zone is not open for testing.)

Q: What character should I use to test the raid?
A: Whichever you prefer. We will be scaling players’ effective level to 120 for raid testing, and their item level to an appropriate threshold for the encounter(s) being tested.

Q: How long does testing last?
A: The primary purpose of testing is to give us the information we need to balance the encounters, evaluate how mechanics are playing out in practice, and identify bugs. Once we’re satisfied that we’ve received that information for a given boss, we’ll be shutting down testing. Usually this takes anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours, but there are no guarantees.

Feedback: Mythic Keystone Dungeons

The Tides of Vengeance update came with a fair few tweaks to Mythic Keystone Dungeons. Now that a few weeks have passed since the update went live, we wanted to take a moment to gather your thoughts are on the changes. This can be about anything you’ve experienced; be it specific dungeons, affixes, or the system as a whole.

If you haven’t yet tried some of the retuned dungeons I encourage you to try them out before commenting, particularly dungeons like Temple of Sethralis, King’s Rest, and Siege of Boralus, all of which received the biggest changes.

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts!

One major thing that I do notice when pushing higher keys (On tyrannical specifically) is that some of the HP on bosses seem to be astronomically scaled. I would like to see the HP on some particular bosses (Finals in Atal’Dazar and Shrine specifically) scaled back a little bit. Shrine of the Storm, with the changes in the way the damage increasing debuff is applied, makes it feel like the Boss’ pool of health is simply too large.
Funny enough, the team actually is looking at the final bosses health in Shrine and I think are testing some changes to it. Nothing to share exactly on it, but it is being looked at. I’ll mention Atal as well.

Blue Posts

Regeneratin' (Zandalari racial) Balance
It’s worth noting (Regeneratin'):

1. These values are not final.
2. The aspect of this where it is not interrupted by damage is unintended.
3. We’re discussing it.

Thank you. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

No Lore QA Thread
Thanks for making the thread. I thought about doing one when I didn’t see a link to a blue post on forums but then saw your comment on blog page.
People have been asking for different types of Q&As, especially a lore one so it’ll be a nice change. Ofc not making a Q&A thread here is kinda odd since more people come here than read news section, so I have a feeling it’s going to be more of what they want to talk about instead of what we really want to know more about. I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out though
We didn’t make a thread here because it’s meant to be more of a discussion on topics and not so much a Q&A. We are trying something different and didn’t want to inflate expectations that a pile of questions would be answered when it’s possible that just a couple topics could lead to back and forth chatting for the whole stream time. If there are areas you are particular curious of then go ahead and post them here or in the blog and we’ll pass them on. Keep in mind certain areas are often difficult to discuss without giving away spoilers. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Mike Morhaime Leaving Blizzard

As previously disclosed, on October 3, 2018 Michael Morhaime entered into an agreement with Activision Blizzard, Inc. (the “Company”) pursuant to which he would provide strategic advice to the Company in an advisory capacity. Mr. Morhaime’s employment with the Company as a strategic advisor will conclude on April 7, 2019.

[Somarlane]

As previously disclosed, on October 3, 2018 Michael Morhaime entered into an agreement with Activision Blizzard, Inc. (the “Company”) pursuant to which he would provide strategic advice to the Company in an advisory capacity. Mr. Morhaime’s employment with the Company as a strategic advisor will conclude on April 7, 2019.

I am not sure what I just read, but it feels just smidge... icky.

[Th3Scourge]

As previously disclosed, on October 3, 2018 Michael Morhaime entered into an agreement with Activision Blizzard, Inc. (the “Company”) pursuant to which he would provide strategic advice to the Company in an advisory capacity. Mr. Morhaime’s employment with the Company as a strategic advisor will conclude on April 7, 2019.

I am not sure what I just read, but it feels just smidge... icky.

Yep, that's not good. Pushing the old guard out

[SinR]

Mike stood up to the board room saying "Games First"

Board Room said "Profits First"

Board offered him two options: A graceful retirement from Activision/Blizzard, a nice bow from the spotlight... Or a grisly public execution where he gets nothing

[Eleccybubb]

I hope Mike honestly goes to Bonfire Studios where most of the old guard have gone.

Or at least a studio that still has passion for games. Because with Activision and the grip it has on Blizzard these days this company has absolutely no passion.

Activision can go to hell for the way they are treating Blizzard if I'm honest.

[Esper]

You'll notice the mass exodus of senior developers and department heads at Blizzard in the last few years. The company we grew to love over the last two decades is dying. Being replaced with soulless automatons who only care about squeezing out the last cent out of the people that stick around.

[DesoPL]

Took them long enough, to kick Mike finally out. And it is an big shame.

[Topornic]

All of you seem to know a lot about Blizzard: why, when, who. Have any of you actually taken into consideration that maybe Morhaime wanted to leave because of personal reasons? Maybe they asked him to stay and counsel for a little longer and it was not Morhaime who wanted to selflessly stay and „guard” the company? What if both parties agreed to not speak publicly why is MM leaving? You know nothing and make assumptions that suit your point of view. It’s actually pathetic.

I Am not happy with what’s going on around but I Am far from making conclusions based on solely the fact that some agreements end on a certain date.

[SinR]

its the wording of the announcement. it reeks of legalese runaround bullshit.

Board Room did him dirty.

[rogueMatthias]

lol oh shit, that Zandalari racial wasn't a typo? They really get a 100% heal cast and Blizzard thought this was balanced?

I feel they could end up feeling mandatory for a lot of players.

[Grizzelbar]

As previously disclosed, on October 3, 2018 Michael Morhaime entered into an agreement with Activision Blizzard, Inc. (the “Company”) pursuant to which he would provide strategic advice to the Company in an advisory capacity. Mr. Morhaime’s employment with the Company as a strategic advisor will conclude on April 7, 2019.

I am not sure what I just read, but it feels just smidge... icky.

I like how this is placed at the very bottom of the news post

[Niwes]

Yep, that's not good. Pushing the old guard out

THAT fast. !?! brutally. this says more than thousand words.

i thought he will be available for advice, as consultant, for next 1-2-3 years. but completely moving out in april, that quick, means he really want to be done with that company.

thats the official signed end of original blizzard.

hard shit.

- - - Updated - - -

All of you seem to know a lot about Blizzard: why, when, who. Have any of you actually taken into consideration that maybe Morhaime wanted to leave because of personal reasons? Maybe they asked him to stay and counsel for a little longer and it was not Morhaime who wanted to selflessly stay and „guard” the company? What if both parties agreed to not speak publicly why is MM leaving? You know nothing and make assumptions that suit your point of view. It’s actually pathetic.

I Am not happy with what’s going on around but I Am far from making conclusions based on solely the fact that some agreements end on a certain date.

either way, IF you really are connected and it still your „baby“ you just will not move out that quickly. even with personal problems, you maybe slow down everything, but you will never move out of stuff you invested your whole life from the ground up. IF you do, this totally obviously says something about, that you just no longer want, in no way.

[kamuimac]

good . game is going into very good direction

its nice that they are getting rid of anyone promoting old archaic "Raid or die " model .

- - - Updated - - -

lol oh shit, that Zandalari racial wasn't a typo? They really get a 100% heal cast and Blizzard thought this was balanced?

I feel they could end up feeling mandatory for a lot of players.

gotta sell those race changes this alone is worth hundreds of thousands if not milion of $ from race changes

[crusadernero]

So Blizzard is the next on the chopping line..

[Toppy]

I hope Mike honestly goes to Bonfire Studios where most of the old guard have gone.

Or at least a studio that still has passion for games. Because with Activision and the grip it has on Blizzard these days this company has absolutely no passion.

Activision can go to hell for the way they are treating Blizzard if I'm honest.

Yep, good ol Bonfire, founded in 2016 with such great hits and upcoming titles as.... right.

Led by blizzard employees that saw Titan through development hell because everyone wanted to be the head of the project.

[dismis]

Mike stood up to the board room saying "Games First"

Board Room said "Profits First"

Board offered him two options: A graceful retirement from Activision/Blizzard, a nice bow from the spotlight... Or a grisly public execution where he gets nothing

This, in capital letters, on the ground, written in boulders, visual from space....

[Deleted]

So Hearthstone will be the next cut. It is about time I really hate P2W games. The basic game was fun.

[Sanguinerd]

The anti-activision crowd is absolutely hilarious these last few weeks!

[Alphaorc]

I swear those who are pro-Activision are in so few numbers that the game wont be saved with them all playing at once. This happens in every game, as long as gaming companies dont listen to whiners or tell them to quit the game, it dies.

[Dubba]

As previously disclosed, on October 3, 2018 Michael Morhaime entered into an agreement with Activision Blizzard, Inc. (the “Company”) pursuant to which he would provide strategic advice to the Company in an advisory capacity. Mr. Morhaime’s employment with the Company as a strategic advisor will conclude on April 7, 2019.

I am not sure what I just read, but it feels just smidge... icky.

Pretty sure he stayed there just to see the current lead to get started and leave as soon as that job is done.