Armored Frostwyrm Mounts, Blue Posts

[Boubouille]

Armored Frostwyrm Mounts (Possible Spoilers)
The latest PTR build added a new type of mount to the game, the Armored Frostwyrm Mounts.

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Warning, Speculation here. Nothing is confirmed (Also, quests spoilers)
We don't really have any details on these mounts for the moment, but after some digging in the game files and on PTR servers it seems that one of these mounts is already active under the name of Armored Frostbrood Vanquisher (MOUNT) (BLUE).

Two spells are also named after this mount : Frostbrood Vanquisher and Frostbrood Vanquisher Flight.

The only Vanquishers we know are the Wyrmrest Vanquisher used in the Wyrmrest Temple daily quests. The existing Frostbrood Vanquisher spells aren't really proper mount spells and at this point nothing says that we will be able to learn them like normal mounts, even if it wouldn't be very surprising to see a new set of flying mount as a reward for Glory of the Icecrown Raider (25 player) (Objectives and rewards are obviously placeholders at this point)

Things get interesting when you look at quests introduced with this build especially one of them ...

Respite for a Tormented Soul
Deliver Sindragosa's Essence to Wyrmrest Temple in Dragonblight.

Description
Take this Life Crystal, and have your companions take one as well. It contains potent energies from the verdant Dragonshrine in Dragonblight, and it was my own secret to resisting the dark magics of this place for so long. When you face Sindragosa, battle her until she is weakened, and then have your companions use these Crystals to coax out the essence that is dormant within her. If you then defeat her, you should be able to recover it and return it to Wyrmrest Temple in Dragonblight.

I'm not going to jump to conclusions here, but it looks like the latest build added a way to control Frostbrood wyrms and a quest to preserve Sindragosa's Essence at the same time? I'm also pretty sure that the Icecrown Citadel doesn't have an elevator with a "Frozen Throne" button.

We'll probably learn more about this in the next builds, stay tuned and keep in mind that at this point it's just speculation.


Tools Patch Issues: Please Read

We are aware that since the latest tools patch, some players are receiving the error, "invalid game version" when attempting to login to the game. In order to resolve this issue, you must allow the launcher to run so the appropriate update can be applied.

We've also identified an issue that's preventing players from running the launcher while wow.exe is open. This is preventing players from running multiple iterations of World of Warcraft. As a temporary work-around, until this issue is resolved, simply run the second game instance by opening wow.exe directly from your World of Warcraft folder.

If your download fails, please wait a few moments and try again. We hope to have these issues corrected shortly, and appreciate your understanding.

PUG with the Blues - Take Two!

Since our first test went so well, we’d like to invite everyone out again for round 2! Come join the fun on the PTR; and instead of looting the PUG blues, you could end up with a PUG blue (see what we did there?). Members of the Development Team (including the encounter designers themselves), the QA team, and the Community Team will be on the PTRs to test out the new dungeon system and want you to come join in the fun.

To have a chance to group up with one of us, just queue up for a random Heroic through the Dungeon tool. We will be playing both Alliance and Horde, and since the Dungeon tool allows players to group cross-server, it doesn’t matter which of the two PTR realms you join from.

Join us Wednesday 11/11/09 at 4:00pm PST. We'll see you then!

Blue posts

Oculus nerf in 3.3
As is evidenced in this thread, players have strong opinions on Oculus in contrast to the majority of the other Wrath of the Lich King dungeons. With the implementation of the new Dungeon system and Random Dungeon option in patch 3.3, many players were asking for the ability to black list at least one dungeon from the selection pool. If a large number of players want to black list Oculus because they don't find it enjoyable -- and it can often times be a pick-up group killer -- we view that as a problem. We do not, however, see a viable solution in giving players the ability to simply remove any dungeon they want from the Random Dungeon rotation. That takes away from the idea of randomness. In addition, we feel the benefits afforded players when running random Heroic dungeons (extra emblems, the chance to run a specific Heroic instance more than once a day, etc.) are too good to let them narrow down the list as they see fit.

As a compromise, we've made the standard fights in Oculus a bit easier, and increased the benefits of item-based vehicle scaling to make the drake combat less cumbersome. We hope these changes deter players from deserting a random dungeon when it happens to be Oculus. (Source)

Vanity Pets with Stats?
We enjoy adding things into the game that just add flavor and aren't part of any min-maxing discussions. The non-combat pets are one of these things and so are things like titles. As soon as we put some stats on them the purpose changes entirely and anything without the ideal stats becomes "worthless". Imagine if the cockroaches had the best stats and you see 25 of them in a raid... kinda weird. (Source)

Pugging in 3.3
Just a couple of observations from our point of view:

1) Players who don't pug dramatically underestimate the number of people who do.
2) Players often assume every realm has the same dynamics that their realm has.

Pugging is something an awful lot of players do and our (frankly inadequate) tool didn't facilitate that experience very well. The new tool is pretty fast and simple. If you enjoy pugging (or don't enjoy it but do it anyway ) the new tool should let you spend less time organizing and more time killing (or wiping ).

If pugging isn't your thing, that's cool. We're not trying to push you into it... unless you really like pugs (by which I mean the pooch). The tool will also benefit premades.

Dungeon System
1. You can run with whoever you like. You can /invite or have the tool find random players to fill it in (it is pretty smart in who it finds too). If you find random people, we place some restrictions on your group to discourage griefing.

2. I don't want to get into this too much in this thread because the discussion has already gone on and on regarding this topic. However, an old style LFG channel doesn't make much sense (because 1, the tool finds groups pretty quickly, and 2, we don't like people lurking in the tool and messing up matchmaking just to use the chat channel). Making a new LFG channel world wide would instantly become the new channel of choice for gold sellers, spammers or people who are bored and want attention. Making a second city-wide "trade" channel might at least draw some of the legit LFG lookers from the traders. (Source)

Hunter
Hunter using focus in Cataclysm
If you ignore combo points (which we aren't planning on adding to hunters), then the biggest decision energy-users face is whether to use a single 60 energy attack or two 30 energy attacks. The answer depends on a lot of variables, including which does more damage, what is on cooldown, the synergy between the abilities, etc.

If you consider the cat druid (because it's slightly simpler) and ignore finishing moves, then the druid rotation would look something like getting up a +bleed attack, applying a bleed dot, getting up a +damage buff, and then doing the actual damage. You could imagine something similar like that for hunters. I don't mean hunters are going to be a +bleed class, but more that the choice of what attack to push next should have some decision behind it. It won't just be Serpent Sting x 1, Chimera Shot x 1000. Repeat.

Also most of the answers quoted above were from Blizzcon. These answers fall into three basic categories: things we know we're going to do, things we'd like to do, and things we hadn't really thought about before someone asked a question (e.g. taming mounts).

Also, Enhancement shamans will almost certainly stay as mana-users but still share (non Int) gear with hunters. This likely means some kind of attack power to mana regen mechanic like Ret paladins have currently. However development on stuff like this is still early.

[...] I said ignore the finishers, so that removes Rip and FB. You are left with a bleed (Rake), a bleed buffer (Mangle), a damage buff (SR) and then the actual attack, Shred. Someone unfamiliar with kitties might say "Oh I'll just use all my energy on Shred, because it does the most dps" the way someone unfamiliar with focus-based hunters might say "Oh I'll just use all my focus on Chimera / Explosive once they aren't on cooldowns." Our plan is to make the rotation have more depth than that. It won't be at the Feral level of complexity without cps and finishers and because hunters have other things to manage, like Fluffy. (Source)

Focus and abilities cooldowns
Sorry, I meant if we remove the cooldown from those shots then someone might jump to the conclusion that hunters will just spam them. I don't know if we will be able to remove the cooldown or not. Shred does not have a cooldown yet Ferals use many other abilities. That is one way to go. Another is to keep a small cooldown, but in general we think focus will let us take cooldowns off a lot of hunter abilities since the income rate of focus will help us balance the costs.

In general (and with many exceptions) you can't balance mana-using spells around cost since casters have nearly unlimited mana at any point in time and certainly early on in a fight. Energy (and focus, and rage to a much lesser extent to where it's actually a problem) are limited at any given moment but come back pretty quickly. Mana-spells have to be balanced around cast times and cooldowns instead. Hunters generally lack cast times, so most abilities have cooldowns which lead to annoying collisions and a lot of timer-watching. Focus should help improve that. We hope! (Source)

Rogue
Antiarc will get rogues nerfed (Check PoisonSwapper)
As some players are pointing out, it's not the existence of an add-on that's the issue. It's what this means for playing a rogue. We don't want to see the "How to play a rogue FAQ" that starts "Step One. Download the weapon swapping add-on."

It's one thing if it's a niche deal that generates a marginal dps increase. It's another if rogues feel like they have to play with the add-on.

We're still not convinced this will become super mainstream, but we'll see. I said before it's a concern and it's still a concern. (Source)

Warlock
Doomguard and Guardians
Singling out the Doomguard for just a moment...

Are you saying you don't mind giving up your Imp or Felhound for the Doomguard? Are you talking like on a long cooldown or not? Because really with shorter cooldowns now my concern would be that every boss attempt you'd have the Doomguard out. In which case who would use the Felhound?

With guardians as a short-term guardian that doesn't replace your current demon it's easier to carve off a niche. Once they replace the Imp, Felhound, Felguard, Voidwalker, Succubus, then it's tricker to make work. (Source)

[Deathcold]

If you are a healer let the dev team die on every pull!!! Green/blues part two lol

[Deleted]

nice mount
/sarcasm

It is...






Obviously.

[LavaDuck]

Wonder how skeletons fly???

[phai]

I dont like it when exclusive mounts like Frostwyrms go out to a few people who did the Hardmode Achievements in Icecrown.
I'd rather see one or two possibilities to obtain one without having to do hardmodes

Something like the nether drakes perhaps. Or the nether rays.

[Drizzay]

the armour on the frostwyrm looks really cheesy

[phai]

xD Occulus wasnt difficult

The people just didnt know how to do the last encounter xD


Waaaaagh wich Button I uze? 1111111


Nerf please -.-

It wasn't hard. It was annoying.

[Wesz]

I dont like it when exclusive mounts like Frostwyrms go out to a few people who did the Hardmode Achievements in Icecrown.
I'd rather see one or two possibilities to obtain one without having to do hardmodes

Something like the nether drakes perhaps. Or the nether rays.

-__________-
Don't get me started..
Be a glad
or do ICC hardmodes

DO IT!!

[phai]

-__________-
Don't get me started..
Be a glad
or do ICC hardmodes

DO IT!!

I just don't have the time to raid.

[Alianthos]

Hmmm... So maybe we'll engage Arthas on these mounts ? Like "Ok everyone's buffed, you guys have all practiced Occulus enough ? Go jump on your Frostbrood mounts that NPG gave us after we killed Sindragosa, fly to the top and engage the bastard ? Dont forget, group 1 to 3, spam 1111111. Group 4 and 5, spam 222222 to heal the raid."

;D

Nah i hope not

[Samin]

Blue fails on class mechanics.
Enh shamans convert AP to mana (Shamanistic rage), ret paladins just get flat mana back from their main attack (Judgement of the wise).

Oh and inb4: QQ arthas will be new ley-guardian.
oh wait...to late.

[byakko]

Antiarc will get rogues nerfed (Check PoisonSwapper)
As some players are pointing out, it's not the existence of an add-on that's the issue
........
We're still not convinced this will become super mainstream, but we'll see. I said before it's a concern and it's still a concern. (Source)

I seriously didnt know what they were talking about before they pointed it out, but im sure gonna use it now

[Shmiles]

I just don't have the time to raid.

then you dont get the stuff you have to play the game a lot to achieve..its simple really.

[malt0602]

nerdrage inc ;D

[phai]

then you dont get the stuff you have to play the game a lot to achieve..its simple really.

I doubt that this is true anymore.
If we were talking about that in BC, I'd say "yes". But it's WotLK-time.

Then you don't deserve the mount. Effort = Reward. No effort = No reward. It's simple really.

Farming rep is no effort? ¬¬

[Canbie]

No elevator means a raidwide quest to get everyone mounts that can fly in ICC.
Then after the encounter, we all get to keep them!

I think that would be cool. Although I'm sure there will be elitist nerdrage inc.

All that aside. Is it too late to hope for a new animation to go with the new Frostwyrm mounts?
Bronze/Black/Red drakes with a new skin = fail.

[bbr]

Antiarc will get rogues nerfed (Check PoisonSwapper)
As some players are pointing out, it's not the existence of an add-on that's the issue. It's what this means for playing a rogue. We don't want to see the "How to play a rogue FAQ" that starts "Step One. Download the weapon swapping add-on."

It's one thing if it's a niche deal that generates a marginal dps increase. It's another if rogues feel like they have to play with the add-on.

We're still not convinced this will become super mainstream, but we'll see. I said before it's a concern and it's still a concern. (Source)

There we go.
It was only a matter of time.

Spread the addon and make it main stream, and blizzard will kill it off.
The sooner the better.

[Nathanyel]

I'm not going to jump to conclusions here, but it looks like the latest build added a way to control Frostbrood wyrms and a quest to preserve Sindragosa's Essence at the same time? I'm also pretty sure that the Icecrown Citadel doesn't have an elevator with a "Frozen Throne" button.

If we're unlucky, those are just vehicles to get up there and maybe battle some other frostwyrms guarding the Throne.

Wonder how skeletons fly???

I'd say just like other dragons, by using magic to support their wings, as their bodies would be way too heavy to be lifted with such relatively small wings.

[Zeel]

Vanity Pets

As soon as we put some stats on them the purpose changes entirely

I don't know why Blizzard keeps on pushing us this as they already have a vanity pet in game
that has (negative) affect to stats: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=20769

And that has already been since vanilla.

[Deleted]

I dont like it when exclusive mounts like Frostwyrms go out to a few people who did the Hardmode Achievements in Icecrown.
I'd rather see one or two possibilities to obtain one without having to do hardmodes

Something like the nether drakes perhaps. Or the nether rays.

idd...prepare to be QQ'ed anyway