Tier 11 Models, Class Balance, Missing Enchants, Blue Posts

[Boubouille]

Tier 11 Models - Mage, Priest, Shaman
It's time for another Tier 11 models preview! A people got worried after seeing a couple of early shots on forums but hopefully, fixed models with real effects should make a couple of classes happier. Also included, a bonus with the Death Knight's helm.

If you missed the first preview, make sure you check the news post!

• Tier 11 Models - Druid, Rogue, Warlock

Mage



Priest



Shaman



Death Knight (Helm Only)

Class balance as of Oct 13, 2010

Rather than try and address multiple threads, I'm just going to plop our current thoughts in this one post. Please excuse the brevity.

1) We think Fury, Arms, Feral cat and Retribution dps is too low and we will be buffing them.

2) We think mage dps is too high, especially Fire, and will be nerfing it.

3) We think Shadow priest dps is too high, but that's largely a result of Shadow Word: Death spam, which is tough on healers. We'll be fixing that.

4) We think Destro warlock dps is too high, but that's largely a result of Searing Pain spam, which is tough on tanks. We'll be fixing that.

5) As we suspected, PvP dps is just too high given that the health pools of Cataclysm haven't kicked in yet. While competitive PvP is over for the moment, we still want the environment to feel better so we will be buffing resilience. This change might be reverted at level 85.

There will probably be more changes after another night of raiding and BGs. Many of the bug fixes we have made today will affect dps as well. Stay tuned.

Missing Enchantments

Since the release of patch 4.0.1 yesterday, we’ve received reports from players that a few of their item enchantments are now missing. After further investigation into the cause and potential solutions, we’ve come to the unfortunate conclusion that we will not be able to restore these enchantments.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, but we will not be able to replace or otherwise reimburse players for their lost enchantments.

Mount Speed in Patch 3.1.0

To clarify my original post, when I said no changes were being made to mounts in 4.0.1, I was referring to the idea of mounts being removed or droprates changed. No mounts have been removed as of yet, nor have any droprates been altered.

With that said, 310% speed is now solely obtained by purchasing the skill. All mounts now go the speed of your highest skill level. So if you happen to obtain Invincible now and have nothing higher than Expert riding, you will travel 150% speed. If you have Artisan riding the mount will be 280%. In order for the mount to travel 310% speed for anyone who obtains it after 4.0.1, you will need to purchase the new Master riding skill. Anyone who had a 310% mount prior to patch 4.0.1 automatically learned Master riding.

[...] There are no 310% mounts anymore. 310% speed is now obtained via Master riding, a new flying skill. All flying mounts are now only distinguished by aesthetics.

Update: Renamed Warlock Pets

…the ritual came to a close and a demon of untold power (but limited stature) was pulled through the void, kicking and biting and gnashing its teeth, forcibly bound to the mortal world. The warlock, a quizzical expression on his face, regarded his familiar, who was in fact now quite unfamiliar, and inquired, “Who in the hell are you?”

Since the release of 4.0.1, more than a few warlocks have noticed that their pets are in fact no longer their familiar demonic servants, and instead appear to be new entities with different names. We’ve been able to pinpoint the cause of the issue, which should be resolved by tomorrow for any warlocks that log in for the first time from then on. We’ve also been able to determine that we will be able to restore any renamed warlock pets to their original pre-4.0.1 names during next week’s scheduled maintenance.

For those of you who like your new pet names, we’re working on a feature for a future patch that will allow you to refresh your summons and essentially generate a random pet name without having to level a new warlock.

Guild - "Requires Authenticator" Ranks

For those of you reporting issues promoting or demoting guild members to a rank that has the "Requires an Authenticator" permission enabled, I have a bit more information for you.

As noted in the main post, if a player attaches an Authenticator to his or her Battle.net account, it may take a few days before guild controls will recognize the Authenticator and allow that player's characters to be moved to a protected guild rank. Since this feature is new with patch 4.0.1, though, this sort of "checking" has to occur globally—so it'll be roughly 72 hours from the first time a character logs in after patching before it will be eligible for an Authenticator-required rank. This wait period will still apply even if a player has had an Authenticator attached to their account for months (or even years).

Apologies for the confusion!

Online Ticket Printing Now Available

If you have not yet received an email with your ticket barcodes, you can now view and print your BlizzCon ticket by:

1. Ticket purchaser logs in to their account at http://www.blizzard.com/store
2. Then visit https://www.battle.net/account/management/orders.html
3. Select the order entry containing the BlizzCon tickets purchased
4. Click on View/Edit Attendee Details button
5. Below each ticket a PRINT TICKET button is now available

This will bring you to a printable ticket page which includes that ticket's barcode. It's important to bring this barcode with you as it will expedite your badge pickup once you're at the event.

For those that have already received emails with barcodes this page has the same information as the email, and isn't necessary to view or reprint them if you already have.

Blue Posts

Class Balance
We are continuing to adjust balance. We have made several changes already today that players will notice. We have to be cautious about these things. We don't want to massively buff someone whose low damage is caused by a bug. We don't want to say nerf Fire mage crit chance now only to have it be too low when they start to level. We don't want to buff classes now only to have to turn around and nerf them at 85. Some of the issues we're observing now were not happening on our internal servers, the beta or the PTR. It's a very complicated game, and that's totally par for the course.

But we are making some changes, and many of them quickly. The patch has just barely been live for 24 hours now. It was a pretty major patch in terms of game mechanics changes, and as always when this happens, we have problems that crop up and need to be addressed. The fact that groups were able to raid at all after such a major patch is pretty remarkable. I am personally very sorry for anyone who is so upset about their current dps that they would quit after years of play. We'll get things worked out. (Source)

"Play" button sound in the Launcher
I jumped out of my chair yesterday when I hit the Play button to check on something in the game. This isn't an intended heart-rate check and we're looking to get it fixed in an upcoming patch. (Source)

Raid Bugs

• Toravon the Ice Watcher will now spawn properly. A hotfix for this issue has been deployed. (Source)
• A hotfix for the targeting issues with Festergut and Putricide is currently being deployed. (Source)
• Lady Deathwhisper's mana pool should be back to normal now. We've deployed a hotfix for that issue. (Source)

Cataclysm Prologue Event
Things have started already, but they are just the first of the events leading up to Cataclysm. You may want to go to the major cities and hear what your leaders are up to. You also may want to make sure your earthquake kits are up to date too, you may start feeling the earth move under your feet.

Everything is not going to happen at once and we don't want to give away any surprises. You'll just have to keep your eyes and ears open as we march on toward December 7th. (Source)

Enemy Nameplates missing
Sorry for the late response. We are aware of this and looking into a fix. This can't be hotfixed, so a client side fix would have to be used for this issue. Sorry for the inconvenience. (Source)

Druid (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
New Tree of Life
Art is very subjective. We're very used to the phenomenon of half of a class loving say their tier set art and the other half thinking they are the worst thing ever.

Messing with player models is always risky and we know the current Tree of Life model is one of those things that is either loved or hated. That is why, as promised, we are offering a minor glyph if you just prefer the older, treant-based, version of ToL. (Source)

[thunderchunk]

Hurray!

[ryuke09]

wow mages get some REAL LOVE for T11....so badass

[Grimbold21]

I think they switched the mage set with lock one.

[Trogie]

Huh, first shaman set I'm not super fond of, oh well.

[camRage]

Awesome! Mage looks deadly

[dawkface]

Awesome

[vazar_da_priest]

at first galnce the priest tier was awful. a close look and it looks pretty cool. cant wait to see high end tiers

[TheMobGoblin]

Wow mage armor is seexxxy

[SparkofImagination]

wow priest took a complete 360 LOL j/p, 180, shit looks much better now, even better than mage set.

[vazar_da_priest]

mage has the best tier i have ever seen. litteraly

[Cerebes]

omg mages and dk tier own. especially the helms. both have a full skull on it. ima dk and im happy, time to make myself a worgen mage come cata.

[dawkface]

Can't wait to get my hands on some of these

[Nak]

Death Knight is beast! Can't wait to see the wrest of the armor!

[Calon]

Female priest, and male mage are.... HOLY CRAP AWESOME!

[Baygon]

Mages easily have the best Tier 11 set by far, i seriously doubt anything could trump that, and NOOOO at fire mage changes i haven't even had a chance to test it yet.. /cry

[Arkenaw]

Mage and priest are AWESOME. lol @ shaman though.

[FozziE]

WTF! The warrior set is bad ass, and the shaman set look like green questing gear! F*CK!

[aura625]

BRB rolling a mage...

Damn I wish the lock and shaman sets looked that awesome. The DK healm is pretty sweet too

[FozziE]

No, no, no, no, no, NO! I refuse to believe it!
You must have messed up, Boubuille. I mean the priest and the mage looks so freaking awesome and the shaman looks like green questing gear!

*Sad panda*