Ruby Sanctum Availability, TCG Loot Giveaway, 3.3.5 Vote Kick

[Boubouille]

Patch 3.3.5 - Ruby Sanctum Availability
And here comes the end of any "OH GOD US WILL GET ALL THE FIRST KILLS" drama. It was fun while it lasted.

Due to the fact that we will be delaying the release of patch 3.3.5 in Europe, Korea and Taiwan in order to ensure the patch process in all regions is as smooth as possible, the Ruby Sanctum will not immediately be available on North American realms upon the release of the patch. Once patch 3.3.5 has been released in North America and we are confident about a time when we can open up Ruby Sanctum, we will provide an update here on the forums.

Facebook/Twitter TCG Loot Code Giveaway
WoWTCGLoot.com was nice enough to throw a couple of TCG loot codes my way to give them away on Twitter and Facebook!

• People who liked the MMO-Champion Page on Facebook will have a chance to win 1 x Paper Flying Machine Kit or 1 x Landro's Gift Box!
• Following me on Twitter.com will give you a chance to win not one, but 2 x Landro's Gift Box!

How does it work?
It's easy, just become a Fan of MMO-Champion on Facebook and/or Follow me on Twitter! Winners will be picked randomly at 08:00PM PST and the code will be sent to the winning Twitter/Facebook account shortly after.

This is just a small test run to see if I can do that often because this kind of contest seems easier to manage on social networking sites than on the site or the forums. More interesting codes are already in the way depending on how things go. Good luck!

Thanks to WoWTCGLoot.com for the shiny loot codes.

Patch 3.3.5 - Vote Kick Change
Blizzard finally found a good use to the tracking stats added with Patch 3.3.3 a few months ago.

• Abandoned LFG (hidden)
• Completed LFG (hidden)
• Kicked in LFG (follower) (hidden)
• Kicked in LFG (initiator) (hidden)
• Kicked in LFG (target) (hidden)

We have found that most players using the Dungeon Finder don’t use the Vote Kick feature or abandon groups very often. For these players, we are removing the cooldown on voting to kick players from a dungeon party. In contrast, those players who tend to kick players or abandon groups more frequently will notice that the Vote Kick feature maintains its cooldown. The goal here is to make sure players who are generally patient can make use of the Vote Kick feature when they really need it, without giving a more powerful tool to those who try to kick others or abandon dungeon groups very frequently.

This functionality will adjust itself as a player’s behavior while using the Dungeon Finder changes.

BlizzCon Tickets on Sale Tomorrow

tomorrow for the chance to get yours. If you are unable to purchase tickets tomorrow, a second batch will go on sale June 5 at 10 a.m. Pacific time. And for those unable to attend the show, in-depth coverage of BlizzCon will also be offered by DIRECTV as a Pay Per View event, available both via satellite and a multi-channel Internet stream.

BlizzCon 2010 will take place October 22 and 23 at the Anaheim Convention Center, and tickets cost $150 USD each. For further information, check out the official BlizzCon site.

Click here to go to the BlizzCon 2010 ticket sales page.

Blue posts

Haste buffs
It's extremely likely that the 3% global haste buff category is being removed completely, and Improved Moonkin Aura will offer the 5% spell haste buff, along with however it is distributed for Shadow Priests, and Shaman,
Yes, we are reclassifying all of the haste buffs as spell haste buffs or melee attack speed buffs. (Source)

Masteries / Passive Tree Bonuses
The passive talent tree bonuses are intended to let you get better at your intended spec just by spending points in the tree. We felt like talents had gotten to a place where they had lost some of their original goal for allowing player customization. So many talent points were considered mandatory just to make your character functional that there were very few actual choices you could make.

(We call the passive talent tree bonuses "passive talent tree bonuses" to differentiate them from the mastery stat on gear, which affects only the third talent tree bonus. We came to that distinction late and are honestly a little sloppy about the nomenclature to this day, so "mastery" sometimes gets used interchangeably as the talent tree passives themselves and as the stat on gear that affects the third of those passives.)

In Cataclysm we have an opportunity to get a lot of those passive talents out of the talent trees. At the same time, we do need to allow for a distinction between say the higher damage and lower survivability of a Fury warrior compared to a Protection warrior. If individual talents shoulder too much of that burden, then the talents aren't much of a choice. Instead, we give you passive bonuses just for spending points in the tree. Protection warriors care most about reducing damage and maintaining threat, so those are the first two passive talent bonuses. The third one we wanted to feel specific to the Prot warrior tree, so that one is going to relate to blocking with a shield.

Another way to think about it is that each talent in the Protection tree also says "and reduces incoming damage by X, increases damage done by Y when tanking, and increases block effectiveness by Z."

I wouldn't say that we intended for all of these passives to be super sexy. It's more accurate to say that we use them to allow the talents themselves to be more exciting and ideally game-changing and a little less "kitchen sinky."

If I'm 51/20/0, and someone else is 51/0/20, we both get the same talent bonuses from blood, but do I get frost passives while he gets unholy passives?
In your example, both DKs would get the maximum passive bonus possible from Blood and nothing else. You are only ever one tree. The points you spend in another tree will help out because those talents accomplish something, but you don't get bonuses for them. You are either a Blood, Frost or Unholy DK. (Source)

Mandatory Talents
There will still be mandatory talents. We're not really trying to make a talent like Sword and Board optional. We expect most Prot warriors of appropriate level will grab it. Related, we doubt we'll see an end to cookie-cutter specs. As long as the recommended Prot tree says "You must get Sword and Board" then that's essentially a cookie-cutter.

We would like to accomplish a couple of goals though.

1) For more casual players (i.e. the ones not posting in this forum), we want there to be less difference in power between an optimal and sub-optimal spec. It's okay if the optimal one is still better, but not so much better. Casual players should feel fine just spending points with a small amount of consideration and not feeling like step one is to go to the Internet to find the right build. The passive bonuses help with that.

2) For those players that do take optimization very seriously (and I'm assuming most of you are in that category), we just want to see more cookie-cutter builds that say things like "spend the last 5-10 points wherever you want." If those points would give you survivability or a massive threat bonus or even utility that's hard to live without (say Warbringer for a Prot warrior), then you're not really spending the points where you want. But we think there is room to have some of those choices that don't really exist now. (Source)

Mage (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Molten Armor in Cataclysm
Molten Armor won't be boosting Spirit. Spirit is really a healer stat in Cataclysm and mages and warlocks shouldn't really look for it on their gear. (Source)

Warlock (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Soulstones / Warlock Utility
We do want to make Soulstones a more reliable battle rez in Cataclysm. We are also looking at the general package of group buffs and debuffs brought by the warlock class as a whole and the respective specs. There will still be an occasional (very occasional) role for a warlock to "tank" as a caster or to use a demon to tank something. With crowd control mattering more in 5-player dungeons, there will also be more opportunities to Banish or Seduce. (Source)


Warrior (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Active / Passive Masteries Bonus
It's not really PvP related. We are trying a couple of things. First, we just need to get a feel for what kind of mastery bonuses are the most fun. Very active ones might be fun (because you're doing something) or very passive ones might be fun (because then the bonus is never wasted). Likewise, Arms already has a lot going on in the way of procs to manage, so having yet another thing to pay attention to may be overwhelming. Fury on the other hand falls into a little more predictable rotation so having the Enrages be a bigger deal may not be an undue burden. (Source)

New World of Warcraft Fan Wallpaper
A very nice Fan Wallpaper has been added to the official site

[WyriHaximus]

Love the votekick change ;D. Hope this results in a lot less useless kicks from trigger happy tanks.

[Quirex]

LOL @ the realmfirst QQ'ers xD

[Jaqen Hghar]

Badass wallpaper is badass.

[tusker]

So I guess that pretty much negates most (all?) of the QQ'ing in the previous thread? Hmmm... Just goes to show..

[dajesone]

so when is 3.3.5 coming?

[darkfireyguy]

I love the vote to kick changes

[cyan421]

Vote kick changes are interesting. Can someone explain how those Achievements work? Are they hidden to everyone? Can i look up how many people I have kicked?

[Felicia]

I love the vote to kick changes

/agreed

Figured blizz wouldn't open up ruby sanctum the week of 3.3.5. Too much QQ. It wouldn't be fair if they did.

[Khana]

The fact they'd disable Ruby Sanctum for the US was pretty obvious and I don't see why such an amount of hassle and 'flaming' was required over something so little... The changes to the Vote Kick system are welcome, though I rarely use it. I either get good groups, or cba to mix myself in a /p flame-war.

The wallpaper is very well done and it'll haunt my desktop for a while

- Khana

[drsjohnny]

good wallpaper along with loving that new vote-kick update can't wait

[Deleted]

The wallpaper makes no sense, why is Onyxia, KT & Raggy all in it?

[GuardianX]

Love the votekick change ;D. Hope this results in a lot less useless kicks from trigger happy tanks.

I would consider myself hardly 'trigger happy' and I likely kicked people once every 5 runs if they were hardcore slacking off. By hardcore I mean DPS in 200 range overall when they were in decent gear, I don't think I ever kicked a healer, maybe once when they sat afk at the zone or if they just refused to heal (which in my battle group is actually a decent amount).

Overall few people want the hassle of kicking people so thats why numbers are low. If you kicked someone and got a decent replacement every time you kicked a player, more people would be inclined to kick people being bad for whatever sake.

I still don't like the idea that I essentially must carry bads in my group for a certain duration before I am the one that has to play the bad guy and either call the person out on their skill (or lack thereof) or kick them because no one else wants the hassle.

Whatever, another win for people getting carried and people who wont kick.

[zoriux]

Mhe.. I only kick Greedy fuckers who Need's on ALL that the can get there hands on!

[Triggers]

I sure wish I had enough money for blizzcon
Blizzard fan for nearly half of my life (Played WC2 and Lost Vikings when I was like 7-9 or around there, 17 now)
I hope to one day go!

[Norahe]

The wallpaper makes no sense, why is Onyxia, KT & Raggy all in it?

Does it have to make sense to enjoy the picture ? ;D

Anyway, it's not Onyxia but Nefarian I guess. Which makes the picture presenting the three main bosses of WoW Vanilla

[Spoinky]

Thumbs up for the new vote kick system ;D

[darkfireyguy]

Does it have to make sense to enjoy the picture ? ;D

Anyway, it's not Onyxia but Nefarian I guess. Which makes the picture presenting the three main bosses of WoW Vanilla

They need to throw a giant eye ball in there

[Nalnik]

I wonder if there will be a time hard cap for kicking.

In practice, if someone is that kick happy, then they are going to eventually hit a point where their wait is longer than the time of the dungeon (hehe, soft capped).

Also, as someone who rarely kicks, this sounds like a nice change.

Also, as someone asked, is there anyway to get to see that hidden statistic of how many vote kicks you've initiated?

[WyriHaximus]

I would consider myself hardly 'trigger happy' and I likely kicked people once every 5 runs if they were hardcore slacking off. By hardcore I mean DPS in 200 range overall when they were in decent gear, I don't think I ever kicked a healer, maybe once when they sat afk at the zone or if they just refused to heal (which in my battle group is actually a decent amount).

Overall few people want the hassle of kicking people so thats why numbers are low. If you kicked someone and got a decent replacement every time you kicked a player, more people would be inclined to kick people being bad for whatever sake.

I still don't like the idea that I essentially must carry bads in my group for a certain duration before I am the one that has to play the bad guy and either call the person out on their skill (or lack thereof) or kick them because no one else wants the hassle.

Whatever, another win for people getting carried and people who wont kick.

For me trigger happy tanks are the one that rush in pull to much to handle then blame it on the healer and DPS. The ones that try to kick a random person out of the blue without saying a word rather then 'pwnd lmao'. The ones that go bezerk if your grabbing a drink during the loading screen and half a minute after that. The ones that bitch about your DPS while your doing twice+ the dmg of his noob friend. Had alot of decent tanks but for some reason the dickheads seem to be around in equal numbers or more as the nicer ones. Completely agree with you on 200dps slackers and afkers I'm there to get through the instance for xp or badges not to let a leecher get his xp/emblems. Rather point it out first and give him a few tips before kicking someone, makes me/you a lot less the badguy imho. Tbh it isn't a win for slackers at all but for people that value a good fun group and don't use their kicks in a trigger happy way. But I don't have instant tank queue's and have to wait between 1 and 30 minutes for a party. So yes I prefer a good group without all the hassle and bitching.